An All-In-One Brewing System
Several all-in-one home brewing systems have hit the market in recent years, notably the Speidel Braumeister, PicoBrew Zymatic, Breweasy and of course, the Grainfather Brewing System. These systems offer easy all-grain brewing, featuring compact designs with electronic temperature controls, and in some cases will automate much of the brewing process.
Each have their own strong points, however I have yet to try one that is as effective as a commercial brewery and a team of brewers. That said, they can be great for home brewers who are just starting to brew with grain or have a lack of time or space for brewing.
Read on for specific details of this great machine, or read a comparison with other similar systems here.
How Does the Grainfather Compare?
The Grainfather is extremely popular amongst home brewers as the cheapest of the top four all-in-one systems. At around USD $800-900, the Grainfather is a fraction of the cost of any of the main competitors. But is it as good a system?
This brewing system shares some similarities with the Speidel Braumeister 20 liter model, in that it is essentially a large electric boiler with a pump, temperature control, and removable steel basket which serves as a combined mash tun, lauter tun, and kettle. It shares the advantages of space efficiency and temperature accuracy, but lacks the reverse-circulation and automation of its German predecessor. What it does have, however, is a better set of sparging instructions.
The Grainfather is the least automated of the turnkey brewing systems, requiring more attention from the brewer to set mash rests and sparge manually. Unlike the other systems, you’ll need to return to the unit to set each mash rest manually, which means you probably won’t be moving far from the system on brew day. It also requires several labor-intensive steps, such as lifting the grain basket out of the wort and sparging by hand.
The Grainfather has been well designed for its price-point, with great features to make brew day easy. Best of all, it comes with an included counter-flow wort chiller, making this a very cost-effective unit. It also features simple but effective systems to help you raise and fix the grain basket for sparging, a very nifty piece of telescopic plumbing and a safeguard against having grains flow into your kettle.
However, you will quickly notice a couple of extra steps will need to be taken with this machine. Firstly, you will need a secondary pot (or an optional extra) in order to heat your sparge water. You also need to be extremely careful of the consistency of your cracked grain. My personal pet peeve is a design flaw which requires the brewer to manually scrape cracked grain from the kettle bottom while it is full of wort, before the boil. You also need to be very careful with sparging – this machine can only handle a very precise sparge pressure.
Video: Grainfather Features
Pros:
- Very cost-effective
- Compact design
- Includes wort-chiller
- Accurate, electric temperature control
- Acceptable mash efficiency
- Easy instructions and support
- Two-module heating (avoids scorching)
- Adjustable parts
- Better sparge than main competitor
- Simple to clean
- Good for low, medium, and high gravity beers
- Can be converted to a distillery with a single extra part (check the legality of distilling in your country!)
Cons:
The Optional Extra
- Manual and sometimes labor-intensive
- Lacks thorough stirring during mash
- Overly sensitive sparge
- Only available for 20 liters (about 5 gallons)
- Controls can be somewhat complicated
- Requires additional equipment (ether a secondary pot or an optional sparge heater)
- Requires some lifting (up to 15kg or around 30 pounds)
Verdict
The Grainfather Brewing System boasts the best value for money in an all-in-one system. In fact, 
if you are happy to stick to a 20 liter brew and you don’t have a need for decoction or infusion mashing, you may find the outlay worthwhile for your first all-grain system.
While the Grainfather is not as fancy, as automated or even as user-friendly as other (more expensive) systems, it will give you excellent results and decrease the work and attention required to make each batch.
If you have USD $2,000 or more to spend on home brewing, you will probably want to aim higher and buy a Braumeister or PicoBrew. However, for a fraction of the cost the Grainfather is a very worthwhile purchase.
Is a Grainfather Brewing System Right For You?
The Grainfather is perfect for anyone with time or space restrictions, but without the budget for the more expensive systems. The Grainfather will allow you to make great beer with less effort than a home-made brewhouse and is extremely good value for money.
If this sounds like you, the Grainfather can be purchased at Homebrewing.org if you are in the USA. For international delivery, you can also find the Grainfather on Amazon or in our supplier directory.
Not Sure if it’s Right For You?
If you are still unsure, I have compared the top three automated brewing systems here.
Cheers!
If you have any feedback or you would like to know more, please leave me a comment or question below!
The Grainfather’s compact design is what appeals to me. What’s the size of this unit? And how does it compare to something like Braumeister or PicoBrew? I’m not sure I have space for a large unit.
Overall, which all-in-one brewing system do you prefer and what’s the size and cost?
Hi Matthew, check out the above video for exact dimensions – it’s not long so don’t worry.
If you have the money, get a Picobrew or a Braumeister. They are hands down better and easier, but cost MUCH more.
If you don’t have $2,000 (or more) to spend on a unit, go for the Grainfather. It’s nearly as good, but at a fraction of the cost (plus it comes with a chiller!!)
I’ve reviewed the Zymatic too – please take a look here – it comes with video:
I found your site by chance and am happy I did.
My uncle is a homebrewing connoisseur and will appreciate all this new information here.
There is much to learn and understand with brewing.
I love beer but have never thought to brew at home.
This is a great gift for someone like my uncle!
Thanks!
If you buy your uncle this you’ll be his favourite niece EVER!
This is an awesome post! I have always wanted to brew my own beer and I thought I would build my own brewing system, but buying an all-in-one brewing system seems a lot easier. I really like that the grainfather brewing system is cheaper SO MUCH cheaper than all of the other systems.
Hi Evan,
That’s a big plus for me as well. When you ned to save some money and you don’t mind putting in a bit more effort on brew day, the Grainfather is a winner.
In fact, requiring some extra hands-on effort is actually a plus in my eyes as you have more of a personal touch to the finished beer!
Cheers!
Hi Jesse, I like the look of this system. Previously I have had to boil things up on the stove top, which isn’t very practical sometimes and the results, although good, should be well exceeded by this product. Cleaning is always a pain so the ‘simple to clean’ part gets my vote. The fact that there is a built in chiller is an extra time-saving bonus too. I would hope that all home brewers end up with kit like this!
Hi Ian,
Thank you very much for reading. It’s a great little unit alright, especially at a fraction of the cost of any other all in one.
Cheers!
Hi, made me want to make some beer, Is it hard to make homemade beer, maybe you could write an article about the process so I can appreciate the good points of the machine, the video also talks about making whiskey, maybe you could give some hints about that, so I can know what I am doing while using the machine
Hi Javier,
Thank you very much for your insight. The videos on the Grainfather all cover the process very well, so this is more of a review than instruction. As for distilling, the basic mashing principles are the same, but you’ll still need extra apparatus – make sure it’s legal in your area though!
Hi Jesse,
I have been all grain brewing for about 5 years or so. I have continually upgraded my equipment and built a 3-tier brew stand with two burners. I have been looking for a way to shorten my brew day, get a smaller footprint, and also to take some of the guesswork out of brewing. I ran across this review which was very informative. I like the price point of the Grainfather, but my concern is the time to boil. I am in the US and the reviews I have read have been mixed with some people stating it takes about 75 minutes to bring to a boil. This seems a little extreme. What has been your experience?
Hi Kent,
I have not heard the same, however I believe the USA has different power supplies to the UK and Australia, so this could indeed be the case. If so, I would suggest that you skip the enzyme arrest and go straight to the boil, and sparge while simultaneously raising to boil.
Otherwise, you might consider the Zymatic, which I believe was designed for the US market!
A South African homebrewer in China recently invited me to his home brewery so I could help him fix his IPA, and he had a BEAUTIFUL little 40 litre home brewery – It looked like a cross between a Braumeister and a jacketed fermentation cellar. The entire brew, start to finish, took about 4.5 hours and cleaning was only 20 minutes above that.
If you are interested, email me and I’ll find some details for you: jesse@winningbeers.com