Product Review: Grainfather GCAST

We've been eyeing a new Grainfather G40 unit, so we weren't necessarily looking to do many upgrades to our existing G30.  However, after reading up on the GCAST unit we had to give it try.

The GCAST is small, roughly 2" by 2", and acts as a wireless bridge for your G30. The instructions from Grainfather are great at stepping you through the process of connecting the GCAST to your wifi network and then via bluetooth to the G30.  In fact, once we connected it to wifi it instantly asked to upgrade the software which only took a couple minutes.  

We typically mill our grains while our water is heating up to mash temps, and instantly fell in love with the GCAST.  We could mill our grains and gather other ingredients in a room that typically was too far away for past batches to connect via bluetooth.  With the GCAST bridging the data via wifi we could monitor the water temp while we were milling and tidying up.  It was such a relief to be able to keep an eye on the progress of the batch without having to be in bluetooth range. 

Is it a must-have?  Nope.  Is it a nice-to-have?  Absolutely.  If you're like us and try to multitask while waiting for your temps to rise or your mash to wrap up, the GCAST is your ticket. 

Added bonus - for you TILT users out there you can integrate your TILT readings via the GCAST so your gravity and temp readings are reflected in the fermentation tracking portion of the Grainfather app.

We have the GCAST in-stock and available for $59 - https://www.oregonizedbrewing.com/products/the-grainfather-gcast-wireless-bridge

Grainfather GCAST instructions - https://help.grainfather.com/hc/en-us/article_attachments/5713990008977/GCAST_Instructions_English.pdf

Here is a great setup video by the crew at The Malt Miller: