Braumeister - Tips & Tricks

[Dan Pratt]

hi,

on a seprate BM question - how do you guys clean the internal area of the kettle??

Mine has this brown staining in the lower section of the kettle that could be removed with steel wool with a little scrubbing, would that be ok?

Dan

 

[Florian]

Add some PBW (or sod Perc) and water to the vessel and heat to 70 degrees, leave for an hour or even less.

Will make it look like brand new.

 

[Kranky]

Add some PBW (or sod Perc) and water to the vessel and heat to 70 degrees, leave for an hour or even less.

Will make it look like brand new.

Don't forget to run the pump when you do this.

 

[Batz]

Don't use steel wool!

It will ruin your stainless steel and promote rust. See Florian's post above, I do this every few brews to keep it sparkling.

Batz

 

[Florian]

Don't forget to run the pump when you do this.

Yep, always, that's just so obvious to me that I didn't think of pointing it out, although I should have.

So thanks for pointing it out.

EDIT: Added quote

 

[Dan Pratt]

righto - so 20 litres of water and sodium perc, pump on and heat to 70c, run for up to an hour.... cheers

when its on manual heat mode can i set the temp?

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

when its on manual heat mode can i set the temp?

You can. Similar to setting recipes.

I've not used steel wool, but even the edge of my chiller or the upside down malt pipe have done their fair share of scratching during cleaning.

Also a big no no - Caustic Soda. Should be fine...stainles....oh wait...the pump housing are brass....

 

[Florian]

righto - so 20 litres of water and sodium perc, pump on and heat to 70c, run for up to an hour.... cheers

when its on manual heat mode can i set the temp?

Yes, you can, pump runs up to 90 degrees or so.

Also, I often only fill just above the elements and use a plastic bristle brush from the kitchen to clean the rest.

I don't care as much anymore how clean it looks from the inside, it's more the elements I want cleaned.

But it does look just gorgeous when the whole vessel is sparkling and shiny. :icon_drool2:

EDIT: One day I will learn to quote right from the start...

 

[Thefatdoghead]

7 litters lost to 10kg of grain. Ill lose 1 litter per kg of grain. We have the same machine don't we?

 

[Florian]

But maybe not the same grain. Also depends on how long you drain the malt pipe.

 

[mikk]

7 litters lost to 10kg of grain. Ill lose 1 litter per kg of grain. We have the same machine don't we?

I'm not trying to trick you. I take detailed notes, & that's what I've recorded.

I usually get my grain from MHB. If you think you're getting a good crush on a mill at home, or from the mill at your LHBS, think again. MHB's mill is the ****, & unless you're prepared to spend $10k on a similar machine, that may well account for a lot of the difference in water retention.

As florian has suggested, draining time is a big player too. Leaving the malt pipe over a bowl to drain til near the end of the boil will always result in at least a litre or 2 to add back.

We have the same machine, of course, but that's no guarantee that we will make the same beer, or in the same way. Half the fun is trying new things each time & finding what works best for you. Mash temp, mash time, sparging technique, sparge temp, mash agitation, grain type, grain crush, water chemistry etc add so many variables that there will always be differences between BM users.

 

[Thefatdoghead]

I'm not trying to trick you. I take detailed notes, & that's what I've recorded.

I usually get my grain from MHB. If you think you're getting a good crush on a mill at home, or from the mill at your LHBS, think again. MHB's mill is the ****, & unless you're prepared to spend $10k on a similar machine, that may well account for a lot of the difference in water retention.

As florian has suggested, draining time is a big player too. Leaving the malt pipe over a bowl to drain til near the end of the boil will always result in at least a litre or 2 to add back.

We have the same machine, of course, but that's no guarantee that we will make the same beer, or in the same way. Half the fun is trying new things each time & finding what works best for you. Mash temp, mash time, sparging technique, sparge temp, mash agitation, grain type, grain crush, water chemistry etc add so many variables that there will always be differences between BM users.

 

[Thefatdoghead]

I'm not trying to trick you. I take detailed notes, & that's what I've recorded.

I usually get my grain from MHB. If you think you're getting a good crush on a mill at home, or from the mill at your LHBS, think again. MHB's mill is the ****, & unless you're prepared to spend $10k on a similar machine, that may well account for a lot of the difference in water retention.

As florian has suggested, draining time is a big player too. Leaving the malt pipe over a bowl to drain til near the end of the boil will always result in at least a litre or 2 to add back.

We have the same machine, of course, but that's no guarantee that we will make the same beer, or in the same way. Half the fun is trying new things each time & finding what works best for you. Mash temp, mash time, sparging technique, sparge temp, mash agitation, grain type, grain crush, water chemistry etc add so many variables that there will always be differences between BM users.

I realize your not trying to trick anyone I'm just trying to get my head around how different the absorption rate is. I do let my grain sit over a bucket for the whole boil after sparging and I seem to get maybe another litter out of the spent grain. So grain and grain crush does make a huge difference in absorption rates.
I use a crankenstein 3 roller mill but can't remember the crush. Might try order some off Mark and see what I get. Ide love to not have to sparge those 3 extra litters. Thanks for the info.

 

[stakka82]

For the record, No tip, at ambient temp my tie markings are 5 litres out also, I figure it must be to account for deadspace.

 

[pmunny]

Leaving the malt pipe over a bowl to drain til near the end of the boil will always result in at least a litre or 2 to add back.

Could this not bring on infections?

 

[Dan Pratt]

Today I tried to do a DOUBLE batch with my 20 Litre BM - run 2 malt bills to make a big beer.

Had 8.3kg of malt and was aiming for a 1090 beer. ( set beer smith at 75%, actaully hit 65% and should have used another kg of malt to get target )

Set the BM to mash in at 20c and then run for 60 mins @ 65 and then 75 mins @ 67 with the second lot of malt.

After the 65c rest, I paused and pulled the pipe, sparged with 4 litres (2 x 2 litres) over about 30 mins and the washed up and re-loaded the malt pipe.

I pretty much split the grain bill into 2 x 4.15 kg lots ( next time 2 x 5kg for a bigger beer, but this was the first attempt )

When the 67c rest for 75 mins was done it went on for a 72c/10 and mash out at 76c for 15 mins, pulled malt pipe and sparged for 45 mins.

My preboil Gravity was bang on for Beersmith 2.0 at 1.068, wasnt sure how the 105min boil ( dont ask ) would get me to 1.090.......

got my target 20lt into FV but fell short and made 1.078, which in turn increased my hops by 8ibu :lol:

Something interesting that nearly seen me lose my sh*t......oh and the beer.........when it came time to transfer from the BM to the FV......the white sleeve on the BM tap turned when I turned the tap and the wort would NOT come out the tap....WTF, I mean seriously WTF???..........at first I thought the hops had clogged the hole ( 195g of hops on an Imperial IPA ) after a mental fuse went of I calmed down and tried to get the beer out of the BM - this required undoing the tap with one hand, holding the FV in the other and wooshca - flowing wort streaming into the FV, with about 500mls of wort/hops debris onto the ground etc etc.....FM. h34r:

time to upgrade to a 1/2inch ball valve.

 

[Florian]

You could've gotten there easier, Pratty.

I got a whole cube of 1.094 wort yesterday. There were 800g of dark brown sugar in there, take that out and you're at 1.080, but with a single mash, and closer to 22L in the cube as well.

6.8kg of grain, 3.7kg of that wheat, no rice hulls, no problems.

Mash in at 15, then 44/20, 54/15, 63/8, 71/60, 77/15.

 

[stakka82]

Something interesting that nearly seen me lose my sh*t......oh and the beer.........when it came time to transfer from the BM to the FV......the white sleeve on the BM tap turned when I turned the tap and the wort would NOT come out the tap....WTF, I mean seriously WTF???..........at first I thought the hops had clogged the hole ( 195g of hops on an Imperial IPA ) after a mental fuse went of I calmed down and tried to get the beer out of the BM - this required undoing the tap with one hand, holding the FV in the other and wooshca - flowing wort streaming into the FV, with about 500mls of wort/hops debris onto the ground etc etc.....FM. h34r:

time to upgrade to a 1/2inch ball valve.

I had this happen the other day when cleaning and thank god only had about 10 litres of water in the BM.

The poor design of that tap is the only thing I don't like about the BM. I'm going to get parts for a new tap on friday, no way am I going to risk that happening on brew day, and no ******* way with 50l of wort.

Has anyone replaced the tap on a 50l? I think the female thread is bigger than the 20l and I have no idea what parts to get cause I am absolutely hopeless at plumbing/building stuff.

 

[Dan Pratt]

I had this happen the other day when cleaning and thank god only had about 10 litres of water in the BM.

The poor design of that tap is the only thing I don't like about the BM. I'm going to get parts for a new tap on friday, no way am I going to risk that happening on brew day, and no ******* way with 50l of wort.

Has anyone replaced the tap on a 50l? I think the female thread is bigger than the 20l and I have no idea what parts to get cause I am absolutely hopeless at plumbing/building stuff.

Im going to take the tap into the LHBS were i bough the rig and so hopefully that relays back to Germany and they stop using the white sleeve and come up with a better tap with a bigger hole.

Im not sure of the actual thread size but Im sure that the 20 and 50's are the same?

 

[Dan Pratt]

You could've gotten there easier, Pratty.

I got a whole cube of 1.094 wort yesterday. There were 800g of dark brown sugar in there, take that out and you're at 1.080, but with a single mash, and closer to 22L in the cube as well.

6.8kg of grain, 3.7kg of that wheat, no rice hulls, no problems.

Mash in at 15, then 44/20, 54/15, 63/8, 71/60, 77/15.

Florian you legend B)

Ive been planning a 7kg Challenge on the 20 lt BM to see how it would cope.......you have clearly made a big beer with a simple sugar addition. Im not one for using sugars but if I can get 1080 out of 7kg of malt then Im in the Imperial IPA range and if need be can make that sugar addition for higher, without a double mash. The double mash made it a 9 hrs brew day

Double mash = double sparging which always takes about 90mins to 2hrs on brew day..could probably do it quicker but
when ever i have i missed the target OG.

Can you tell me what was your starting volume in the BM, Sparge Vol and Method and Boil Length?

WIth 5.5kg i normally start with 27 ltrs, sparge 8litres ( 4 x 2ltrs or 3 x 2.7 ) and boil for 90 mins - getting 22 litres in the FV