Braumeister NEXTGEN Build

[Bizier]

Looking very tidy Matho. I am keen to see more updates.

Seamad: I am just going to recirculate by pumping liquor from the main kettle outlet via silicone hose on the outside of the vessel, returning to the top with some kind of sparge ring style diffuser.

Cheers to small batches!

 

[matho]

hmmm thatname seems very familiar.


PF crew sign in?

sorry fish i wouldn't know what PF stands for, the name came about from years ago when my mate was wanting to start a record label we were kicking around some names and 'piston broke records' came up so when i came to name my first brewery that popped into my head.

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

Sean,
its a bummer about the element cutting out sounds like a right PITA. I would think that the direction of flow would not matter much as long as the flow went through the grain, if your using a march pump you might need to put a valve on the outlet so you can throttle it back to stop it flowing over the top of the pot. This thread goes through some options. Im using 1/2 inch skin fittings that i got from here so i have a step drill that drills 8mm to 20mm in 2mm steps, so i drilled an 18mm hole and then expanded the hole just a little bit to make it fit. If your talking about drilling holes in the bottom of the pot to make a false bottom and your going to use the BIAB bag as a liner then i would say about 5 - 6 mm but be warned i found drilling the bottom of the pot to be harder than the walls and it will take a bit of patience to get the job done and also some of these i cant recommend these enough, my set has drilled a ton of holes in stainless steel and are still going strong
i am using two perforated ss discs cut from a catering tray and im going to us BIAB material over them to create the filter by this might change as i have come up with a different idea but ill see how the filter works first.

cheers matho

 

[matho]

Looking very tidy Matho. I am keen to see more updates.

Seamad: I am just going to recirculate by pumping liquor from the main kettle outlet via silicone hose on the outside of the vessel, returning to the top with some kind of sparge ring style diffuser.

Cheers to small batches!

thanks bizier, hopefully posting it here will make me pull my finger out i have been procrastinating for a while now

 

[seamad]

Not trying to steal your thread but got some pics of my evolving rig which may be helpful.




Flour sieve from chinese shop cut and reduced diam and riveted to fit urn. Hangs from rim with steel tracer and cut down fish hooks





Bit of bent copper pipe with holes to create some turbulence, attached to march pump, use valve to control flowrate.



PID control box



Ready to go sans bag.




What is the porosity of the filter material used on th braumaster ? I have a feeling that my bag material maybe to fine and clog up.

My next step is to attack my bigw pot ,filters top and bottom and feed wort return through the top, just want to make sure filter material is going to work...

cheers and thanks for the tips

 

[Florian]

 

[matho]

thanks florian very helpfull

 

[seamad]

Thanks florian. Are all 3 used ?

 

[Wolfy]

The one on the top-left of the photo is an Ikea STABIL Splatter screen.
I picked up 2 a week or so ago, but have yet to work out how/where to use them.

 

[Florian]

Sorry, I should've cleared that up:

The fine ss mesh is the ikea splash guard, which I haven't used yet.
The other ss false bottom is the original Braumeister one.
The fabric mesh is also from the Braumeister, and goes on top (at the bottom) and below (at the top) of the false bottom.

(that probably sounds confusing, so basically from top to bottom:
ss falsie
fabric mesh
grain
fabric mesh
ss falsie)

I know that some blokes in Germany succesfully ditched the top fabric mesh and used the ikea one instead (just drilled a hole in the middle to fit).

Honestly, if you had a false bottom with decent sized holes (read: smaller) you wouldn't need the fabric mesh in the first place. Therefore I think that the ikea style splash guard, as long as it is strong enough (supported), should be more than enough. The only problem I could think of is that it might be a tad too fine, which forces the pump to work very hard. So possibly a window fly screen or maybe the kmart splash guard might be better suited, depending on the pump.

 

[seamad]

cheers florian that makes sense.


Maybe I should just get my brother ( lives in Germany) to sneak one in his hand luggage next time he comes home :icon_cheers:

 

[seamad]

Florian, have you made a roggen or dunkel with your braumaster, and if so how did it go ?

 

[Florian]

I've made a beer with 10% Rye and 40% wheat, probably milled a bit too fine and not enough rice gulls and got a stuck mash, basically wort fountains shooting up through the malt pipe and against the lid.
No probs with Schwarzbier, Munich Dunkel and the sorts if that's what you meant?

 

[seamad]

The 2 beers I had in mind and that gave me problems were both Tony's ( the *******, why do such tasty brews cause so much grief ?)

Roggen was @ 60% rye, and from memory similar percentage of dark wheat with the dunkel. Haven't had probs with schwartz etc with my recirc biab...yet


I mill at .8mm. I increased gap to 1mm with ( Tony's again) wit but ended up with woeful effeciency so went back to .8 on Friday with the rye, which was also run through twice. Overshot OG by a big margain and ended up with something you could use as an oil substitute in the car. But ended up doing the double decoction ( of sorts ) with that brew because of crud buildup on element.

Have you noticed element burning with wheats etc on the braumaster or does most of the crud stay in the grain bed ?

 

[Florian]

No, most of it stays in the grain bed, there might be the odd stray grain here and there, but nothing to worry about. The elements have a build up after boil and whirlpool, but it's not burnt on and easily removable.

 

[datamike]

FYI: Here's a place in California that specializes in stainless mesh. Lots of different sizes and apparently, they can cut into custom discs. Minimum order is $75.

I haven't tried them yet, but though it might be useful for someone.

http://www.twpinc.com/twpinc/products/TWPCAT_12

Michael

 

[komodo]

http://www.metalmesh.com.au/locations these guys have locations around australia and have a perforated sheet that is pretty much spot on match for what i can find out about the perforated metal used by a few of the false bottom makers.
Never used them - I did think about it when I was going to make my own false bottom but that never happened. I bought a BeerBelly 50L SS Mashtun instead...

 

[hosko11]

Nice work Matho and Seamad. I'm in the midst of designing one as well using a 50l and 20l pot, but have got a little carried with tri-clover fittings and valves and currently have a projected cost of $1600 for the completed build

Matho, I see you've got some perforated stainless installed in the malt pipe. Where abouts did you get hold of that? I've looked at places like what Komodo's linked to, but they only want to sell a full sheet.

Florian, any chance you could measure the thickness of the Braumeister stainless filter?

Cheers,
Hosko

 

[matho]

hey Ppp,

the perforated filter was cut out of a stainless steel tray that i got from a hospitality store, its not the best and im thinking ill probably replace it but ill try it out first.

RS components sells 500mm x 500mm 0.6mm perforated stainless steel sheets for a decent price but you have to by 2

hope this helps

cheers matho

 

[seamad]

Having never seen a braumaster not sure exactly how the return works.How exactly does the wort nter the malt pipe, are there perforations in that central tube? Does the liquid level in the urn have to be under the level of the top of the malt pipe?
Does the grain form a bed or is it constantly disturbed ?

Might have to have a look at one when Ross gets them in.

 

[matho]

Having never seen a braumaster not sure exactly how the return works.How exactly does the wort nter the malt pipe, are there perforations in that central tube? Does the liquid level in the urn have to be under the level of the top of the malt pipe?
Does the grain form a bed or is it constantly disturbed ?

Might have to have a look at one when Ross gets them in.

I have never seen one in the flesh either, but what i have gleaned from the internet is the malt pipe is just that, a pipe, it has a seal on the bottom of the tube, then a bottom perforated disc then the filter material, the bottom filter is held off the bottom by a ridge put in the pipe about an inch up from the bottom, then the malt and then a top filter, perforated disc and then a bar to hold it all in place. The pump sucks the wort from outside the malt pipe and pumps it up into the malt pipe, with the seal on the bottom the wort has to go up to the top. I wouldn't think the level of wort would matter much as it would still flow.

edit: i just realized i never commented on setup seamad, it looks sweet. I really like the control box, you can move it from system to system if you wanted too
cheers matho