Braumeister NEXTGEN Build

[matho]

Two things i have been wanting to do for a while, build a small brewery so i can brew more variety of beer and play around with semi automation. After seeing the Braumeister and mulling it over for i while i decided to make one out of a 19l pot to give me about 9L of finished beer. I had a cheap Indian pot laying around so i went ahead and used that, i bought a 8l pot to use as the malt pipe, got a custom made element made up, bought a small pump and started to design the control module. I initially welded the legs straight to the pot but when i went to check for leaks one of the welds leaked and upon trying to fix it i blew a bigger hole in the pot. I went a bought a 19l pot from BIG W and made up a ring to go around the base of the pot so i could weld the legs on to that instead of welding the pot. I designed the circuit for the control module and etched the circuit boards, i wanted it all to fit into a enclosure 171mm X 121 X 80 and also for the enclosure to cover the element terminals. I have finished the pot, assembled the circuit boards and tested that all parts of the circuit are working correctly. Now what is left to do is to write up the program for the control module and start brewing, I'm going to write up the manual function first so i can test the unit out and then ill work on the automatic function.



the first pot



the ring



fitted to the pot



all fitted out









the malt pipe in the old pot which im using in the new pot



there will be more to come when i progress with it

cheers matho

 

[kelbygreen]

very nice the ring stand looks alot better then the original design

 

[matho]

thanks mate
yeah im really happy how that turned out

 

[kelbygreen]

yeah phil jones stuffed that first pot up aye? will be very interesting how this turns out. Plans for a bigger version if all goes well?

 

[stef]

Looks good! Seems like a lot of work for 9l though...

 

[stux]

+1 Like

 

[Spoonta]

looks good mate please keep us posted

 

[matho]

yeah phil jones stuffed that first pot up aye? will be very interesting how this turns out. Plans for a bigger version if all goes well?

hehehe damn phil jones he's a ****, i still have my bigger brewery which ill use when i need to make more beer, the control unit could be moved across to a bigger pot.

Looks good! Seems like a lot of work for 9l though...

yeah but its just me drinking my beer at my place so a keg takes a long time to get thru and i end up getting bored with the beers i have on tap so i would like to brew smaller batches so i can have more variety, also being electric i can brew inside which means i can make more use of my nights

 

[real_beer]

Two things i have been wanting to do for a while, build a small brewery so i can brew more variety of beer and play around with semi automation. After seeing the Braumeister and mulling it over for i while i decided to make one out of a 19l pot to give me about 9L of finished beer. I had a cheap Indian pot laying around so i went ahead and used that, i bought a 8l pot to use as the malt pipe, got a custom made element made up, bought a small pump and started to design the control module. I initially welded the legs straight to the pot but when i went to check for leaks one of the welds leaked and upon trying to fix it i blew a bigger hole in the pot. I went a bought a 19l pot from BIG W and made up a ring to go around the base of the pot so i could weld the legs on to that instead of welding the pot. I designed the circuit for the control module and etched the circuit boards, i wanted it all to fit into a enclosure 171mm X 121 X 80 and also for the enclosure to cover the element terminals. I have finished the pot, assembled the circuit boards and tested that all parts of the circuit are working correctly. Now what is left to do is to write up the program for the control module and start brewing, I'm going to write up the manual function first so i can test the unit out and then ill work on the automatic function.

there will be more to come when i progress with it

cheers matho

What a great idea & it looks really professional, well done. I look forward to seeing your updates. I'm impressed that you welded a cheap Indian pot so well even though it leaked.

Cheers :icon_cheers:

 

[gap]

Hello Steve,
looks fantastic.
Where do you find the time?
I am going to have to get my finger out with my HERMS build.

Regards

Graeme

 

[Tim F]

so awesome! How did you handle pumping the wort up through the malt pipe, does it just press down and seal on the bottom of the kettle like the real BM?

 

[matho]

What a great idea & it looks really professional, well done. I look forward to seeing your updates. I'm impressed that you welded a cheap Indian pot so well even though it leaked.

Cheers :icon_cheers:

Thanks, it wasn't fun welding the pot, i used my mig welder and on the lowest setting i still had to be really quick, welding the 2mm stainless ring was like a dream compared to that.

Hello Steve,
looks fantastic.
Where do you find the time?
I am going to have to get my finger out with my HERMS build.

Regards

Graeme

hey Graeme, I have a very understanding wife that lets me get out to the garage a fair bit so i can tinker

so awesome! How did you handle pumping the wort up through the malt pipe, does it just press down and seal on the bottom of the kettle like the real BM?

Tim if you look in the photo of the malt pipe you can see a bit of silicon hose around the hole i cut in the bottom, I have now replaced that with a bit of 3/8 silicon hose, when i screw down the the bar that hold the malt pipe in place it makes a nice seal

cheers matho

 

[Andyd]

Nice work! Looks great!

 

[Tim F]

gotcha. Did you do anything to join that silicon hose where the ends meet or didn't it need it?

 

[enuun]

wow! and I thought I was smart printing out and sticking my own label on my bottles heehee
nice work =)

 

[Florian]

Great work and a good size too. Wouldn't mind a little 9L one for test batches myself.

Is there a particular reason why you didn't cut out the whole bottom of the malt pipe?

If I'd have to write write up the program for the control module, I would allow for even more than the five mash steps the Braumeister has, wouldn't be a problem to allow for 10 or 15, would it?
I's also allow for the boil temp to go higher than 102, maybe 105 or so, just to allow a full on rolling boil if you ever want one.

Will you also be integrating the pump breaks the original Braumeister has?

 

[matho]

gotcha. Did you do anything to join that silicon hose where the ends meet or didn't it need it?

i have done nothing to the ends i just made it a little larger than i need so the ends push themselves together it seems fine when i tried it before i drilled holes in the bottom of the big pot.

Great work and a good size too. Wouldn't mind a little 9L one for test batches myself.

Is there a particular reason why you didn't cut out the whole bottom of the malt pipe?

If I'd have to write write up the program for the control module, I would allow for even more than the five mash steps the Braumeister has, wouldn't be a problem to allow for 10 or 15, would it?
I's also allow for the boil temp to go higher than 102, maybe 105 or so, just to allow a full on rolling boil if you ever want one.

Will you also be integrating the pump breaks the original Braumeister has?

Florian,
there is no real reason why, the pot had a ridge in the bottom so i cut along that, it also holds the bottom filter which is good because i cant put a ridge in the pot like the BM malt pipe has.
I was only going with 5 steps but there is no reason why i can't do more, the only limitation is the size of the eeprom on the chip.
thanks for the tip with the boil sounds like a good idea, i am going to do the pump rests and im also planning on doing a delay start of up to 12 hrs, so i can fill it up at night and it will be ready to go in the morning.
The element I bought is only 30w per square inch so it can be run in air without any damage just incase anything goes drastically wrong

cheers matho

 

[joshuahardie]

Looks really promising Matho.

I can't wait to bend your ear about it next time we are on a pubcrawl.

 

[Fish13]

Pist'n'Broke Brewery

hmmm thatname seems very familiar.


PF crew sign in?

 

[seamad]

G'day Matho,
I'm heading down a similiar path. Have got a crown urn with a recirc biab system and pid control.l
Had a difficult brew day saturday making a roggenbier, ended up doing a double deecoction as the element kept getting crud on it and the safety cutting in. Got sick of pulling the bag removing false bottom and cleaning with a mixing spoon with chux tied to it. Efficiency was good though as preboil gravity was higher than my expected OG so cut the boil time down to 60 min, even then safety cut in 4 timess. I know you can remove the safety but already burnt out one element and lost another brew to burnt taste.
Next step is to make a malt pipe so hopefully get clearer wort and lesss chance of burning.
My original bigw 19 pot fits inside the urn if handlescut off. I have not had a look at a braumaster yet, but could the wort enter at the top of the pipe? Does the braumaster have the pipe entering at the base to keep plumbing internal?
What diam holes should i drill in the bottom of my pot, and what material have you used for thee filter? Are the top and bottom screens the same?
Any advice much appreciated

Cheers
Sean