Braumeister 20L Plus

[Coalminer]

.

 

[Coalminer]

Also, talking about turn key, does the BM come with a chiller?
[/QUOTE]

Kadmium
Yes it does and the chiller does not need cleaning after

 

[Half-baked]

Hop and Grain in Marrickville seems to be okay - at least their website is quite extensive.

Yeah, that’s one of my locals. The markup (vs direct from manufacturer) varies from not much to quite a lot.
They have GFs, but not sure if their prices are competitive.
Have you looked at BrewTools? Have heard good things about that unit...

 

[kadmium]

Also, talking about turn key, does the BM come with a chiller?

Kadmium
Yes it does and the chiller does not need cleaning after

What do you mean? Is it an immersion chiller?

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Hi all - new to the forums so go easy on me!

I'm getting ready to get back into home brewing and really like the idea of an all in one system such a the Braumeister 20L Plus. My question is where is the best place to buy one? I am in the north of Sydney.

Some research always seems to lead back to Grain and Grape in Melbourne. Any other suggestions closer to home?

I was like you when I was looking around for my BM, I went further afield though, I bought mine direct from Germany, a 19% discount straight away, postage was 80 Euro. That was before the day any sales tax was added here.
Another one to look at is Home Brew West Republic of Ireland, 23% sales tax.
Luck of the draw if it gets through customs without attracting 10% sales tax.
As for comparing a BM with a Chinese model, BM wins hands down, stirring isn't necessary, it stirs itself every 15 minutes through the pump breaks, and a superior quality build.

If you go through Home Brew West tell Brian Tony wants his money.

 

[beerbong]

What do you mean? Is it an immersion chiller?

It is built in, the outer skin wall. Connected up to regular tap outlets underneath. Ingenious

 

[Antony]

I was like you when I was looking around for my BM, I went further afield though, I bought mine direct from Germany, a 19% discount straight away, postage was 80 Euro. That was before the day any sales tax was added here.
Another one to look at is Home Brew West Republic of Ireland, 23% sales tax.
Luck of the draw if it gets through customs without attracting 10% sales tax.
As for comparing a BM with a Chinese model, BM wins hands down, stirring isn't necessary, it stirs itself every 15 minutes through the pump breaks, and a superior quality build.

If you go through Home Brew West tell Brian Tony wants his money.

appreciate the insights. I think you were fortunate to have purchased before the government started apply GST / import taxes. I ran the numbers and it comes out just about the same...

 

[kadmium]

It is built in, the outer skin wall. Connected up to regular tap outlets underneath. Ingenious

I learned something new. That's very clever indeed.

 

[Luxo_Aussie]

I learned something new. That's very clever indeed.

The cooling skin does work well when the pump is on, however in summer the hotter temperatures does mean it takes twice as long using tap water (good thing 'summer' only lasts 4 weeks here!) Not as fast as other chilling means but good for simplicity + cleaning.

 

[kadmium]

The cooling skin does work well when the pump is on, however in summer the hotter temperatures does mean it takes twice as long using tap water (good thing 'summer' only lasts 4 weeks here!) Not as fast as other chilling means but good for simplicity + cleaning.

A pond pump in a bucket of ice water once you get below around 50c works wonders.

Recirc the pump through as you would a hose. One end on a 20mm barb with 13mm nipple, and tap fitting. The other just a length of hose back into the bucket. I go to the servo (australia) and get about 10kg of ice for $8 and recirc the ice cold water. Gets it real cold real fast, and saves water.

 

[Miran]

I checked, read and asked alot and finally did what I should not but loved to....bought a BM plus 20 liters (YESSSS) from grain and grapes. Seems they are authorised seller in Australia. I was directed from main website to Grain and Grape one. Guten ones not available till November (at least) and Keglands one..... I just checked the youtube ones and the control system and calculators not for me!!
No money for the next 3 weeks! Hope it worth it.

 

[Grmblz]

Congratulations, if nothing else you wont be disappointed by the quality, I love German stuff.
My wife drives a BMW, I've got a KIA, and a Robobrew, says it all really "sobs"

 

[kadmium]

Great work. It's gonna be a nice bit of kit for sure!

 

[Willigofasta]

Congratulations likewise. I love my BM 20+ with hood. Build quality will not leave you disappointed. Mine also came from GnG. Got about 25 brews under the belt now. The built in chiller is simple but not as quick as an immersion chiller. Run mine from a 25000L rainwater tank through the BM and back into the tank. As I now have s/s fermenters it doesn't matter if the wort goes in a bit on the warm side. I also wondered whether I should have gone with the 50L but no regrets. With a bit of extra effort and planning you are not limited to 19L brews. I have been able to do a double volume brew and get about 35 litres from the BM tap into the fermenter. GnG had a post somewhere about the right volumes for mash and sparge which definitely helped. I'm going to do a double gravity soon, probably a RIS, aiming for approx 20L into the fermenter.

 

[Gregs3071]

Is this forum always as aggressive as it was on page one? It seems like a good place to get information and your head bitten off.

 

[MHB]

AHB can be a bit of both; a lot of people get invested in whichever choice they settled on. Its fair to say that a many are highly motivated by price; which isn’t the only consideration.

I am on my second Braumeister, have brewed on several including the larger commercial ones. Have had the mixed pleasure of brewing on most of the other options available, so made what I regard as a well informed decision when it came time to re-equip.
My brewing is mostly recipe development so at present I own a 10L Braumeister. Settled on the Braumeister for a lot of reasons; but mainly because I can repeat a brew to 1 minute 1oC as many times as i need to to nail the results I'm looking for.
Reliably and consistency is paramount to me!
That may not be your main motivation, but whatever you choose the Braumeister remains to my mind the best quality most reliable system on the market.
Mark

 

[Gregs3071]

Thanks Mark.

I'm not looking to purchase at this time, I'm just brewing my first beer (K&K). I found my way here after discovering that I can borrow a 20L Braumeister from the home brew club. Oh, I thought, this would be a good place to read some discussion on the unit.

I was taken aback by aggressiveness in the posts I read. I have been reading a couple of other home brewing forums and they are much more friendly and polite even if they disagree than what I witnessed here.

Anyway, I guess I'll check it out a bit more before making any final decisions but if that's a regular feature here I probably won't stick around long.

 

[philrob]

I wouldn't get too upset over some of the robust language, it is a brewing forum after all.
For me, the key is to search out information which is relevant to you.
If things get really out of hand, it'll be moderated, as there are limits.
Hope you find the right unit for you, within your means.
I can't give an opinion on the right unit, as I have used the same 3V system for the last 16 years, and I'm not about to change, given I'm retired and living on my own resources.

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

AHB can be a bit of both; a lot of people get invested in whichever choice they settled on. Its fair to say that a many are highly motivated by price; which isn’t the only consideration.

I am on my second Braumeister, have brewed on several including the larger commercial ones. Have had the mixed pleasure of brewing on most of the other options available, so made what I regard as a well informed decision when it came time to re-equip.
My brewing is mostly recipe development so at present I own a 10L Braumeister. Settled on the Braumeister for a lot of reasons; but mainly because I can repeat a brew to 1 minute 1oC as many times as i need to to nail the results I'm looking for.
Reliably and consistency is paramount to me!
That may not be your main motivation, but whatever you choose the Braumeister remains to my mind the best quality most reliable system on the market.
Mark

Hi Mark,

I have a 20L as my "pilot" brewery if I can call it that, I am interested in your thoughts over the reverse mash flow direction and whether it is optimal over conventional "gravity direction" flow?
What I have noticed is whilst wort coming out of the top of the malt pipe is super clear without grain fines/particles at the end of the mash, what is actually on the outside of the malt pipe/at the bottom remains through to the boil and includes some fines and particles, because those fines slip through the top filters (particularly at the beginning of the mash) and once on the outside, do not flow through the bottom filter plates and into the mash bed.

 

[MHB]

I find it better than most of the other options.

In a large commercial recirculating mash/lauter a pump would be pulling wort down through the grain bed and filtering it as the wort was returned to the top. They have the advantage of a meter or more of grain bed depth and pressure head to filter the wort through.
A small home system that is working top down won’t have the head and as the malt pipe is surrounded with wort it’s nearly imposable to determine how much wort is penetrating the grain bed. Unless you have none of the wort overflowing the sides of the malt pipe.
With the BM everything coming over the sides is travelling through the grain bed. I find its more consistent and less prone to dry spots and lumps that aren’t fully wet.
If later in the mash (say last 15 minutes) you get a spoon or paddle and agitate the wort outside the malt pile you can get all or most of any fines to get picked by the pump and filtered.
The Braumeister pumps have about 2M of lift head (pressure) more than enough to give a brilliant clear wort (grain crack depending).
I have found that leaving the fine filter supplied with the Braumeister off the bottom plate gives fines a better chance to be trapped in the grist. Not such a good idea if you are doing a largish sparge through the malt pipe after its been lifted.

I have stuck thermometers into grain beds at various heights in some different units. I found the Braumeister to be the most consistent. As has the results of turning out the grist and disecting it to look for inconsistencies.
No system is perfect nor will it suit every brewer; the BM just ticks most of the really important boxes for me.
Mark

PS
The crack is really important in recirculating systems; I'm blessed with a very good HBS locally that gives customers a choice of how their malt is cracked.
M