Braumeister - Tips & Tricks

[wide eyed and legless]

I will work in imperial (because it's easy) but if you think about it a bit you don't need very much out put from the pump(s) to generate a quite a lot of pressure sufficient to lift the bottom plate and the grain

On a 20lt BM the malt pipe is about 12 inches dia so that equates to close to 113 square inches so if the pump(s) only produced 1 pound pressure then the pressure on the bottom plate will be something like 113 pounds force which is proberbly enough to lift the plate and a few kilos of grain

Cheers

Wobbly

The out put of the pump is 15 k pa which is 2.175 psi but that doesn't equate to the pressure against the bottom screen because of the perforations and the space around the side of the plate, and I believe that is the pressure at the pump head.
Next time I brew Wobbly I shall check if that bottom screen does move, I would like to think that it does not.

 

[Coalminer]

Simple answer for anyone who thinks the bottom plate moves up when the pump runs-

fill the BM with water and no grain, turn on the pump, and you will find the bottom plate stays in position as the liquid is pumped through the holes.

The top plate will move up and down as the grain is pushed up and falls down during pump rests ( to allow the grain to loosen up and prevent/minimise channeling)

It doesn't have to fall down but need to be reasonably loose (otherwise Spiedel would have it fixed in place) to allow easy removal.

 

[lylo]

when you forget to put in the base plate and mesh screen...as we all may of done once or twice..cough cough...lol. :unsure:

grab your esky and start removing all the the grain with a kitchen strainer that you normally use for your noodles and when you have most of the grain removed, decant the rest into the esky...including the water ( i imagine you have an esky like i did )....give the rig a hose out.

Replace with malt pipe inc screen and mesh and then transfer the malt to the pipe and the water that went into the esky....fill woth more water as required...then continue.

when it happend to me...made an awesome dunkelweizen!

I have kept all of my old BIAB bags and will attest that they worked very well (both times) :angry2: for seperating the grains for reuse.

A 5 gal plastic bucket supports my 20l on the side pegs perfectly for spargeing.

 

[Dan Pratt]

Is anyone using a rotating Sparge arm?

 

[whitegoose]

I've just bought a Braumeister and will be doing her maiden brew this weekend. I've done a water-only run to get the hang of it but that;s it.

After reading the latter pages of this thread I'm paranoid about grain getting past the top filter - I can see there is a gap between the edge of the plate and the malt pipe... Initially I mistakenly bought a spare malt pipe seal from Craftbrewer thinking it was a seal/edge for the filter plate. I cut that to the right length and it would be perfect, except it is too fat and the plate won't go into the malt pipe without really forcing it.

So I went to Clark Rubber and bought some plain black rubber edging which fits much better... I asked the guy who served me if it was food safe and what type of rubber it was - he said he didn;t know, and that it was probably just natural rubber. Great help there.

Does anybody have any idea about whether I should be using that plain black rubber edging in my wort?

Or feel free to jump in if you strongly feel that sealing the edge of the filter plate is unneccesary!

 

[alcoadam]

Don't worry about the seal and don't fuss over a few grains getting out.

The gap you mentioned is probably smaller than you think, the mirror image of that fresh stainless is playing tricks on u.... :lol:

 

[whitegoose]

Just what I was hoping to hear! When I was looking at the gap the reflection was breaking my mind. Reckon I'll give it a go with no seal and see how it turns out.

Assuming a few grains get out - should I be taking the filter apart and cleaning it out after a brew? My Braumeister is the first system I've ever had with a pump so I don't know a lot about looking after them.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

A few grains getting past won't hurt, the pump impeller can move to allow any bits to get through, I personally wouldn't be using industrial rubber as a seal don't worry about it and get a few brews done before you start thinking of any changes.
Use the rubber you bought from Cark to cover the sharp edge of the feet.

 

[Thefatdoghead]

What practices do other BM owners use to settle the trub at the end of the boil. I don't and never really have got a trub cone no matter how hard I try and I understand that in relation to pot size wider is better than narrower because of the dynamics involved.

Also in post 14 of the Whirl Pool topic Floran mentions that he has stopped whirl pooling and just lest the trub settle to the bottom and then because of the height of the tap from the bottom draws off most of the wort until near the bottom and then slowly tilts the BM to get a bit more out

What do others do and in particular those with 20lt BM's

Cheers



Wobbly

I usually end up with 1 to 2 litres of trub in the 50 litre Braumeister.
I use a hop sock if I'm doing a IPA, or anything with a fair amount of hops. At the end of boil I whirlpool for a good 3 to 4 minutes. Let it settle for 20 minutes then start pumping through the cooler.
I made a small pickup tube that fits in the outlet. The pickup tube has a piece of silicone tube around it that fits snugly in the BM outlet.
When I do this I get a deffinit hop cone (when 0 minute addition isn't in the hop sock) after all the wort has been collected. I pore the trub into my 5 litre jug and collect around 1.5 to 2 litres and a good litre of that is just thick trub.

 

[whitegoose]

Maiden brew complete - and I have to agree - a rubber seal on the top filter plate is unneccesary. I got absolutely minimal stray grains, definitely no whole grains just a few bits and pieces that was not really eny different to what used to find it;s way through my BIAB bag.

On a side note - the boil is absolutely pathetic. In fact according to the display my boil period never actually made it to 100 degrees, and spent most of it;s time dancing between 98 and 99... it was boiling... but only just. Lucky I did a 90 minute boil.

Other than that complaint it seriously wqas a dream to use. I think I'm in love.

 

[Crusty]

Maiden brew complete - and I have to agree - a rubber seal on the top filter plate is unneccesary. I got absolutely minimal stray grains, definitely no whole grains just a few bits and pieces that was not really eny different to what used to find it;s way through my BIAB bag.

On a side note - the boil is absolutely pathetic. In fact according to the display my boil period never actually made it to 100 degrees, and spent most of it;s time dancing between 98 and 99... it was boiling... but only just. Lucky I did a 90 minute boil.

Other than that complaint it seriously wqas a dream to use. I think I'm in love.

I was trying to decide whetether the rubber seal was worth it or not but I'm not going to bother getting one.
The boil is very gentle, even with the thermo jacket I have on mine. I assumed the boil would be a bit more vigorous but it's not.
Fear not though, it's definitly boiling & according to my digital temp probe, the boil reads 99.7-100deg. The display unit like yours, danced between 99-98deg & back to 99 again & mine never made it to 100deg either. It's a little hard to get used to coming from a 32jet Mongolian & then the Urn to the BM.

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

On a side note - the boil is absolutely pathetic. In fact according to the display my boil period never actually made it to 100 degrees, and spent most of it;s time dancing between 98 and 99... it was boiling... but only just. Lucky I did a 90 minute boil.

Where do you live? Water boils lower depending on altitude.

 

[tiprya]

Make sure it is out of the wind, that can kill the boil.

Even with the anaemic boil, I still get plenty of boil-off over 90 minutes.

If I want to boil stronger half-covering with the lid picks it up significantly.

 

[whitegoose]

Where do you live? Water boils lower depending on altitude.

Perth - so I think I'm probably about as close to sea-level as you can get

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

Perth. Hmm.

I had some concerns about my elements and wrote to Spiedel. They were pretty good. Pretty sure I posted this already 20 pages ago, but for what its worth:

I first noticed a potential problem a couple weeks ago when I decided to do a boil off test using plain water. See this video:

It looks like the inside element is firing much stronger on one side - bigger bubbles than on the other side. There don't seem to be any bubbles coming off the larger element at all. I suspect this has been happening for a while but I couldn't see it until I tried with clear water.

Normally I boil at 98/99 degrees because of the altitude here in Canberra, but today I decided to see what I could do at 101 or 102, but the braumeister just couldn't get above 98 degrees with the lid off (I always take the lid off above 95 after getting a boilover once). It is a cold winters day here, but I do have the jacket, so would expect to be able to hit 100+.

In looking at my boil today, I saw similar issues to the video above - just one side bubbling and lots of hot break collecting on the other side.

[SIZE=small]Could you please feel with your fingers if the heating element heats up or not. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]Do this when its covered with water. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=small]It is not possible that the heating element heating only in parts. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]It heats up all or nothing. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=small]Please fill up 50 ltr of water and see how much °C you grow in one minute. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]It should be 0.6 to 0.7 per minute. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=small]Because of the altitude of Canberra (550m) a temperature more then 99°C is hard to reach.[/SIZE]

I tried this and met those numbers. With a lid on I could cause a boilover but could not get it above 99 degrees. Unlike Crusty, my thermapen always matches my BM exactly. I got back to Ralf mentioning that one element felt hotter both to my hands and then when they got too hot to my thermapen...

[SIZE=small]The inner heating element has 2000 watts with a smaller surface like the outer element which has 1200 watts. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]That explains why they feel different hot. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=small]The heating rate seem s to be ok. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]And if you cover with a lid there will be some small pressure which allows a harder boil. (physical phenomenon).[/SIZE]

[SIZE=small]I can’t assess if the unit is slightly uneven. But if its is it will not be in context with the one side boiling. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=small]We also determine at our test units, that the boil is on one side harder. But I can not say why that happens. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=small]All in all I would say it’s nothing really strange.[/SIZE]

 

[Crusty]

Perth. Hmm.

I had some concerns about my elements and wrote to Spiedel. They were pretty good. Pretty sure I posted this already 20 pages ago, but for what its worth:





I tried this and met those numbers. With a lid on I could cause a boilover but could not get it above 99 degrees. Unlike Crusty, my thermapen always matches my BM exactly. I got back to Ralf mentioning that one element felt hotter both to my hands and then when they got too hot to my thermapen...

My boil is pretty identical.
Mine seems to be more aggressive on the right side compared to the left but I'm certain it's the nature of the beast.
It's nothing to worry about, it's definitly boiling.

 

[Dan Pratt]

Mine boils on the element from 12-4pm....that's not a metaphore either. Always wondered why its not boiling all the way around. 20lt rig.

 

[bookworm1707]

Just a thought for those guys getting a lot of grain in the boil. The solid plate has a tube on it. This should face up for the top and bottom plate.

I May be stating the obvious and if so I am sorry but just in case. If the top plate was the wrong way up it may sit too high and leave too much gap. I have never had issues with grain escaping. 20l version.

 

[Batz]

I've had my BM close to 3 years now, when I bought it from Marks Home Brew he supplied this thing. I use the fine mesh on my bottom screen only and this on the top, Ive tried both but this wins hands down, the extra material around the edge ensures a good seal on the malt pipe.
It looks a little stained after ship loads of brews.
I would like to find someone to make these up and have a draw string around the center tube as well. They really do work well.


Batz

 

[whitegoose]

I've had my BM close to 3 years now, when I bought it from Marks Home Brew he supplied this thing. I use the fine mesh on my bottom screen only and this on the top, Ive tried both but this wins hands down, the extra material around the edge ensures a good seal on the malt pipe.
It looks a little stained after ship loads of brews.
I would like to find someone to make these up and have a draw string around the center tube as well. They really do work well.


Batz

Yeah I reckon that would just about make the seal perfect. I'd probably still use the steel mesh as well.