Braumeister NEXTGEN Build

[Sam England]

Sorry Cavemanbrew, missed your post. My rig is a bit different in that I push the water up through the spigot in the base of the BigW pot, through a false bottom with voile to spread the flow and then out a top filter plate also covered with voile. I stole a fair few ideas from ArnieW's BrauBushka rig. http://arniew.wordpress.com/ . Seems to work pretty well for me. The elements are from ebay and were around $13 each from memory. I've mentioned it earlier, but to keep the Watt density down I've got 4 x 3kW elements wired in two pairs in parallel to give 3kW but with 4 times the area. I've also wired it with two SSR's so if I ever want to run it on a standard power point I can run it off two different 10A circuits. They're not the easiest elements to clean, but serve their purpose for me and the two other units my mates have built/building.
Cheers,
BB

 

[Cavemanbrew]

Your a champ thanks for the info, i like it and i may steal a couple of ideas from you.

Cave man :chug:

 

[aamcle]

what could I make in this?

I have potentilay two pots to make a malt pipe and outer vessle.

malt pipe - 28 cm diameter 39 cm height aprox 24 litre
main vesstle - 33 cm diameter 45 cm height aprox 38.5 litres.


I should easily be able to get 5 kg of grain in the pipe, could I reasonably expect to do 25 liter into the fermentor?

Atb. aamcle

 

[Edak]

aamcle, I think that you might have a little trouble fitting everything in, especially if you want to put heating element, fittings, temp sensor and tap. The diameters are 5cm apart so you have 2.5cm space around the entire vessel. I have a 19L malt pipe in a 50L pot and let's just say that it's not feeling very spacious in there.

25L into fermenter means that you will need a pre-boil volume of about 33-35L, which means also that you are at the boundary of your outer vessel and will probably experience boil-over.

Get a 50L pot and you should be good to go.

my 2c.

 

[aamcle]

Thanks, still a bit small but getting the bits in would not be a problem with the design I had in mind.

What do you think of working it MaxiBIAB style and adding water to the fermenter?

Or what about going for 5US gallons/19 litres? This would give me the chance to do more styles

I'll try to draw it out in the next day or two and post the drawing so I can get some expert comment, my design might not be feasible.

Thanks again. Aamcle

 

[aamcle]

Playing around with Beersmith I think I would have trouble even if I go for 19 litre batches, I would have just 5 litre ( or so) of space about 6cm to the rim.

oh well there goes another cunning plan....


Aamcle

 

[angus_grant]

Will be putting in a big weekend of fabrication this weekend so have not actually used my malt pipe yet.

I have a 40L outer pot and BIAB'ing in this pot has been comfortable. I have not gone close to boil-overs. Mashing NickJD's 8.5% Belgian Triple was very close to the top of the pot. It had 8kg's of grain in the mash but you wouldn't be able to fit 8kg's of grain into a 24L malt pipe once taking into account filter volume loss and grain volume loss.

I have 10cm difference in the pot diameters and everything comfortably fits, but I wouldn't want the gap to be much smaller.

You should be able to fit 5 kg's in that malt pipe. My spreadsheet calculator has the Big W 19L pot maxing out at 5kgs, but that is dependant on filter design. I won't lose much volume with my filter design.

 

[aamcle]

Angus it you were aiming at 25 litres into the fermenter then I can reinstate my 'cunning plan'.

Aamcle

 

[angus_grant]

Ahhh, my mistake: I have a 50L outer pot. :blush:

With the BIAB, I was getting about 21-22L into the fermentor after evaporation, loss to grain, trub, etc, etc.

Seeing I haven't even built my malt pipe and recirc system yet, I can't give you any real-world figures for the brau-clone. But I get a vague (and completely uncalculated) feeling you would be pushing your system to produce 25L of 1050 wort.

 

[Sam England]

Arvo Aamcle,
I used to BIAB in a 32L pot, mash in 23L, batch/dunk sparge 2x5L and get 23L 1.050 into the fermenter without any issues so you should be right volume wise. Full volume boil used to start at 30L and you had to watch it like a hawk when it came to the boil, but I was brewing inside on the stove wok burner and it took forever to get to the boil and didn't really have the guts to boil over unless I forgot to take the lid off.
Brauclone wise, the most I've mashed in with to date in a single Big W pot is 6.15kg, but I've got a slightly different setup to everyone else. I have to turn the pump on and underlet some wort at the start of the mash to mix it up and make sure there aren't any dough balls, but other than that there weren't too many issues. I'm actually going for 6.25kg this weekend for a 1.065 IPA so that could be interesting!! If you're prepared to sparge (with the added benefit of better efficiency) I can't see why a 40L pot wouldn't work. Even without sparging I think you'd nearly get away with the pot as long as you can get around the physical installation side of things. I'm using a 50L keg as my outside vessel which is probably about the same diameter as your pot, but my setup has the elements located under the malt pipe. Check out my AHB gallery or the ArnieW link at the top of the page. I stole a fair few ideas from here.
Cheers,
BB

 

[aamcle]

I may have to deviate from the pure faith :-( the pot I'm trying to disassemble for parts is not cooperating, I do have a 49 litre Aluminium pot I could use as the outer vessel but it's not shiny......

The thing I'm striping is an ex-army tea urn I've attached a picture, it's double walled and insulated with Vermiculite the inner and outer pots are great but it begins to look as if I'll damage the outer stripping it.

Atb. Aamcle

Dam' I've just re-measured the aluminium pot 36 liters. Grrrr.... No advantage

 

[aamcle]

Got them apart

It might not make a big clone but it'll be shiny

Aamcle

 

[saviothecnic]

http://www.saviot.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16:meccanica-by-saviothecnic&catid=8&Itemid=138

 

[Cavemanbrew]

Hello boys and girls,
Have progressed with the kit together and housing complete, 5 min ago tested with some success, all works heater solid state relay switching and main screen working, looks great, but I can't seem to get the pump relay to switch, the green light comes on but no switching.

Help please !!!!!!!

 

[djar007]

What sort of pump? 12v or 230v? How did you wire it up?Nice looking box you have there.

 

[Cavemanbrew]

240, chugger, champ

 

[Cavemanbrew]

Active Wired through the board relay, and neutral and earth straight thru
Will run to 3 pin plug so I can plug in pump

 

[matho]

Sounds like you have wired it up right, is the relay clicking?

 

[Cavemanbrew]

No it's not, may be I got a bung relay?

 

[matho]

Ah I have just seen it you haven't put in the jumper for the relay, there is 2 positions a 5v one on top and a 12v one on the bottom, the relay would be a 12v so put a jumper in and it should work

cheers steve