StillSmart

I have the grainfather and will do my first spirit run next week on my alembic pot still, the boiler has 2 settings a 2kw one and 1.5 kw when one of the buttons is set to mash. which heat setting is best please.

I think you've made a mistake, the Grainfather has a dual element, the full power one is 2000W the mash one is 500W.

I do all my distilling on the 2000w element but I control the boiler temp at 88 to 93C by using an ALVA controller not the original Grainfather one.

The original controller in the Grainfather isn't a PID controller so you would have to change the temp manually if you want to ramp it.

If you are using the Grainfather Elembic still, I would say set the boil at 95C but when the vapour temp reading gets to 93C that's the run finished.

thanks vino, so I cannot set the top switch to boil and the other switch to mash on the grainfather to get 1.5kw...can I do a spirit run on the grainfather 2kw? I am using the grainfather elembic pot still so what is my best option.

guest5234 wrote:thanks vino, so I cannot set the top switch to boil and the other switch to mash on the grainfather to get 1.5kw...can I do a spirit run on the grainfather 2kw? I am using the grainfather elembic pot still so what is my best option.

If you set MASH on the controller and MASH at the base switch you get the controller mash temp using the 500W element.

If you set BOIL on the controller and MASH at the base switch you still only use the 500W element and it will reach the highest temp that 500W element can heat to.

If you set BOIL on the controller and NORMAL at the base switch you get boil temp using the 2000W element regardless of what mash temp the controller is set to.

So this is how it works, there is only one cable from the controller to the dual element, this runs via a switch marked MASH/NORMAL at the base.
When this switch is set to MASH all power goes to the 500W element only
When this switch is set to NORMAL all power goes to the 2000W element only

So in answer to your question.
Set the controller switch to BOIL, set the base switch to NORMAL and boil away collecting the spirit until the thermometer on you still reads 93C vapour temp and thats it finished

cheers vino

This is a piccy of the Grainfather dual element.