Braumeister NEXTGEN Build

[angus_grant]

Actually I'll need to measure it when I get home. It's probably closer to 1mm and I think it would be pretty flimsy without the lip.

 

[Edak]

Thought I would share that I finished my dome lid. It is an inverted SS bowl with a 100mm hole cut out of it. I cut along the length of a piece of clear reinforced hose and wrapped it around the lip of the bowl with jaggered edges to catch any condensation that accumulates and runs down the sides.

I am now confident to do my first brew on it tomorrow (actually my first AG altogether so it's pretty exciting).

EDIT:
My first AG will be Dr Smurtos Golden Ale, which is in the recipe database. I notice that the good Dr used a single infusion, would anyone bother do go for a double with this recipe (given that it is no additional work on my behalf) and if so what times would you use?

 

[angus_grant]

Hey Edak,

Nice drainage solution for the domed lid. Nice and brilliantly simple solution to start off with and you can always pretty it up later. Or just do what pretty much everyone does and realise after 50 iterations, that thing you were going to "fix" no longer bothers you. ha ha...

I'll be doing my first AG as well when I eventually get my brau-clone up and running. May as well jump straight into the deep end with an experimental system doing a complicated and foreign processes.

I have finished the sparge water/extract brew Big W pot and that all works nicely. Software is working well, exporting beer.xml files directly into the boil control software. My next step is to code up the mash-temp controls using my PID software.

I should also be able to move forward actually constructing the brau-clone main vessel now.

 

[Edak]

May as well jump straight into the deep end with an experimental system doing a complicated and foreign processes.

This describes me perfectly, except that I think about it continuously without spending that thinking time experimenting. Less pragmatic...

This is why it has taken me months to get this thing built!

 

[matho]

Thought I would share that I finished my dome lid. It is an inverted SS bowl with a 100mm hole cut out of it. I cut along the length of a piece of clear reinforced hose and wrapped it around the lip of the bowl with jaggered edges to catch any condensation that accumulates and runs down the sides.

I am now confident to do my first brew on it tomorrow (actually my first AG altogether so it's pretty exciting).

EDIT:
My first AG will be Dr Smurtos Golden Ale, which is in the recipe database. I notice that the good Dr used a single infusion, would anyone bother do go for a double with this recipe (given that it is no additional work on my behalf) and if so what times would you use?

well done Edak, the unit looks really good, it's put mine to shame. Good luck with your first AG, savour the smells of the brewday, especially the first hop addition.

As for the step mash schedule I wouldn't bother putting to many steps in for a golden ale, maybe the first step at sac temp for an hour and a mash out step at 74 deg for about 10 min. For my lagers I have been mashing in at 32 , 52 for 5 min, 64 for 30min, 68 for 30min and mashout at 72 for 10 min but for my ales I just go with 65 for 60min and mashout at 72 for 10 min

cheers steve

 

[Edak]

well done Edak, the unit looks really good, it's put mine to shame. Good luck with your first AG, savour the smells of the brewday, especially the first hop addition.

As for the step mash schedule I wouldn't bother putting to many steps in for a golden ale, maybe the first step at sac temp for an hour and a mash out step at 74 deg for about 10 min. For my lagers I have been mashing in at 32 , 52 for 5 min, 64 for 30min, 68 for 30min and mashout at 72 for 10 min but for my ales I just go with 65 for 60min and mashout at 72 for 10 min

cheers steve

Cheers Steve,

I will probably experiment next time and see if having two sac temps makes much difference to the overall product. Some say that multiple steps can aid head retention and body, and since the BM steps are basically free I thought it wouldn't do any harm to add a protein rest in there.

I guess it is all about experimentation! This brewing stuff is fun, if only I had more patience...

EDIT: Put yours to shame?? No way, yours looks awesome just a little small...

 

[Edak]

Success!!

I did my first AG brew today, in my brauduino thingo. Not only is it my first AG, but it was the first full AG I have had the opportunity to even see! I am pretty impressed with myself, but I did have a cheat-sheet nearby to remind me to do everything such as rehydrate the yeast, sanitise everything, etc.

The system held up very well including the filter plates, which were thought to be too weak.

PICS (in order that I took them)

I also logged the mash on my Mac (using a wireless zigbee link built into my set up).

I pitched the yeast and it started bubbling within about an hour. It is now fermenting in my (online-logging/monitoring) fridge which I only just recovered after the wife managed to destroy the source code for. If you want to see it online send me a PM.

The boil was just okay without the lid, but with it on it was a real roller! The drainage system worked quite well. In fact I had much more boil off than I thought so I ended up with just over 19L @ 1.052 whereas I was aiming for 20L at 1.048. My Pre-Boil Efficiency was 86.1% and the Post-Boil Efficiency (into fermenter) was 74.2% . So Stoked! Thank you to everyone for their advice.

 

[matho]

congrats Edak you have done well, you have built a brew rig you have to be proud of and you have your first AG brew under your belt

cheers steve

 

[Edak]

congrats Edak you have done well, you have built a brew rig you have to be proud of and you have your first AG brew under your belt

cheers steve

Your Braumiser was my inspiration, if I had not seen it then I would still be twiddling my thumbs wondering what to do...

 

[dmac80]

Nice work Edak,
It's good that it all went well, and your first AG to boot!
Cheers

 

[breakbeer]

nice one Edak! looks awesome.

 

[angus_grant]

yay, nice work Edak. Your post about being almost finished has inspired me to get a move on with my main vessel construction. And now your first AG has inspired me even more.... Two big thumbs up and a cheers of (hopefully) my last K+K dark ale before going AG.

I am hoping my birthday presents from parents and siblings should give me enough cash to get a grain mill from Craft Brewer and then I can start doing some BIAB AG batches whilst finishing off the brau-clone build.

Great work Edak!

 

[bonj]

Looking awesome Edak! Well done! Your brewery looks really good.

 

[Edak]

Thank you everyone, I can't wait to taste the beer to see how much better than my toucans they are.

The worst part of the brew was my whirlpool, I really need to work on that, and would be awesome if I could learn the secret off someone first hand. I had a fair bit of break get into the fermenter but none of the big trub stuff. Need to work on how I will get that right.

Now comes the waiting game..

 

[domfergo]

Edak, that is a work of art!

congrats!

put your next one down now and keep it in a cube, after a few brews there wont be much waiting time anymore!

my trick was to keep buying kegs until i found that the keg i was putting in the fridge had a couple of months ageing behind it. For me the magic number of kegs was 10

Cheers

Mas

 

[Edak]

Edak, that is a work of art!

congrats!

put your next one down now and keep it in a cube, after a few brews there wont be much waiting time anymore!

my trick was to keep buying kegs until i found that the keg i was putting in the fridge had a couple of months ageing behind it. For me the magic number of kegs was 10

Cheers

Mas

Woah so you have 10 kegs? Awesome!

I understand that kegging saves time but I have not begun kegging yet so I have to (A) wait for the fermentation to complete (2-3 weeks) then (B) the bottle carbonation (another couple of weeks). I don't see any saved time.

 

[MastersBrewery]

Edak, very impressive, and very good numbers, did you sparg at all and if so how much? Finances still holding me back a bit, but with inspiration like this I'm sure I'll eventually get there

 

[Edak]

Edak, very impressive, and very good numbers, did you sparg at all and if so how much? Finances still holding me back a bit, but with inspiration like this I'm sure I'll eventually get there

Yeah I rinsed with about 7 litres, the first 3 were directly over the pot (malt pipe suspended above pot) and in order to check the runnings I rinsed the rest over a bucket, measured then dumped into the pot before the boil started. All sparges/rinses were done with mashout temperature water, which I neatly collected from my home made sous vide. The problem was that I really should have added just over 8 litres to get to the full boil volume (according to BeerSmith2), which in the end means I came up about 1 litre short of my target with high gravity.

 

[sboreham]

Hi everyone I apologies if this has already been mentioned. I was looking around trying to find some good pots to start my own Braumeister clone and I found the following in Keg Kings price list. It cost $199.95 so I assume there is free postage. Has anyone seen these or know anything about them?

Nested Aluminium 60/40L Pots for Single Vessel Brewing
These single vessel brewing pots are
great for mash brewing. The aluminium
is more conductive than stainless pots
making these pots idea for direct heat.
The pots come as a set with a large 60L
outter pot with lid and a nested inner 40L
inner pot that has a perforated false bottom. This
allows you to place grain in the inner pot for mashing. When finished
mashing simply lift out the inner pot and use the outter pot to boil. The
assembly can also be used in conjuction with RIMS heat stick and
pump to upgrade this to a recirculating system in the future.

 

[Edak]

Hi everyone I apologies if this has already been mentioned. I was looking around trying to find some good pots to start my own Braumeister clone and I found the following in Keg Kings price list. It cost $199.95 so I assume there is free postage. Has anyone seen these or know anything about them?

Nested Aluminium 60/40L Pots for Single Vessel Brewing
These single vessel brewing pots are
great for mash brewing. The aluminium
is more conductive than stainless pots
making these pots idea for direct heat.
The pots come as a set with a large 60L
outter pot with lid and a nested inner 40L
inner pot that has a perforated false bottom. This
allows you to place grain in the inner pot for mashing. When finished
mashing simply lift out the inner pot and use the outter pot to boil. The
assembly can also be used in conjuction with RIMS heat stick and
pump to upgrade this to a recirculating system in the future.

I go in there regularly and saw them last time,but I didn't think much of the drainage capacity. The holes are too small and will restrict flow quite significantly. Also aluminium is not ideal.