SGTSparty
Well-Known Member
Hey all,
Having recently welcomed assistant brewer #2 I'm trying to plan for what little brewing time I did have being cut even further. I brewed on my current system (2 8 gallon pots with ball valve spigots, propane burner and a cooler mash tun) on Friday and while it was a successful brew day the amount of moving parts, being outside in the cold and significant clean up effort (I've got burner issues causing way too much soot that gets on everything) have me looking for an electric solution but I know very little about electric systems having never looked at them before so I'm hoping for some advice from the community of electric brewers. Here are my considerations:
I've been mostly looking at the BrewEasy and the Grainfather but both have draw backs.
Grainfather looks great in terms the balance of automation and hands on in the mash/boil, love the programmable start/app and footprint but slightly under-powered (not a deal breaker at all though), the big catch is sparge heating is separate and the process is manual which is very hands on and slow from what I've seen, plus the included chiller is great but it means mine is collecting expensive dust.
The BrewEasy looks great in terms of balance too, the foot print is great, love how mobile it is with the cart, comes in 120 and 240, like the two vessel design for sparge heating and recirc but price is ~double the GF even with the sparge heater and grain coat, there seems to be very little about it on the internet in terms of use and reviews, seems to be less connected/no app that I've seen.
I'm open to other systems but not sure what is out there that people like. Any help would be greatly appreciated (including links to other threads). Thanks!
Having recently welcomed assistant brewer #2 I'm trying to plan for what little brewing time I did have being cut even further. I brewed on my current system (2 8 gallon pots with ball valve spigots, propane burner and a cooler mash tun) on Friday and while it was a successful brew day the amount of moving parts, being outside in the cold and significant clean up effort (I've got burner issues causing way too much soot that gets on everything) have me looking for an electric solution but I know very little about electric systems having never looked at them before so I'm hoping for some advice from the community of electric brewers. Here are my considerations:
- Primarily I'm looking for balance of hands free while not being completely automated. Something with a controller to heat/maintain mash temps and boil but necessarily to the Pico brew level.
- 5 gallon batches
- Ideally a small footprint so either single or two vessel.
- Power is not an issue, I'll likely be setting this up in my laundry room so i have 240v and 120v but space is limited.
- I already own a Jaded Hydra and would prefer to not replace it/relegate it to the closet if possible.
- Price plays a factor but I'm not going to buy something cheap if it doesn't work for me so only to a point, if i can't afford something that works i'll wait/stick with my current system.
I've been mostly looking at the BrewEasy and the Grainfather but both have draw backs.
Grainfather looks great in terms the balance of automation and hands on in the mash/boil, love the programmable start/app and footprint but slightly under-powered (not a deal breaker at all though), the big catch is sparge heating is separate and the process is manual which is very hands on and slow from what I've seen, plus the included chiller is great but it means mine is collecting expensive dust.
The BrewEasy looks great in terms of balance too, the foot print is great, love how mobile it is with the cart, comes in 120 and 240, like the two vessel design for sparge heating and recirc but price is ~double the GF even with the sparge heater and grain coat, there seems to be very little about it on the internet in terms of use and reviews, seems to be less connected/no app that I've seen.
I'm open to other systems but not sure what is out there that people like. Any help would be greatly appreciated (including links to other threads). Thanks!