50% off Grainfather G30, S40, SF70

My wife tomorrow after I checked out those prices: "Wow, I've never seen you do the income taxes before February"
Me: "Yeah, crazy....Anyway, we don't really need the dryer plugged in in the laundry room right?"

Brewing beer is fun and costs so much less than buying craft. Takes a bit to get the hang but would recommend if you have some time and space. Lots of stuff available these days!

If anyone is interested in all-grain brewing, I've been at it for a zillion years and am happy to chat, answer questions, etc.

Grain father is awesome, but the robobrew from Ontario Beer Kegs.com is equally fantastic, and a great price all the time. I taught a friend to brew and he went from 0 to robobrew to contract brewing retail batches of beer in under 2 years.

If you like beer, you should definitely consider it.

Link to the robobrew you mentioned?

There was a similar sale earlier in the year and so I bought the grainfather S40 (it was even a bit cheaper, maybe $350). I love craft, but had never tried brewing before. Had to buy lots more equipment to get started, but I've done two brews (each about 40 L) - 1 hazy IPA and one stout. It's been super fun and I've learned lots since.

AMA!

From my superficial reading, what's the main advantage/disadvantage between Grainfather and Robobrew?

Also, this might be a really basic (and stupid) question, but how does carbonation work after you have the ferment completed?

Chand6 wrote: ↑ Link to the robobrew you mentioned?

Robobrew changed its name to Brewzilla. The Brewzilla that is comparable to this particular basic Grainfather 40S would be the Brewzilla 3.1.1.. However, it is only available in 110v in Canada (which some people might prefer).

The system I would personally recommend over this system is the Brewzilla 4. It cost $620, but I think it is well worth the extra.

That said, this is a great system. If you are just getting started in homebrewing this system or the Brewzilla 3.1.1 is well worth their low price. I think Grainfather 40S is normally way overpriced and I believe this sale price will become the new normal price. I would never recommend it over the Brewzilla 3 at its normal price.

David Heath does an excellent side by side comparison of the new Grainfather, Brewzilla and Brewtools systems. It is well worth watching before making a decision. Remember the system on sale here is Grainfather s40 not the G40. The Brewtools system mentioned is not available in Canada.

Happy Brewing!

Darkblade48 wrote: ↑ From my superficial reading, what's the main advantage/disadvantage between Grainfather and Robobrew?

Also, this might be a really basic (and stupid) question, but how does carbonation work after you have the ferment completed?

As an amateur brewer, we add carbonation tabs (which is essentially sugar) to our bottles. The yeast eats the sugar tabs over time and C02 is created as a byproduct. If you're kegging the beer or have a sweet set up you can add C02 directly.

How is the quality of your beginning homemade brews compared to craft breweries?
Also, how difficult is it to make an imperial stout that is decadent (thick, syrupy, and sweet)?

hairyco wrote: ↑ How is the quality of your beginning homemade brews compared to craft breweries?
Also, how difficult is it to make an imperial stout that is decadent (thick, syrupy, and sweet)?

Not hard. Just like following a recipe. Lots of different grains and then specific yeasts make the difference but brewing all forms of beer is pretty much the same. I have made a wicked coffee stout before. Lots of great recipes online. Good place to start is looking for clone recipes of your fav mainstream beers. Lagers are harder because of the lager process but your ales and stouts are relatively simple.

hairyco wrote: ↑How is the quality of your beginning homemade brews compared to craft breweries?
Also, how difficult is it to make an imperial stout that is decadent (thick, syrupy, and sweet)?

I'm only 2 brews into the world so very much a beginner. I'd say I was expecting our first brew (a hazy IPA) to be much worse than craft breweries, but was pleasantly surprised. Our biggest mistake was not filtering out the hops well enough so some of them had more hop remnants than I would have liked.

Interestingly we did a stout for our second. I was hoping for a similar outcome like what you describe, but I was disappointed in that it didn't turn out as thick and flavourful as I would have hoped. Still decent and drinkable, but not as good as the first one. I definitely want to try again during stout season.

My take: it's going to take some time to get more skilled and it's not something I'm doing every weekend so it's a slow process to learn.
Breweries also have the luxury of way better equipment/resources so if you're expecting the same quality you'll probably be a bit let down - at least at first until you're more skilled and knowledgeable and perhaps with some equipment upgrades along the way.

But it's super fun! And you can still make a good beer for cheap once you're set up and going.

The other question is that 40L is a lot of beer.
How do you clean that out or bottle so much? I imagine that it would take a good 2 months to finish that much beer.

hairyco wrote: ↑ The other question is that 40L is a lot of beer.
How do you clean that out or bottle so much? I imagine that it would take a good 2 months to finish that much beer.

Bottling is fairly easy. I use the grolsch pop-tops.
I've been doing it with a friend so that makes it easier to get through. I also give a lot away when people come over. You also don't have to make recipes that big.

I’m really interested in this, I’ve been dying to get back into home brewing. I used to do partial grain and extract brews all the time and was always pretty happy with the results. Been looking to get into all grain but need to get my house in order for it first. Can’t really justify making beer at home when I have a bunch of 3 or 4 weekend projects backed up. I can’t see myself having the time until at least the fall but this is a really sweet deal. Will this go on sale again like this within the next year?

hmmm... wuz about to go out to BB to get a PS5 this morning until I saw this... thanks OP - bought it although last week saw a youtube vid > >> and pt 2 >
- comparing the 3 major brands (the other was the Brewtools, and came away liking the Brewzilla more which goes for $525 > https://torontobrewing.ca/products/brew ... -with-pump
but saw the 50% off and 'impulsively' pulled the trigger on this... being a noob - dunno if this will turn out to be good 'value-choice' or not... time will tell.

The conical fermenter does not have a good design to discharge/dump trub, look at the videos:

I've had a Robobrew for about 5 years now,I use it more for distilling than brewing beer now as I Prefer spirits.

GroverTime wrote: ↑ I’m really interested in this, I’ve been dying to get back into home brewing. I used to do partial grain and extract brews all the time and was always pretty happy with the results. Been looking to get into all grain but need to get my house in order for it first. Can’t really justify making beer at home when I have a bunch of 3 or 4 weekend projects backed up. I can’t see myself having the time until at least the fall but this is a really sweet deal. Will this go on sale again like this within the next year?

I’ve never seen the g30 this price before, in Canada or the USA. Not to say it hasn’t, but I’ve followed it for a few years looking to purchase. The S40 was this price or a bit cheaper last year. Honestly, if you bought the g30, it wouldn’t be hard to get your money back on Kijiji. Historically, $700-$800 has been the good condition, used price. This sale will probably pull that down slightly.

For bottle carbing it would be much easier and cheaper to just mix the sugar directly into your bottling bucket prior to bottling it. The amount of sugar varies slightly between cane and corn sugar, there are plenty of brewing calculators on the web that will tell you exactly how much to add. I use cane sugar when I bottle as I always have it on hand, some say it gives a different flavour to the beer than corn sugar but I have never noticed as I only bottle big beers like IPAs or doubles.

WRT these brewing systems, I have never used one but have been brewing all grain for 5+ years using only a cooler as a mash tun, a home made copper tube chiller and a stainless steel brew kettle on a gas burner. All my brewing equipment likely cost less than 300 bucks and allows me to brew precisely what I want in 10 gallon batches with ease. I don't think learning to brew using basic equipment is any harder than using one of these machines but I could be wrong. I watched a few videos of these being used on youtube and it looked quite clumsy to add and remove the grains and likely cleanup could be a real pain. Their shape also concerns me as it looks easy to tip over and I think they only allow 5 gallon batches but again I could be wrong.

I was tempted to try one just for the heck of it but after watching the videos changed my mind. Not saying they aren't a good way to get into all grain brewing but would suggest looking at buying the basic equipment needed instead as it is very easy to use, allows brewing of big gravity beers in 10 gallon batches if desired, is easy to maintain and very hard to break.