Braumeister - Tips & Tricks

[crhall41]

Soft water is not necessarily ideal brewing water, you're just lucky that its easier to add than take away.

Without derailing this thread with water chemistry, of which I only have a minimal understanding anyway....water treatment can get your pH to the right level and help your efficiency significantly. I live in Canberra with very soft water and have noticed improvements to my efficiency and the taste of my beers with the right salt selection (calcium sulfate for hoppy beers for instance can really make the hops sing).

Check out this water calculator: http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash-chemistry-and-brewing-water-calculator/ Put in your water supply info and compare it to the style of beer you're making - I suspect you'll find a good reason to treat.

Funny I used this water calculator and it suggested some salt additions for the winter ale I am planning to brew. So while having a pint at a local microbrewery (10 bbl system) I asked the bartender if they did the same - he stated 'no', all they do is filter their water to get rid of residual chlorine. They brew a few different types of beer there: Porters, high gravity ales, ISAs, hefs, etc., and all I have tasted have been great. Now I am wondering again if I should mess with these additions. i probably will at least once if there is a chance it will help with pH and efficiency.

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

What's the local micro and how do they rate beyond their walls?

 

[Camo1234]

Hi Guys

First brew on my 50l BM yesterday and man I wish I made the move earlier!!!! Such an easy brew day, quick and simple and I even looked after the baby while the wife went out so the $3,500 is even a good investment in her eyes now!

I did my first brew using the short malt pipe and all seemed to go well.... I mashed in with 25l but that didn't seem to cover the element enough for my liking so I added another 5ltrs and all went well.... What do you guys usually mash in with when using the short malt pipe and an approx 5kg grain bill?

Another question is when the pump is running should you see the wort bubbling towards the back of the vessel as though the pump is pushing liquid outside of the malt pipe?? I am just not sure if I had it positioned properly... Wort was recirculating out the top of the malt pipe but just not sure if it was enough flow.

So glad I made the move as I was getting to the point with the 3v where I was putting off brew days but now I want to brew more!

Cameron

 

[zoigl]

G'day Cameron
Congratulations on you new BM, I enjoy using mine.
The wort should not bubble outside the malt pipe, the seal may have come off your small pipe or the pipe could be misplaced in relation to the pump vents. Check where the pump inlet/outlets are in relation to the pipe before adding any grain, or do a test fit. Did you screw the pipe down really tight?
I don't use a small pipe tho. I figure that if I am using a day to make beer, then I should make 50l. Actually, I get 42 L into my kegs.
Good luck with your brewing

 

[Camo1234]

Yep I had it screwed down tight but I reckon there was a small leak there somewhere... The wort did clear up but it took a while to get there as the recirculation was pretty slow..... Might give it a burl with just water next.

 

[niels]

I had an e-mail conversation with Ralf from Speidel. The 20L uses 23L water for maisch in. The 25L (short malt pipe) should use at least 28L.

Niels

 

[Camo1234]

Nice! Cheers Niels..... I hadn't seen any chat about the short malt pipe so wasn't sure how much to use.

 

[Dan Pratt]

Today Im going to try an fuller volume mash on my 20L. mash in 5kg with 27lts of water, start the pump and then another 3 litres which should bring it to just below the top of the malt pipe. when it stops for a break it should be flooded. this will reduce the sparge to only 5 litres. see how it goes.

 

[DeGarre]

I had an e-mail conversation with Ralf from Speidel. The 20L uses 23L water for maisch in. The 25L (short malt pipe) should use at least 28L.

Niels

20L uses 26L easy which is the top marking on the rod.

 

[DeGarre]

Today Im going to try an fuller volume mash on my 20L. mash in 5kg with 27lts of water, start the pump and then another 3 litres which should bring it to just below the top of the malt pipe. when it stops for a break it should be flooded. this will reduce the sparge to only 5 litres. see how it goes.

I'll be interested to know the results because I once mashed with 28L and when I lifted the malt pipe the grain flooded out from the bottom and I had to clean and re-mash. Could've been unrelated though but since then I haven't mashed with more than 26L.

 

[niels]

Nice! Cheers Niels..... I hadn't seen any chat about the short malt pipe so wasn't sure how much to use.

In the manual only the minimum mash in amount is given for the 20L and 50L. Since I mainly wanted to use the 25L malt pipe I immediately contacted Speidel about this. They should add it to the manual or the small instruction paper that comes with the short malt pipe.
20L uses 26L easy which is the top marking on the rod.

I meant the minimum amount of mash in water as this important to make sure the pumps don't run dry.

Niels

 

[dicko]

I had an e-mail conversation with Ralf from Speidel. The 20L uses 23L water for maisch in. The 25L (short malt pipe) should use at least 28L.Niels

Are those figures before grain absorption or after grain absorption or doesn't it matter due to the grain displacing some of the volume anyway....now I will be thinking about this all day

 

[Dan Pratt]

I'll be interested to know the results because I once mashed with 28L and when I lifted the malt pipe the grain flooded out from the bottom and I had to clean and re-mash. Could've been unrelated though but since then I haven't mashed with more than 26L.

It went quite well. I measure in 30lts of water and then removed the 3Lts into a 5Lt jug ( to get my usual 27lt mash in volume ) . I mashed in 5 kg of malt @ 20c and then started the pump. As the water started to flow over the top of the malt pipe I added back the 3 Lts.

The pump break happened and the water level was just below the curve of the malt pipe during the break. When it got to mash out temp the water level was pretty even acorss the malt pipe when it had it rest, while running it had about 2-3mm from the top of the malt pipe to flow over.

With the results I got im likley to always do a higher volume mash. I also found that the runnings from the 2 x 2.5lt sparges were at gravitys of 1.029 and 1.025. Usually the I run 3 x 3 lts and get 1.026, 1.016 & 1.010.

 

[crhall41]

My last brew (2nd time on the BM) came in at an unimpressive 65% mash efficiency. To up this efficiency I am going to try the following on my next brew:

- condition my grain bill with 2-3% water the night before.
- mill my grain with my newly purchased Monster 2 roller maltmill (thinking 1-1.2 mm)
- use BrewTarget to determine my mash tun and sparge water volumes.
- stir my mash 3-4 times during the mash cycle.

I thought I would do a report out after my 3rd brew with BM50. Before I get into the numbers here is what I did different than last time.

- used BeerToolsPro to design my recipe (nice app but not intuitive for beginners)
- conditioned my grain bill at 2% night before (really helped reduce the dust during milling )
- milled my grist at 1.21mm (crunchy grind that produced a bit of flour - may do 1.4mm next time)
- stirred my mash before sparging (determined too much a pain to do during the mash cycle)
- did a 2 step yeast starter at 1.5L each using a stirplate (fermentation is cranking now at 12 hours)

My winter ale OG of 1.075 was a fairly high OG to shoot for given my previous poor showings but I went for it anyways. My recipe called for 7.3kg of grist for my 19L batch but using the short malt pipe could not hold that much so I decided to cut back the 2-row 33% and add DME during the boil. Good that I did this because I was at the load limit of the pipe at 5.5kg. After doing some reading on mash schedules I realized it there was a lot of different thoughts out there, but I had to make a choice so I went with 55C-10m/63C-60m/68C-20m/72C-30m/78C-10m. I went with the longer mash to get the best attenuation. Also read on some AHB post that a longer B amylase rest was good for higher OG brews so I went with it! My boil time was 90 minutes.

I am very please to say that I hit my targets pretty spot on. I hit my pre-boil, pre-DME target of 1.047, my mash efficiency was 77%, and my brewhouse efficiency was 79% (at least that is what I think the efficiency number is in BTP - it did not say in the user guide). With the added 0.5kg of amber DME this will bump me up to an OG of 1.075 and a ABV of 7.4%.

Needless to say cleanup was relatively easy with the BM. i love that there is no hoses, clamps, valves, etc to clean. I am very pleased with the results this time around. Now if I can only get my corny's to not leak

thanks again for all the great BM discussion on AHB.

cheers, Chris

 

[crhall41]

I had an e-mail conversation with Ralf from Speidel. The 20L uses 23L water for maisch in. The 25L (short malt pipe) should use at least 28L.

Niels

I put in 25L in my last batch and the BM50 circulated fine with the short malt pipe. I will try 28L next time as I would like to bump my final volume up a bit more. Thanks for sharing this info from Ralf at Speidel :lol:

 

[DeGarre]

For those who sparge/rinse on an upside-down turned lid on top of two buckets...don't experiment with fast flood rinsing. The slit where the wort runs through to the bucket gets clogged with grain and when you lift the malt pipe the wort floods onto the lid and floor. Grain everywhere and the wort needs to be filtered before going to the kettle. Still managed 87% ME.

 

[beerkench]

All you Aussie chaps appear to be getting top efficiency out of your Braumeisters, when I'm only getting around 70-72% total according to Beersmith.
I wonder if it's the warm weather you have making it easier on the Braumeister itself (My brew room's around 6 C at the moment).
I have a 20L BM and mash in with 25L and can sparge with around 2.5-3L. If I sparge with anymore then my pre boil OG starts to sink below the target.
I sparge slowly, at the right temp and my grain is crushed at 1mm. I usually end up with 19-20L in the bucket.
Wonder how I could improve it.

 

[cliffo]

I have the 50L and experience the same problem as you re sparging reducing the pre boil OG.

I can only assume it has to do with channeling of the sparge water even though I stir the grain after pulling the malt pipe out and pour the water 1L at a time with the filter plate on top of the grain.

I've had mine for 11 months and really should start taking some solid notes to pin point the problem.

Keen to hear others views on this.

 

[djar007]

What does an iodine test reveal?

 

[Rurik]

What does an iodine test reveal?

The presence of starch in the mash, when it has all been converted the iodine will not change colour.


http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Iodine_test