1st Brew On Braumeister - Pics

[BrewGuru]

Why the hood? Are you venting the boil steam outside with ducting?
Got temperature control for the bling ferementer?

Four reasons for the hood
1: Looks Cool
2: Great for funnelling the grist into the malt pipe
3: I get a better rolling boil
4: Looks Cool

No temp control for the bling, with the chiller plate it knocks the temperature from 100oC to 20/21 into the fermenter, yeast can be added immediatly.
I don't get a lot of temperature range with the 50 litre wort, I like the fact that I don't have to use a secondary container after the initional fermenation, I can just dump the trub out of the bottom, I can also easilly harvest yeast.

 

[proudscum]

looks like some more toys to play with i like the plate chiller and pump idea .

 

[Malted]

Boil off rates and boil volumes?
I reckon there are a few Braumeister guys who are also BeerSmith users too. How have you got your equipment profile set up? I do not own a Braumeister but was planning some recipes just in case...

I am trying to setup an equipment profile for a 50L Braumeister in Beersmith 2.0. It has raised some questions. Here's a dud profile:


As far as I know you can only fit a maximum of 55L of water on top of a full malt pipe. Spiedel say you turn out 50 Litres of finished beer, so if we drop a litre or two for trub, the Braumeister is churning out 53L of hot wort after the boil. That is a boil off of 3.6% which is well short of an expected 10% for a vigorous boil (not to mention cooling loss).
Is the Braumeister boil not vigorous or do you add more water after you pull the malt pipe out?
In the picture above, Beersmith was predicting a preboil volume of 63.5 L. Would you add 8.5L of sparge water, or top up water?

 

[humulus]

looks like some more toys to play with i like the plate chiller and pump idea .

:icon_drool2:

 

[davewaldo]

Malted, that looks pretty good mate. I'm still sorting all these things out myself. But I've found I can fill my BM with about 58L and then add the malt pipe and grain. With 10% boil off and losses I get very close to 50L.

The boil of my BM isn't particularly vigorous, but I do get the required evaporation rate so I'm happy. It is a very gentle rolling boil without insulation and good rolling with insulation (this was on a cold day). I think Speidel has designed to the BM so that the element is just the right size so it doesn't need to switch on and off to control the boil. It just boils very consistently which is most important.

But I've only done two brews so I'm still learning.

 

[MHB]

Just in case someone hasnt noticed, when you do the programming youre boil is set at 100oC.
Once the boil temp is reached and the clock has started you can push the temperature up arrow to 102oC, basically it turns the element/s on flat ought, really ups the boil and I have no trouble getting the 10% evaporation Im looking for.
I know a lot of brewers think the boil needs to be jumping out of the pot, but that isnt necessary, as long as you get enough evaporation to strip out the volatiles, thats all you need, more energy than that is just wasted and can cause other problems.
MHB

 

[Malted]

Just in case someone hasn't noticed, when you do the programming you're boil is set at 100oC.
Once the boil temp is reached and the clock has started you can push the temperature up arrow to 102oC, basically it turns the element/s on flat ought, really ups the boil and I have no trouble getting the 10% evaporation I'm looking for.
I know a lot of brewers think the boil needs to be jumping out of the pot, but that isn't necessary, as long as you get enough evaporation to strip out the volatiles, that's all you need, more energy than that is just wasted and can cause other problems.
MHB

G'day Mark, so if left at 100oC what could you expect an average boil off/evaporation rate to be?
Is it preferable to have a lower evap rate or a 10% evap rate, or is this just dependent upon the gravity you're aiming for?

 

[MHB]

Boiling does a whole bunch of things to a wort (not all of them good) but if you get your 8-10% evaporation I believe you can be confident that you have achieved all the goals.
At 100oC you will get around 8% evaporation (depending on a pile of other conditions), thats probably more than enough but the option is there to pump a bit more energy into the system if you want to.
This is a good basic introduction to Wort Boiling and well worth a read.View attachment 02___The_function_of_wort_boiling1.pdf
Mark

 

[BierFest]

Boil off rates and boil volumes?
I reckon there are a few Braumeister guys who are also BeerSmith users too. How have you got your equipment profile set up? I do not own a Braumeister but was planning some recipes just in case...

I am trying to setup an equipment profile for a 50L Braumeister in Beersmith 2.0. It has raised some questions. Here's a dud profile:


As far as I know you can only fit a maximum of 55L of water on top of a full malt pipe. Spiedel say you turn out 50 Litres of finished beer, so if we drop a litre or two for trub, the Braumeister is churning out 53L of hot wort after the boil. That is a boil off of 3.6% which is well short of an expected 10% for a vigorous boil (not to mention cooling loss).
Is the Braumeister boil not vigorous or do you add more water after you pull the malt pipe out?
In the picture above, Beersmith was predicting a preboil volume of 63.5 L. Would you add 8.5L of sparge water, or top up water?

Hi Malted,
Did you ever get your beersmith parameters nailed down? Im ordering my braumeister and I intend to use with Beersmith. Like you I'm also getting the 50l version. Did you also get the 20l malt pipe insert - if so did you also figure out the parameters for this?
Hopefully it will not be too difficult to try to figure these out - but i suspect that its quite a bit of work.
Brian

 

[Malted]

Hi Malted,
Did you ever get your beersmith parameters nailed down? Im ordering my braumeister and I intend to use with Beersmith. Like you I'm also getting the 50l version. Did you also get the 20l malt pipe insert - if so did you also figure out the parameters for this?
Hopefully it will not be too difficult to try to figure these out - but i suspect that its quite a bit of work.
Brian

G'day Brian, no I have not yet nailed down the parameters and have only done one brew so far. I can say that you most definately will need about 10 Litres of 'top up water for kettle' - so it may as well be tipped through the grain/malt pipe for a pseudo sparge. As other pointed out to me, you will lose some of your initial water volume when you lift out the malt pipe (due to the amount of water held by the wet grain) as well as evaporation and cooling loss.

 

[BierFest]

G'day Brian, no I have not yet nailed down the parameters and have only done one brew so far. I can say that you most definately will need about 10 Litres of 'top up water for kettle' - so it may as well be tipped through the grain/malt pipe for a pseudo sparge. As other pointed out to me, you will lose some of your initial water volume when you lift out the malt pipe (due to the amount of water held by the wet grain) as well as evaporation and cooling loss.

I guess I will have to work on the beersmith parameters too!
Are you starting out with about 55 Litres of water before you add malt? You are then adding in 10Litres pre-boil - Does that leave you with a bit over 50 Litres post boil?

Im ordering mine soon - I guess the best way to figure it all out is by me actually doing a few brews on it!

 

[Malted]

Are you starting out with about 55 Litres of water before you add malt? You are then adding in 10Litres pre-boil - Does that leave you with a bit over 50 Litres post boil?

Yes, Yes (post mash/preboil), Supposed to. I gather that it should be 53 or so litres post boil because BM claim that it produces 50L of finished beer (hence the ferementer loss box).

I wonder if my total losses were higher than predicted; I didn't pay enough attention to volumes. I shall have to pay more attention next time.
I only did a rippling (instead of a rolling) boil at 100oC and I reckon I had hot break or similar occuring on the wort surface during the boil. As Mark says, you can up the temp to 101 or 102 for a rolling boil but I don't see that it would be neccessary. I suspect the cooling loss may have been higher than 4%, either that or because I was a bit slow getting it out of the BM and through the plate chiller it may have continued evaporating as it cooled (I didn't have the lid on so that I could see the trub etc) which could be another 3L or so over another half hour. Clearest wort and best trub cone I have ever witnessed.

 

[maggotbrain65]

Yes, Yes (post mash/preboil), Supposed to. I gather that it should be 53 or so litres post boil because BM claim that it produces 50L of finished beer (hence the ferementer loss box).

I wonder if my total losses were higher than predicted; I didn't pay enough attention to volumes. I shall have to pay more attention next time.
I only did a rippling (instead of a rolling) boil at 100oC and I reckon I had hot break or similar occuring on the wort surface during the boil. As Mark says, you can up the temp to 101 or 102 for a rolling boil but I don't see that it would be neccessary. I suspect the cooling loss may have been higher than 4%, either that or because I was a bit slow getting it out of the BM and through the plate chiller it may have continued evaporating as it cooled (I didn't have the lid on so that I could see the trub etc) which could be another 3L or so over another half hour. Clearest wort and best trub cone I have ever witnessed.

Hi ,

any update on the ideal parameters for the 50l & short malt pipe?

Cheers

 

[SJW]

I have just ordered my 20l system from Mark.
So yes fellas, I am back. After a couple of years away from the site

 

[proudscum]

Filtering my water to fill up my Braumeister for brew day tomorrow.Cant wait to put my 12th brew through this great little system.

 

[SJW]

As the old fellas on this site would know, I love doing stronger German Lagers, so how much grain can I stuff in a 20l unit?

 

[Batz]

I have just ordered my 20l system from Mark.
So yes fellas, I am back. After a couple of years away from the site

Well welcome back, it been a while SJW. I'm sure you'll be more than happy with your BM.

Batz

 

[Malted]

As the old fellas on this site would know, I love doing stronger German Lagers, so how much grain can I stuff in a 20l unit?

Doon states it is his opinion that anything over 5.2kg is a struggle for his system in this thread: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...57118&st=60

Depends on what you mean by 'strong'. I'd say use the minimum amount of water at mash in and sparge/rinse grains as normal so as not to waste sugars. This should get you a 'stronger' wort (as opposed to a 'high gravity' wort which is probably another story).

I tried a barley wine in mine and it didn't go well. I'd flip MHB a phonecall to ask about high gravity brewing on the BM. I think 3 things would come into play (and there may be more):
1: Efficiency is a heck of a lot less than normal
2: You can only fit so much grain in the BM leading to,
3: You'd need a longer boil to reduce the volume and hence the gravity.

But you may not need to go that high and a long boil may not suit a light coloured lager.

I used the short malt pipe in the 50L unit. Next barleywine attempt I will use the 50L malt pipe and a long boil etc to reduce the wort to a high gravity single batch.

EDIT: Mark's attached PDF document on boiling in post #88 above is a good read.

EDIT 2: I did a brew with the short malt pipe with mash in at the top of the bottom markings (25L) and sparged with 12L which at the end of a 60 min boil was less than 25L and put 23L into the fermenter. Ergo, in that particular scenario, 12L was not enough for a sparge/top up to kettle when I had anticipated that 10L would have been sufficient.

 

[Batz]

As the old fellas on this site would know, I love doing stronger German Lagers, so how much grain can I stuff in a 20l unit?

You need to PM Florian, he has a 20lt BM, he brews only lagers, and he's a German so brews just what your talking about.
I now own a 50lt BM and believe me they are the ducks nutz for brewing lagers and pilsners, of cousre ales are no problem either.

Batz

 

[doon]

5.4 was the biggest bill I have had so far and it wasn't fun. The pump would push the wort up but just not high enough each time. Stirring every pump break sucked arse.

I was reading on homebrew talk that someone with 20l was mashing with 22-23 litres then sparging with 10l to get 27-28 per boil might give this a go next brew as I have been mashing with 25 and sparging with 6. Think I am going to cut down to mash in/mash/mash out too unless I brew a style that really needs all the rests