GrainfatherConical Bundle

Prior to my purchase, I did a significant amount of research. When considering temperature control, I truly believe there isn't a better fermentor on the market. I do not currently have cooling abilities but I am extremely impressed with the insulation and control. I highly recommend the bundle! The yeast dump valve and the fermented wort poor value bring this product home. The silicone seal works beautifully with a hand tight assembly. It is engineered to do exactly as advertised. Yeast dumping and/or culturing is never easier for a home brewer. I live in Vermont so the control box's ability to bring up temputes is crucial and gives me a level of control that I've only seen the pro setups have (push of the bottom, no warming belts with electrical tape or separate fermentation fridge).My one criticism is the plastic legs. For the price point all stainless would be nice and competitors don't have the control and ingenuity but they do have all stainless steel legs. On the same note a wider base will give you better access to values.I highly recommend this product!I hope to cold crash and larger one day!

I feel mislead by this, but I'm glad I bought it off of amazon.Yes, you can dump yeast with the valve very easily and it will hold a temperature consistently so that your cider can ferment in peace.But this unit won't heat up your liquid goodness beyond 97 Degrees Fahrenheit (36C), much less boil it!!The instruction manual (from the company) shows the digital thermometer setting the temp of this fermenter to 180 Celsius (which is actually really hot, like 356 degrees Fahrenheit hot), way to high for brewing. But that indicates that it should easily get this hotter than only 36 Celsius (97F) and that I should be able to control that heat from there.Nope!Come to find out - even though the picture in the owners manual, from the manufacturer - shows it going up high enough to boil... this is actually only a fancy fermenter great for sampling and yeast dumping - but not for brewing.So why not state that this unit doesn't get that hot, and why is there an inaccurate picture of the unit going beyond it capabilities!?I want to give this one star because the wording and pictures go beyond misleading and into deceiving.... but I found it in my heart to give it 2 stars (one extra star) because the valve is clever and it is possible to sample a brew without much clean up or mess.But for almost $700, I could have found plenty of other units that do similar feats at half the price - and/or found a unit that boils and heats in one unit... which is just as important as temperature control, if not more!This company has another model that does heat up and boil - I may need to try that one, but for this one (the Conical Fermenter) - you should know that it won't get very hot... And if I knew this didn't heat up all the way, I would not have purchased them.I included a picture of what they have on page 16 of the owners manual, which shows a temp setting of 180C - hot enough to burn the sun... but it doesn't even get above (36c)...

This is the top-of-the-line conical fermenter. I love that I can monitor the temperature from my phone. It is easy to clean and looks great too!

I am an experience home brewer of 10 years and decided to purchase the grainfather system this spring as I downsized from a SSBrewtech 1 BBL system. Lots of great reviews on the product and had high hopes for this system. Most of which have vanished.The control unit on the fermenter does not work and I am past the 30 day return policy from Amazon. @Grainfather - I will happily provide you feedback and more details. At this point, I will not recommend Grainfather to my homebrewing colleagues. Go with SSBrewtech. Their stuff works.

What can I say...I LOVE this fermenter! I added the cooling kit and have total control over fermenting temp and can cold crash. Virtually no sediment in the final product. I'd have preferred a slightly wider base for my clumsy hands, but it's still very easy to work with. Well worth my investment!

The media could not be loaded. Very nice fermentor. Easy clean up!!

Although this fermenter is pricey, it is absolutely wonderful! I got tired of dealing with manually trying to control mash temperature and bought one. It has proven to be a great asset. If you can get over the cost, believe me you will never regret buying it.

The controller freezes up and ruins fermentation. Can’t adjust or change settings. Have to unplug and plug back in.