Braumeister - Tips & Tricks

[wobbly]

I thought I would start a new thread as titled as there appears to be an ever increasing number of members that are adopting these systems (me included) and I'm sure that there will be some sort of learning curve where we can benefit by shareing information and experiences.

To start I have a couple of questions.
1. Can you use either Beer Smith or Promash to design a beer and use the details with confidence to manage your brew day?

2. If so what details/parameters should you enter into Beer Smith (or Promash) for a 20 litre system. Similarly parameters for a 50 litre system

3. As the system appears to (to me anyway) be designed around achieving the planned OG (into fementer) at the end of the mash phase and then maintaining that OG throughout the boil by checkeing OG prior to commencement of boil phase and then either allowing boil off or topping up with water to compensate boil off. Is that how others understand the process? If this is the case hence my question about parameters to be used in Beer Smith etc.

4. Do others use a hop bag or just add the hops direct into the vessel

5. The manual indicates to whirlpool first and then at the end of the "whirlpooling action" add the "immersion cooler". Is that what others do. Not sure why but I have always cooled and once down to temperature then whirlpooled

6. How course do you mill your grain to. I left my Krankanstein at the same setting I have used for many beers using traditional mash tun and found that this was too fine for the system

Cheers

Wobbly

 

[wobbly]

Anyone???

Cheers

Wobbly

 

[stux]

I think you should change the title of this thread to "Braumeister - Tips & Tricks"

You might notice that in the latest threads box the word Braumeister does not appear

 

[mikk]

Hi Wobbly,
Q1 & 2- i use beersmith with my braumeister & found it to be quite good. I haven't bothered to set it up to suit my gear exactly, but use it for recipe formulation & calculations.
Q3- I sparge though, & have never not sparged so can't really comment. A 53L mash-in/10L sparge gives about 50L (+/-1L) post boil at an efficiency of 80% using 10kg ish of grain. 12kg of grain drops efficiency to 75%
Q4- hops straight into vessel, though i've used a hop bag with good results too. I think the break material settles better (and stays settled) with some loose hops though, so maybe a combination of the two would be best.
Q5- i no-chill, & haven't used an immersion chiller. I'd be more inclined to do it your way though. The chiller should prob be put in near the end of the boil to sterilise it anyway, making it not possible to follow the manual properly.
Q6-My monster mill mm 3-2.0 3 roller mill is set to 1mm with no problems. What happened when your crush was too fine? I'm surprised it would cause too much of a problem. I haven't even had to use rice hulls or similar for wheat beers or anything, so maybe your previous setting was giving your flour instead of crushed grain?!

Also, when using a hydrometer from the brau's tap, make sure you run a bit through the tap before taking a sample- i've had funny readings due to water or pre-boil low SG wort being stuck in there.
Also, a pickup tube from the tap to the bottom of the brau helps alot too.
Also, to others thinking of getting one, I can't recommend highly enough the Braumeister, & also getting it from Marks homebrew in Newcastle.
It was a really big 'investment' for me at the time, but has given so much fun, & awesome quality beer ever since. The 50L is the one to go for- i got the 20L malt pipe too, but have only used it twice so far. Easy to get 55L out of the 50L braumeister without much fear of boilover too.

Hope this helps,
Mikk.

 

[bullsneck]

I will post my findings when I get to give it a red hot go next weekend.

 

[wobbly]

I think you should change the title of this thread to "Braumeister - Tips & Tricks"

How do I do that?

Maybe one of the Moderators can do it for me.

cheers

Wobbly

 

[banora brewer]

Just wondering if it would be a good idea to do a 'wet' run before you put any grain in?

 

[bullsneck]

I'd be interested in hearing peoples thoughts or experiences when 'sparging' using a Braumeister.

I added around 3L to the mash just as boiling was reached, but could've added more. Got around 16 to 17L into cube.

I also had a LOT of stray grain (more than I thought would anyway) make their way out of the pipe and into the main vessel. Are others experiencing this?

Will be interesting to see how the beer turns out.

Loved the system though, recommend it.

 

[proudscum]

I normally use 7 to 8 lt of water which i take to 80 oC and just pour it over the top.after a 60 min boil will end up with 25lt total volume with about 23lt in the fermenter.May have the the odd grain go into the boil but nothing to worry about.
welcome to the club mate.

 

[Malted]

Hi Wobbly,
Q1 & 2- i use beersmith with my braumeister & found it to be quite good. I haven't bothered to set it up to suit my gear exactly, but use it for recipe formulation & calculations.
Q3- I sparge though, & have never not sparged so can't really comment. A 53L mash-in/10L sparge gives about 50L (+/-1L) post boil at an efficiency of 80% using 10kg ish of grain. 12kg of grain drops efficiency to 75%

I have a 50L Braumeister coming my way and thought I'd tweak Beersmith in readiness. BS calculated a boil volume of 63L which fits perfectly with what you have said.
Here's a link to a screenshot of how I set up Beersmith for Braumeister http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...mp;#entry797478 I would appreciate any comments.

 

[bullsneck]

Have you fellas modded the filter at all? Or are you sticking with the stock standard mesh that comes with the Braumeister. Mine is a bit like a potato chip, comes up at the sides.

 

[proudscum]

Have you fellas modded the filter at all? Or are you sticking with the stock standard mesh that comes with the Braumeister. Mine is a bit like a potato chip, comes up at the sides.

i fashioned a piece of copper tube to fit inside the bottom of the malt tube to hold the cloth filter down which works well but i like marks idea of attaching the cloth to the s/s filter.so may look at this or see if i can get the new fine mesh filters that come with the newer models.i may email the maker about this.

 

[jimmysuperlative]

I brewed today with my BIAB swiss voile bag acting as the filter. My bag is of the pillow slip design and big enough to line the inside of my 50L BM ...so more than ample inside the malt pipe.
I simply cut a small slit in the bottom of the bag (enough to slip over the post). Put bottom plate in, then bag which fastens over rim of braumeister, add grain, then top plate, stirrup etc and continue as normal.
Worked well. Nearly 12kg grain bill for a Punk IPA clone and went close to targets. Efficiency was down from 80% to about 75% ...probably should've squeezed the bag?
I'll reinforce the cut with some stitching before next brew.

 

[wobbly]

Hi Mikk

Also, a pickup tube from the tap to the bottom of the brau helps alot too

To save re inventing the wheel so as to speak how did you do this and what have others done?

Cheers

Wobbly

 

[mikk]

I have a 50L Braumeister coming my way and thought I'd tweak Beersmith in readiness. BS calculated a boil volume of 63L which fits perfectly with what you have said.
Here's a link to a screenshot of how I set up Beersmith for Braumeister http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...mp;#entry797478 I would appreciate any comments.

Hmmm, not really! 53L mash-in plus 10L sparge probably equals about 55/56L pre-boil due to grain absorbtion.

And i've never had any 'stray' grain when using the fabric filter fitted with a drawstring.

 

[mikk]

Hi Mikk



To save re inventing the wheel so as to speak how did you do this and what have others done?

Cheers

Wobbly

Mark (MHB/Marks homebrew) supplied a purpose-bent stainless item which uses a very short piece of silicone hose as a kind of grommet to stay in place. It works really well, but can sometimes bump the malt tube seal off when removing the malt tube prior to boiling. A minor hassle, but i'm still happy to use the pickup every time now.

 

[schooey]

Mark (MHB/Marks homebrew) supplied a purpose-bent stainless item which uses a very short piece of silicone hose as a kind of grommet to stay in place. It works really well, but can sometimes bump the malt tube seal off when removing the malt tube prior to boiling. A minor hassle, but i'm still happy to use the pickup every time now.

Smart bloke who thought that up....

...although the original is a 1/2" SS washer tig welded to the end of a bit of strategically bent 1/2" tube. To fit it, you take the original BM ballcock out and toss it over your shoulder into that bucket of useful things that you never ever seem to use, and you put a thin silicon washer over the dip tube and insert it into the 3/4" socket on the BM. You then take a SS 1/2" x 3/4" bush and screw it into the socket, sealing and tightening the dip tube at the same time. You then take your shiny new 1/2" SS ball valve and screw it into the bush.

When we made the first one, it sat neatly in between the elements on a 50L machine, well away from the malt pipe. I guess the 20L machine is a bit different here, and that's why you're having this issue. I guess all you blokes with the inferior little machine will have to just suffer in yer jocks and put up with it...

 

[MHB]

Easy really, the Crox makes a ball joint between 20mm long piece of silicone tube and the inside of the tap mounting.
Works really well and nowhere near as complicated as the prototype some black hander came up with.
M

 

[schooey]

Easy really, the Crox makes a ball joint between 20mm long piece of silicone tube and the inside of the tap mounting.
Works really well and nowhere near as complicated as the prototype some black hander came up with.
M
View attachment 47793

Hahahaha... touche!

 

[bullsneck]

I will brew again this weekend. We'll see how it turns out, re: stray grain etc. Otherwise, I will get onto Mark at MHB and see if the fabric + drawstring makes it better.

Does anyone see any problem in using both fabric + drawstring AND the mesh filter? I'm thinking it may make the pump work a little harder perhaps.

Also, are people using rice hulls when brewing on these systems?

Edit - wrong noun