The Grainfather

[Lurkingmango]

I stopped into Noble Grape today looking at one of their Stainless Steel fermenters and they started telling me about " The Grainfather" (see link below). I was just wondering as someone who is starting from scratch with his set up does anyone have  any opinions as to whether or not this would be a good investment?

http://www.grainfather.com/#!home/mainPage

Let me know. Thanks.

[Two Wheeler]

I was looking at that in a recent issue of BYO. For $890 I think you get a pretty good deal. An electric boil kettle with controller, and pump and counterflow chiller. Trying to piece together a full recirculating set up like this would cost you all of that.

Downsides- no idea of what quality the components are. You're limited to 5 gallon batches. This thing might not be available for a while. The Element might be underpowered and take a long time to boil.

Those are just guesses though. I'd like to hear some feedback from actual users.

[DeMerch]

Although the Kickstarter is done for it, there is a reasonable amount of info on the thread at HBT http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=515034

[ECH]

This guy from New Zealand did a 3 part video series on comparing a Grainfather to a Braumeister, worth a look before sinking a ton of cash into it.

https://www.youtube.com/user/Time4Another1