Braumeister - Tips & Tricks

[tiprya]

Nope, I get around 11-12% when I start with 27L or so (after sparging). I find boil-off decreases as your starting volume increases.

Maybe it is because of your extra elements in your 50L model? I'm using an insulated 20L model set to 102.

 

[paulmclaren11]

Fellow brewers, I have a 20ltr BM coming my way after many stove top BIABs. Was a great learning curve and definitely a great way to start learning BIAB without much $$ being spent.

I have read through most of these threads and thank everyone who provided this helpful information.

I was wondering if a 30ltr batch is possible on the 20 ltr BM? I have a house Mid APA that I am very happy with and now that the BM can take more grain I am wondering how much of this brew I can make.

My original 20 litre batch is about 3.29kg @ 75% eff - a 30 ltr batch according to Brew mate takes it up to about 4.9kg - in the realms of the 20 tr BM.

Is it just has simple as mashing in with about 25-27 litres, sparging with say 5 litres and I will end up with about 30 litres of my 3.9% beer?

Sorry if this sounds simple... but want to get my head around full volume brewing.

 

[doon]

Remember you have grain absorption and boil off. If you mash in witg 5kg of grain you'll have around 20l left before sparge.

Add 5l sparge then with boil off and trub have around 21-22l. You can always then dilute in bm with boiling water up to 30l

 

[tiprya]

Yeah, you'll want to brew over gravity, and water down in the fermenter. The 20L takes up to about 6kg of grain and gives you roughly 20L @ 1.065, so you should easily be able to get 30L at ~1.040.

Bitterness calculations will have to take into account the higher boil gravity though.

 

[Brad Churchill]

Speaking of boil off my last 2 brews have had evaporation rates of 17.7% and 18.1% per hour. This seems darn high compared to the other numbers I see folks posting on this forum. it seems more odd since I am brewing in my garage where the ambient temperature is about 10C. Maybe the insulated jacket plus setting my boil temp to 102C helps bumps this rate up. Additionally it could be I am only brewing 20L batches in my 50L BM.

Anyone else see this high an evaporation rate???

Yeah this is normal when using the 20L malt pipe in the 50L Braumeister.
It is because evaporation is related to surface area. You will find that when you do 50L batches your evaporation rate will be around 8 - 10% and this is because you have the same surface area (diameter of the kettle) when doing full or half batches.

Cheers

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

I have done larger batches on my 25l pipe and used a small amount of DME in combination with a very full pipe to get 30l at medium gravities. ~20% DME did not change have any detrimental effects on the beer.

 

[paulmclaren11]

Thanks for the replies, I guess what you are saying is basically what I was doing with my 19ltr pot BIAB method - high gravity brewing with dilution in the FV. I have been happy with these results.

I guess a bit of trial and error will be needed - I will most likely just follow the instructions to the letter for my first few and then start experimenting.

But would be good to get around 30 ltrs of my mid - either ferment the whole lot or half and half and cube some off.

About sparging, is 1lt/kg of grain a good as good basis or is 7-8 litres a better option?

 

[tiprya]

I sparge around 5-8l, but usually 6l.

My final runnings are usually still well over 1.020 sparging this much.

 

[Dan Pratt]

Here is what I do. Mash in 5kg into 27lt. End of mash remove malt pipe. Volume now is 27 - 5 = 22lt left over. Sparge 9litres at 78c giving 31lt preboil vol. Boil evapourates 18%, so 31lt - 5.6(18%)= 25.4lt post boil, 22.5 litres in FV and 2.9lt left as trub. The gravity on average is 1054. You could always Sparge more to increase final volume and lower final gravity with increasing malt bill to 6kg.

 

[crhall41]

Yeah this is normal when using the 20L malt pipe in the 50L Braumeister.
It is because evaporation is related to surface area. You will find that when you do 50L batches your evaporation rate will be around 8 - 10% and this is because you have the same surface area (diameter of the kettle) when doing full or half batches.

Cheers

Brad C - thanks for the confirmation

 

[beerkench]

There's always quite a lot of wort left with the trub in the bottom after a Braumeister brew. Do you guys strain it, leave it or do you let it go into your FV?

 

[niels]

There's always quite a lot of wort left with the trub in the bottom after a Braumeister brew. Do you guys strain it, leave it or do you let it go into your FV?

When you have a good cold break you can let the trub settle out on the bottom before tilting the Braumeister to get the most out of it.
Possibly the use of whole hops/cones will create a filter that will catch most of the trub when tilting.

Also, I don't mind a little bit of proteins in my FV as I transfer the wort in a secondary to clarify. Although trub/proteins in your FV makes washing yeast for reduce a little harder.

Niels

 

[Murdoch]

After transferring the wort to the fermenter & tilting a little to catch some more of the clean wort I then transfer the remaining wort & trub to a sanatised container & then chill overnight
The next morning all the trub has settled to the bottom with clean wort on top which I decant & add to the fermenter
This increases the yield & also really kicks the yeast off

 

[Rurik]

There's always quite a lot of wort left with the trub in the bottom after a Braumeister brew. Do you guys strain it, leave it or do you let it go into your FV?

I have a pick up tube so I am left with 3L of trube in the bottom of my 20L BM. I tip it down the drain and count it as the cost of doing business. I think it is a false economy trying to save it.

 

[beerkench]

Some of the guys on HBT dump the whole lot in to the FV. I think I will go happy medium and not mind too much if some of the grub gets in.
Cheers.

 

[beerkench]

Another Braumeister question chaps: How do you get yours clean? I often find it difficult to getting to the outside of the bottom element rings.

 

[dicko]

I chill my wort with an immersion chiller then I use the BM as a settling tank for the next 45 mins or so, and then I drain the wort into a fermenter straight from the tap.
Result is crystal clear wort and the yeast that is left after fermentation is extremely clean.
I lose around 3.5 to 4 litres trub and I gently tilt the kettle when draining to the fermenter. I allow for this loss in my brewing software.

Another Braumeister question chaps: How do you get yours clean? I often find it difficult to getting to the outside of the bottom element rings.

PBW is your friend, I soak my BM in around 10 litres of mix at 65 deg for an hour or overnite if it suits and then I get one of those dish mops that have a plastic handle and the mop part is like strands of coarse wool and give it a swish around the element paying attention to the back and undersides, then I rinse the BM, undo the pump and clean the impeller and then leave it to dry.
It comes up like new every time.

 

[doon]

Put some pbw in it with enough water to cover elements and heat to 70 degrees and leave it at that temp for 30 mins. Makes Makes mine sparkle

 

[tiprya]

Yeah, pbw every 4th or 5th brew. It makes cleaning after every other brew very easy too, I get a cloth and wrap it around the element and feed it around to get any grime off.

Does a much better job than sodium percarb that I used when I first got it, must be the extra stuff they add to it.

 

[Rurik]

Another Braumeister question chaps: How do you get yours clean? I often find it difficult to getting to the outside of the bottom element rings.

I give every thing a wipe over with a chux or a scrubbing brush to get the crud off. A quick rinse then I fill it up with water, put the malt pipe in and everything that gets sticky into it. Run it at 50 deg C with a capful of sodium percabonate for 30 min or so. Rinse it off and clean the pump. My unit has done close to 100 brews and still look great.

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

Don't use caustic. The brass pump housings don't like that.

I drag mine outside and hose out the pumps and dump it a few times to get rid of most of the hops and break, then do a PBW rinse much like what was mentioned above.

 

[DeGarre]

--- I get a cloth and wrap it around the element and feed it around to get any grime off.

---

This. From one end to another and back.

 

[Edak]

I drain the left overs into a flask and chill it and decant it. I use it as my next starter. With respect to cleaning, PBW FTW.

 

[paulmclaren11]

I finally have my 20ltr BM and loving reading this thread. Great tips on cleaning too.

I am not going to get a chance to 'pop it's cherry' for a few weeks given family/xmas events, but wanting to know if anyone uses BrewMate for their software for the 20ltr and what the brew day settings are?

I have a rough idea after reading this thread and I guess it's trial and error for the first few but if anyone has these settings this would be awesome.

Cheers.

 

[dicko]

Here are my settings in Brewmate.

It will be a starting point....your efficiencies may be different and I use the kettle volume as the batch size..25 litres. From this you will have loss to trub, chiller etc if you use my volumes.

You will love the BM

 

[dicko]

Here is a bigger pic...a little easier to read

 

[Coalminer]

Looks good, Dicko

I take it from that info that you mash with full volume and don't sparge?

What difference have you noticed from ,say, mash in with 26L and sparge/rinse with 7L (my method)

cheers

 

[dicko]

Coalminer,

I actually mash with about 24 to 25 litres and sparge with the balance amount that is predicted by the software but it makes no real difference to your calculations for the beer.

If I do a full volume mash then my efficiency drops a bit so I am happy to sparge for a few minutes to get the extra points.
It is pretty much the same as anyone doing BIAB.

Basically when I use Brewmate I am only asking for the total volume of water required for the efficiency, grain absorption and boil off settings to calculate the recipe correctly.

I hope, one day, some one will write a software program for the BM and similar machines and if suitable I would gladly pay for it.

Cheers

 

[dicko]

BTW please ignore the "Strike Water Temp" figure and the "Strike Water Litres" as this is not really applicable with the BM and I don't know why the strike water is more than the total water required.
I will go further into it when I get more time.

Cheers

 

[Mick Gramoit]

Doing my first batch on my 20l Braumeister tomorrow, extremely excited!