Braumeister Clone (UK)

[JB]

Glad to say the filter plates work well with the new malt tubes

*WOOP WOOP* Warning* Another probably dumb question from me: So when you lift the malt pipe up & off that spindle after the mash, some grain is going to fall into the pot isn't it? Is it minute enough not to worry about, or is there something that stops any grain falling through that I can't see? Cheers

 

[barneey]

Once the sparge / drain has taken place ( the plate still has the rod going through it at this point). The grain bed sets itself so by the time you actually remove the malt tube its not a problem/ doesn't happen.

 

[LiquidCurrency]

These guys make a 50 litre model for $110.00 I believe but it is not on their web site you have to contact them and talk to a guy named Chad I believe.

http://arborfab.com/

Dicko, were you referring to them making a malt tube for a 50L?

 

[JB]

Once the sparge / drain has taken place ( the plate still has the rod going through it at this point). The grain bed sets itself so by the time you actually remove the malt tube its not a problem/ doesn't happen.

Aha, thanks for helping me out Barneey. Cheers

 

[dicko]

Dicko, were you referring to them making a malt tube for a 50L?

No mate, sorry for the misunderstanding.
I was referring to the hop basket.

 

[LiquidCurrency]

Ok cheers dicko. Am looking at either buying an original Brau malt pipe (if the price is reasonable) or getting one properly made, to suit 20L. My search continues!!

 

[angus_grant]

Hey Liquid,

If you are getting a malt pipe made, have a think about getting an extension made as well. The 20L brau milt pipe (and mine and everyone else who uses Big W pot with 19L capacity) tops out around 6kgs grain (no actual knowledge of Brau max grain bill). That does limit you a bit with big malt bills for IPAs, big Belgians, RIS, etc, etc.

If you're going to the trouble of getting something custom made, may as well get an extension built as well.

And just because you only brew 4-6% beers now, doesn't mean it will always be so.

 

[barneey]

I thought I might as well post the dimensions of the 20 & 50 ltr malt pipes as used on the 50 BM system.

20 pipe & 50 pipe are both approx 350 mm diameter and the heights are 265 & 470 mm respectively, you will also notice how much higher the bottom screen sits on these two, no doubt for element clearance and fluid dynamics.

So just be careful what dims you use with what system you are building.

 

[LiquidCurrency]

Hey Liquid,

If you are getting a malt pipe made, have a think about getting an extension made as well. The 20L brau milt pipe (and mine and everyone else who uses Big W pot with 19L capacity) tops out around 6kgs grain (no actual knowledge of Brau max grain bill). That does limit you a bit with big malt bills for IPAs, big Belgians, RIS, etc, etc.

If you're going to the trouble of getting something custom made, may as well get an extension built as well.

And just because you only brew 4-6% beers now, doesn't mean it will always be so.

Good point Angus, thanks for the tip! I'll look at a malt pipe extension, as well as an extension for my pot so I can still get the lid on and keep the heat in.

I'm only doing extract kits at the moment so I'm not too familiar with how much grain i'll be using when I move to AG.
What amounts of grain do you think I should expect for IPA's, big Belgians and so on?

 

[angus_grant]

Well the only big belgian I made was an 8.5% Belgian tripel which used 7.2kg's of grain.

That was a BIAB batch and I can't remember my efficiency but would imagine it was fairly woeful. A nicely designed braumeister clone would not need that much grain as efficiency should be a little higher.

Some quick calculations on my system would give me a max grain bill of just over 7kgs at 3L/kg grain. Decreasing that ratio to 2.5L/kg gives me 8.3kgs.
This is with a malt pipe which is 37cms high, which is just under my 40cm main pot height.

My normal strength beers are normally from 5 kgs to 6kgs, which fits nicely in the Big W malt pipe (30cm diameter and 27cm high)

All this is only if you want to make high-gravity beers and are against using dried malt extract or sugars to boost your gravity during the boil.

my grain bill for the tripel was
7.2kg BB Ale malt
0.7kg raw sugar
0.098g dark candi syrup

So I should be able to squeeze that tripel out with the malt pipe extension if I assume I will get better efficiency than the 65% I got with my BIAB batch. But this is guess work as I don't have an efficiency number with my current system for big grain bills.

Edit: just did some addition and my grain bill estimate up top was incorrect once I'd grabbed the grain bill from my notes.

 

[barneey]

A 20 litre BM tube (sold for the 50BM bucket) will also fit quite nicely into a 70 ltr standard UK pot. / if you get a tube fabricated a 30 / 35 ltr BM would easily be achievable.

 

[barneey]

Managed to get the 2nd element squeeeeeeeezed in, not only had to miss the fittings inside but also the pump on the other side.

And if you were ever wondering what a 70ltr pot looks like when I`ve been let loose with a hole saw (note I could have made the holes all the same size but the tradesman inside me took over with 3 sizes being used - not that your ever see them)

I now have to come up with some sort of airflow hole design for the pump cooling....

 

[LiquidCurrency]

So Barneey, that's the short malt pipe to suit the 50L but to make 20L batches. And it's in a 70L pot? What are your pot dimensions?

 

[LiquidCurrency]

Funny. I have the exact same handwritten mark inside my brand new 34L pot at home. Must have come from the same factory

 

[barneey]

This pot is a standard 70ltr 450mm diameter x 450mm high, I`m using it however as a base for the main pot, just thought I would show that the 70ltr would make a good donor for a 20ltr system.

The main build has a 100ltr main pot again 450mm diameter.

I don't know if anyone has tried making a larger malt pipe? ie one suitable for a 75l batch, as I have the capacity to be able to boil that much.

 

[barneey]

Funny. I have the exact same handwritten mark inside my brand new 34L pot at home. Must have come from the same factory

Most of the UK supplied pots used to come from Europe via a company called "bergland" one would image that the source of the pots is China somewhere & exported on a global scale.

 

[barneey]

I`m just about to fit the circular element in my 50l BM unit.

To enable the element to be covered at all times what is the maximum height it can be from the bottom of the pot please? Using the 20lt Malt Tube

Cheers

 

[barneey]

Just done a dry run to see if everything fits, glad to say it does

 

[barneey]

My hop spider eventually arrived from the US

Next up was to look for an immersion chiller, not only to miss the element but to miss the spider, cant find what I`m looking for at the moment so built a stand for an old CCFC I had and will use that to cool + recirculate.

 

[geogaga]

Hi

I was in a long process of thinking on the concept and inventory list of my own Braumeister clone, and was actually considering the same heating element, and also couldn't find a decent 1.2 height/width ratio pot. And then I found this thread. Awesome!

A was already desperate to find a kettle, and had everything sketched up with 1:1 ratio one, which did not look satisfying to my taste. And just after I found this post, I promptly searched my local eBay, and there it was. I scored the same kind of kettle, but only with 400mm diameter. Which makes it a 75l vessel. Mine was used for storing lactose :huh:. The walls are 1.2mm thick. Looks promising to me. I'm gonna go with 300x570mm malt pipe, which is gonna be a V2A stainless steel chimney pipe segment. I already have a rig with a single 21l mash tun with a proper false bottom, which is luckily of 300mm diameter, so I will be able to reuse it as one of the two filter plates.

Here is a sketched up prototype. Hopefully, it's gonna come out as nice as it is drawn.

I have two concerns though. Hopefully, someone could give me his judgement on those.

First, the gap between the malt pipe and the main vessel is gonna be 5cm. I'm planning to bend the heating element at 380mm radius, to keep it away from the malt to avoid scorching. Which will leave a ~32mm gap between the malt pipe and the heating element, and a ~10mm to the main vessel. Considering the element is going to be submerged, is there a chance to do something wrong and overheat the main vessel? My gut feeling is it's gonna be ok.

Second, the original 50L vessel uses two vortex pumps, which, as I understand, is the same analogue as Laing/Lowara/ITT. They have the same dimensions and specs. My local most affordable version is Laing Ecocirc E1-15/700B, which happen to be a replacement pump for the Braumester. I see that only one is used in the build. How does it perform in reality? Will it cope well, what's the degree of performance degradation?

Maybe someone sees a potential flaw in the sketch? I would appreciate any comment

Thanks.

P.S. I'm in Europe, and all prices are in euros. Currently, my preliminary calculations on costs, sets me back for around 400 euros (around 600 AUD, I guess), all including shipping, and not considering the stuff I already have and can reuse, e.g. one of the false bottoms, Arduino board, 20x4 LCD display, SSRs, some fittings, tools, etc.