Braumeister - Tips & Tricks

[Blind Dog]

I think my worst one was when I tipped the grain in and then turned round to see the malt pipe sitting proudly on the kitchen bench.

I then compounded the error by lifting the BM by the handles to tip the liquor and grain into a Bunnings pale, only to find out there is a reason the manual warns you not to do it. Fortunately I mash in at 45C so I just ended up covered in about 10L of slightly sticky warm liquid and a floor to clean.

 

[Coalminer]

Make sure to acknowledge by pressing OK when asked to fill malt pipe
Its much easier and less messy if the pump is not running when adding grain

 

[Batz]

Make sure to acknowledge by pressing OK when asked to fill malt pipe
Its much easier and less messy if the pump is not running when adding grain

OK there's one I can admit too.

 

[MattSR]

Can someone tell me what the dreaded "DMS" actually is?

Cheers,
Matt

 

[brewchampion]

I've got a tip : if you loose a base plate and filter. Try looking in the trash with the waste malt
That will save you from looking all over the brewery and house.!

 

[Cervantes]

Can someone tell me what the dreaded "DMS" actually is?

Cheers,
Matt

Dimethylsulfide

Edit:

More reading here

 

[durgarth]

Has anyone done a sour mash with the Braumeister. I want to do a Berliner Weisse by mashing, reducing the temp to 40 degrees or so throwing in some unmashed grain and allowing the Lacto to do its thing for a couple of days (until sour enough), then boil and ferment.

Ideas gratefully received.

 

[WitWonder]

Make sure to acknowledge by pressing OK when asked to fill malt pipe
Its much easier and less messy if the pump is not running when adding grain

Did that at the end of the mash last time - forgot to acknowledge end of mash and started trying to remove the malt pipe full of grain. Wondering why it was so difficult to remove the butterfly nut and then staring in horror as the grain started rising above the top of the malt pipe...

 

[dicko]

OK so I must have too much time on my hands

but yesterday I decided to do a little modification that has been on my mind for a while.

I found that when I wanted to lift the top screen from the malt pipe to stir the mash I found that 9 times out of ten the wire screen would either get caught on the thread of the centre rod and drop back on top of the mash or, if using the rubber to secure it then it would dislodge the rubber and I would have to re configure the whole screen and rubber again. This usually involved having to clean all the grain from the screens for re assembly.

What I did was I went to the local marine chandlery shop and bought 4 x 5 mm stainless screws and washers and wing nuts to suit.

I measured the spacings equally around the solid plate and drilled out 4 holes to 5 mm (they are currently 3 mm).
I then got a tapered centre punch and pushed it through the light mesh screen in line with the holes that I had drilled and stopped pushing when the hole in the mesh was 5 mm.
I bolted the mesh to the solid screen and refitted my rubber seal and there you have it. A now secure screen that is relatively easy to dis assemble for cleaning but wont fall to pieces if it is lifted from the mash.

I could have bought 3 mm screws but I considered them too small to handle with my big fingers

Anyway a picture tells a thousand words.

 

[lukec]

Do you find stirring makes much difference?

OK so I must have too much time on my hands

but yesterday I decided to do a little modification that has been on my mind for a while.
I found that when I wanted to lift the top screen from the malt pipe to stir the mash I found that 9 times out of ten the wire screen would either get caught on the thread of the centre rod and drop back on top of the mash or, if using the rubber to secure it then it would dislodge the rubber and I would have to re configure the whole screen and rubber again. This usually involved having to clean all the grain from the screens for re assembly.
What I did was I went to the local marine chandlery shop and bought 4 x 5 mm stainless screws and washers and wing nuts to suit.
I measured the spacings equally around the solid plate and drilled out 4 holes to 5 mm (they are currently 3 mm).
I then got a tapered centre punch and pushed it through the light mesh screen in line with the holes that I had drilled and stopped pushing when the hole in the mesh was 5 mm.
I bolted the mesh to the solid screen and refitted my rubber seal and there you have it. A now secure screen that is relatively easy to dis assemble for cleaning but wont fall to pieces if it is lifted from the mash.
I could have bought 3 mm screws but I considered them too small to handle with my big fingers

Anyway a picture tells a thousand words.

IMG_0877.jpg

IMG_0878.jpg

 

[Dan2]

Perhaps a piece of stainless wire/strap between 2 of the screws (top side) to help with lifting the plate out.
I just took mine out to add a little roast and crystal during mash out and struggled to get a grip on it.
Wore a layer of skin off my fingers yesterday doing some net repairs so they're very sensitive to heat .... (pause to wait for sympathy ... :lol: )

 

[dicko]

I find that if I stir the grain on a large grain bill, up around 6 kg, then I get an extra point or two of OG.

With a grain bill around 5 kg it really doesn't seem to matter.
It is also handy if you want to add your roasted grains at the end of the mash.

Dan2 that is a good idea re the wire for a handle....I will have a think about that and see what I come up with.

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

I'm a little peeved at my BM and myself today.

Doing a double mash Barleywine with the small malt pipe. I tried this once before a couple years ago on a DIPA and didn't like the results, but I am giving it another go after advice from Grain and Grape to mash on the lower end of the malt pipe capacity. Today's batch is 2x5kg mashes which might still be a bit high...

I think my first mistake was doing a normal mash program with a view to interrupt it at mash-out rather than just going all out manual. I was out of the house when the mash finished and got home about 10-15 mins later with the wort pumping through and the unit beeping.

I sparged 8l (should have done 5-6 I think) with 66 degree water (mash matched) to avoid denaturing the enzymes. Doughed in the second batch, and then went to kick off the manual mash at 67...the BM unit reads 76 degrees.

ARGH WTF?!

I pulled the mash out and let the unit cool down, dropping it back in at 68, and aiming to maintain at 67. The second mash was in the mid 70s wort for about 5 minutes I think. I will know in about an hour if I get anything out of the second lot of grain!

I am at a loss to explain how this has happened. I looked back at the program:

Mash in - 38
0 min - 52
0 min - 52
90 min - 66
0 min - 68
0 min - 76
90 min - boil 101

As I didn't look at the controller temp until I doughed in the second batch, I am not sure when it climbed to 76. I only pressed the 'quit mash' not 'start boiling' as I was sparging, so I think it climbed to 76 in the ten or so minutes after the mash program finished before I came home. Anyone seen behaviour like this before?




Update: An hour into the second mash and things are going OK. Almost at my target pre-boil gravity...still interested to see what happened though!

 

[brewchampion]

I'm a little peeved at my BM and myself today.

Doing a double mash Barleywine with the small malt pipe. I tried this once before a couple years ago on a DIPA and didn't like the results, but I am giving it another go after advice from Grain and Grape to mash on the lower end of the malt pipe capacity. Today's batch is 2x5kg mashes which might still be a bit high...

I think my first mistake was doing a normal mash program with a view to interrupt it at mash-out rather than just going all out manual. I was out of the house when the mash finished and got home about 10-15 mins later with the wort pumping through and the unit beeping.

I sparged 8l (should have done 5-6 I think) with 66 degree water (mash matched) to avoid denaturing the enzymes. Doughed in the second batch, and then went to kick off the manual mash at 67...the BM unit reads 76 degrees.

ARGH WTF?!

I pulled the mash out and let the unit cool down, dropping it back in at 68, and aiming to maintain at 67. The second mash was in the mid 70s wort for about 5 minutes I think. I will know in about an hour if I get anything out of the second lot of grain!

I am at a loss to explain how this has happened. I looked back at the program:

Mash in - 38
0 min - 52
0 min - 52
90 min - 66
0 min - 68
0 min - 76
90 min - boil 101

As I didn't look at the controller temp until I doughed in the second batch, I am not sure when it climbed to 76. I only pressed the 'quit mash' not 'start boiling' as I was sparging, so I think it climbed to 76 in the ten or so minutes after the mash program finished before I came home. Anyone seen behaviour like this before?




Update: An hour into the second mash and things are going OK. Almost at my target pre-boil gravity...still interested to see what happened though!

Your sparge water thermometer is broke?

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

Your sparge water thermometer is broke?

Nah, the reading was on the BM itself. Even if I poured 76l water during the sparge (I didn't) it wouldnt have raised the mass to that temp.

 

[Blind Dog]

Your mash schedule has a 0 minute rest at 76C, so the BM will still ramp the temps up to 76C (at least mind always does). For a double mash you either need to be there to interrupt the relevant mash step or program one mash schedule to end at the main sac rest, then reprogram a second mash schedule starting at that temp to mashout

 

[doon]

Yeah you have 0 mins at a higher temp so it will go up to that.

The instructions for double mash on grain and grape facebook say first mash leave at main sacc temp second mash do a mashout

 

[Dan Pratt]

mashed in last night and the wort seemed to take ages to come up through the malt pipe.....hmmmm..... then the water on teh outside of the malt pipe was starting to become cloudy......hmmm "what is going on?"

Forgot to put the orange seal on the base of the malt pipe..... :huh:

Stopped pump, lifted malt pipe, removed the malt pipe after draining the malt pipe and rested the MP on a bucket and had to proceed to add the seal, replaced the MP to the cloudy water, transferred 2 litres via to the top of the pipe, reset filter and starter her up....PHEW!!

 

[Blind Dog]

Haven't done that one...yet!

Hopefully it's all good now?

 

[Dan Pratt]

Haven't done that one...yet!

Hopefully it's all good now?

Brew went great. Done my 2nd overnight mash with stellar results, my brew house Eff has increased 10%. I was running at low 60% for a grist of 5.6kg and now can hit 70%+ using the overnight mash profile.

mash in at 25c ( tap water temp )
180m @ 25c
180m @ 25c
20m @ 63c
30m @ 73c
90m @ 78c

Start at 9pm and all mashed in by 930. Wake up at 630, get up at 645 and beep beep mash is just finishing. If I could set it for longer than 180m per phase it would be mashed in earlier than 930. This makes my brew day including cleanup less than 4hrs and my efficiency has gone up

I have to admit the mill I'm getting grain through ( 3roller from KK set at 0.6mm - apparently 3 rollers only have 2 settings 0.3 and 0.6 as the 2 top rollers stay constant) has changed aswell so I cant give all the increase the Overnight Mash, I think that the 2 combined have seen improvements, but mainly the mash.

 

[dicko]

That is a great result Pratty.

If you can get your mill setting to 1.2mm you will easily hit the 80's % although I have a 3 roller crankenstein that is set at 1.2mm and I consistently get 77% over each brew.
Other brewers I know with adjustable two roller mills are getting the low 80's % on a normal mash.
It may be something about the three roller workings??

 

[Dan Pratt]

Yeah this three roller can only adjust the lower roller. The crush is great and has heap of full cracked husks and low flour content. When I asked about the settings he said it had only 2, that the 0.3mm is for wheat and rye for a solid grind and 0.6mm for the normal grist. Not sure how that works out but I'd imagine the top rollers are already set to at least 1.0mm

After seeing this in action my preferred purchase will be a three roller.

I lose a lot of brewhouse eff from my losses to trub, mainly because I do big hoppy beers all the time. I know I can keep the trub, chill in the fridge and get another 3lt of wort decanted off the hops and break materials but am happy with 20lts for the kegs I'm running.

So are you getting 80% brewhouse efficiency?

 

[dicko]

This efficiency thing is extremely confusing at times with Beersmith.
I am getting 77% mash efficiency....I dont bother with brewhouse efficiency.
I have got BS set at no loss to trub as I really dont care what is left in the kettle (within reason) as long as I end up with 21 litres to the fermenter and after clearing I get a corny keg full of beer with a tiny bit left in the secondary cube and the filter housing if I use it.

On the 3 roller Crankenstein, I have my gap set to 1.2 and that seems to be about the sweet spot.
I do adjust it if I use oatmalt and I run wheat and golden naked oats through twice at 1.2 as it is a pita to adjust all the time.
My mill only adjusts the bottom roller as well from memory as I am not at home at the moment to check it.
The fixed gap must be wider than 1.5 as I have had my second gap to 1.4 and it still crushed but I was down on efficiency with the BM.
On my old 3v I ran it at .9mm.
If my three roller ever wears out I will by a Mashmaster adjustable two roller mill unless anything better comes onto the market, but I think my Crank will outlast me.

 

[Dan Pratt]

This efficiency thing is extremely confusing at times with Beersmith.
I am getting 77% mash efficiency....I dont bother with brewhouse efficiency.
I have got BS set at no loss to trub as I really dont care what is left in the kettle (within reason) as long as I end up with 21 litres to the fermenter and after clearing I get a corny keg full of beer with a tiny bit left in the secondary cube and the filter housing if I use it.

Ok, I just checked my last 5 beers on the BM and my average Mash efficiency is @ 90%+, that is based on a 70% brew house Eff. The increase in 10% BHE has seen my gravity increase which means I can make bigger beers with less malt.

Interesting that you don't set the BS trub losses, for me that is how I know how much to sparge for preboil volumes.

On the design page of BS, what do you set the box below Batch Size that is called Tot Efficiency to ?

 

[dicko]

Hi Pratty,

I am working away all this week and only have phone access but when I get home I will post my figures from beersmith for you.

Cheers

 

[Wolfman]

Has anyone had issues with dough balls in the mash?

I have just stirred the mash at the halfway point and noticed there was a few dough balls in there.

Mash:
mash in 36
10min @52
60min @65 Paused the mash @ 30 mins and gave a stir. Found dough balls?
10min @72
10min@ 78

 

[tallie]

Has anyone had issues with dough balls in the mash?

Only once when I tried experimenting with "underletting", ie, filling the malt pipe, then filling BM with water, thinking that it'd slowly come up through the bottom and evenly wet the grain bed as it use to on my 3V setup. I was thinking it'd save time with mixing the grain, but found a massive dry spot at the end of the mash (LDME in the boil to the rescue!). Since then, I always mixed in and found dough balls would naturally rise to the surface more often than not at the time of mashing in.

If you have a lot of grain and a subsequently thick mash, it would probably pay to check part way through the sacc. rest as you did to make sure you didn't miss any. Either that or maybe look at using a different mash paddle.

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

I get some dough balls on thicker mashes. I usually mash in at 37 regardless of the beer, filling the grain really slowly so 70% of it soaks up in a thin mash, the final 30% gets a very good stir to try and soak through, but I always do a stir or two in the first half of the mash and oftenfind some small dough balls

 

[dicko]

Ok, I just checked my last 5 beers on the BM and my average Mash efficiency is @ 90%+, that is based on a 70% brew house Eff. The increase in 10% BHE has seen my gravity increase which means I can make bigger beers with less malt.

Interesting that you don't set the BS trub losses, for me that is how I know how much to sparge for preboil volumes.

On the design page of BS, what do you set the box below Batch Size that is called Tot Efficiency to ?

Hi Pratty,

I am working away all this week and only have phone access but when I get home I will post my figures from beersmith for you.

Cheers

Ok, home at last.

Here are my BS2 settings.
I have used these for 41 brews and every result is extremely close as far as figures go.

As you may realise, these figures are for my methods and brewery and may differ for othewr brewers however if anyone sets their BS to these figures it will get you pretty close, and then fine tune the results from there.

 

[dicko]

And here is the Design Screen for a recent recipe.



Pratty, those figures come up automatically from how I have the Equipment Profile set.

Because I have not included any losses after the boil then that makes my Mash Efficiency and my Brewhouse Efficiency the same.

The moment I include losses the Mash Efficiency stays the same but the Brewhouse efficiency drops.

Some people feel that it is important to know Brewhouse Efficiency, personally I dont because it in no way will help with repeatability of a recipe.....the only thing it tells you is how much you lose AFTER the boil.

To work out how much to sparge, take the total brewing water volume from the design screen and subtract 25 litres for the 20litre BM (top mark on the centre rod) and the result is how much water you will sparge.

From the example above Total Water = 33.70 litres you will use 25 litres for the mash by filling the BM to the top mark and then sparge 8.70 litres in this case.
With grain absorption and all other preboil losses taken into account you will note I end up with 30.4 litres pre boil for every brew I do using Beersmith with my settings.
This pre boil figure does not change from recipe to recipe but the Total Water Needed does change relative to the amount of grain required.
The boil off also never changes so you will always end up with a batch size of 25 litres if using my settings.

I hope this helps

Cheers