Braumeister - Tips & Tricks

[beerkench]

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

I think the poster meant that as a question to us having efficiency problems.

 

[Rurik]

I think the poster meant that as a question to us having efficiency problems.

In that case. If the test returns a result of that there is still starch in the mash there is a mash conversion problem. In other words not all the starch in the grain is being turned into fermentable sugar. I don't think a conversion issues is going to be an equipment problem in a BM. They are too well made & proven again and again all over the world.

I would start by looking at the grain bill and the quality of the grain. If you are buying brewing grade malt in this country I don't think you are going to have a problem unless it is old or poorly stored. The other problem could be that the recipe has too high a level of unmated starch in the recipe; Making it impossible for the enzyme to convert all the starch. I would go and get my self some fresh malt from a reputable supplier who deals in grain, I am sure you can find one at the top of this page or you could go where I go which is Marks Home Brew.

If you are still having problems converting starch with a 100% fresh malt wort. I would start to look at your water but that is the last place I would look. In this case find out what other brewers in the area are doing and why.

 

[Rurik]

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.

I mash at that temperature in the Canberra winters. Sparging does not affect your over all efficiency; over sparging* means that you may have to boil more but it does not make you efficiency less. I don't really sparg; more just displace the sweet wort out of the grain by pouring 5L of 79 Deg C water into the malt pipe and let it drain down. I am not quite sure what my gain crack is as it changes depending what what malt I am using. I try and get a good kibble that is between 1mm-1.5mm.

I think the world of efficiency is a difficult one to find out from others what to do better; it is a bit like trying to get a glass of water from a fire hose (there is way more water/info then you need). You have to work out your system and where it is going wrong. Then you can ask questions that will get you the answers you need. I was having a lot of issues re efficiency with my old 3v system this podcast changed the way I went about trying to fix it; http://ec.libsyn.com/p/7/3/4/734e88977041a79a/bbr03-26-09byoexp.mp3?d13a76d516d9dec20c3d276ce028ed5089ab1ce3dae902ea1d01c08236d9c85c94cb&c_id=1452350 from there I was able to then ask the right questions.








*A higher efficiency does not mean a better beer BTW there are other issues. Also there is also the fact of the larger the amount of water passed through the spent grains, the larger the amount of water which must be evaporated again.

 

[MastersBrewery]

on the efficiency hunt, water balance can make a huge jump in those numbers, and I mean balance not profiling Burton water or some other obscure water profile

 

[DeGarre]

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.

I am actually based quite near the arctic circle...as an example, last brew I mashed with 26L and rinsed with 7L. After the mash and before rinsing I was bang on target og 1050. After the rinse and when the boil started I had 30L in the kettle at 1044-1045 but I picked it up during the boil and ended up at 1049 ie only 1 point low. See, what you dilute in the gravity you start picking up later when you boil. I used to pick up 3-4 points but lately a bit more. I ended up with 24L into FV.

 

[Rurik]

I am actually based quite near the arctic circle...as an example, last brew I mashed with 26L and rinsed with 7L. After the mash and before rinsing I was bang on target og 1050. After the rinse and when the boil started I had 30L in the kettle at 1044-1045 but I picked it up during the boil and ended up at 1049 ie only 1 point low. See, what you dilute in the gravity you start picking up later when you boil. I used to pick up 3-4 points but lately a bit more. I ended up with 24L into FV.

Your extract efficiency has not changed at any point after the sparg is finished. It is related to the potential extract of the malt at the beginning of the boil you had 30l of 1.045 or 11.25P wort giving you 3.375kg of sugar in solution . At the end of the boil you had 24L of 1.050 or 12.5% wort giving you 3kg of sugar. Now that leaves you missing .375kg missing, I reckon that you will find it sitting in the 3l of 12.5% wort sitting in the bottom of you kettle; incidentally I lose bang on 3L to the kettle in my 20l BM . You have not gained anything back just changed the concentration of it.

 

[DeGarre]

Sure, I understand mash efficiency does not change during the boil and I do have some wort left in trub that does not go into FV. But the way I see it, even by rinsing with quite a few litres I still hit my gravity but get more beer in the end. I usually bottle 22.5-23 litres.

Sometimes I decide during the rinse or boil that I will prefer lower gravity and more beer so I might water it down, say, 1046 intended gravity to 1042. One could easily brew 30L batch with 20L BM. Adjusting hopping rates of course.

 

[beerkench]

23 litres in the bottle? Wow. I get 19 if I'm doing a beer over 1.050. Must be something in the water you have down under.

 

[DeGarre]

Using rough average figures, 29L starts to boil, into FV 23L + 1.5L into a bottle to carbonate later, 22.5L into bottles/casks. no matter what the gravity. Boil for 60 minutes, lid half on, fully off some of the boil.

 

[crhall41]

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???

 

[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