Braumeister - Tips & Tricks

[Batz]

I would have thought that as the rubber from Clarkes has a temp resistance up to 130c that a mash of 66c would be pretty safe? I could be wrong....

I have used mine a few times and never felt it was imparting anything. I was going to go for swiss voile and some elastic to secure it around the malt pipe and the elastic had more 'rubber' smell than the Clark stuff I have so I never used it.

What do they treat the swiss voile with? Is it meant to be food safe?

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Swiss voile is safe it is just cotton,a natural product, I would stick to the non dyed though, just had a look on Clark Rubber they only list one item as non toxic and that is the kiddies playmats.
As for Batz thumbnails there are a lot more, the food containers, how many times have we taken an Indian or Chinese home, talking about takeaway food, and stuck it in the microwave, also covering something with gladwrap and microwaving it not good practice.
I had a guy who worked for me had a metal plate in his head, we had to keep him away from the microwave when it was on, if he got to close he would piss himself and forget who he was

 

[Edak]

Swiss voile is usually nylon when you buy it from Spotlight. I don't think that's an issue because it's not killed me yet.

 

[Batz]

I'm a bit the same, I did buy some seal rubber to try but there is no way it will fit my 50lt. Even with the malt pipe out of the BM it's just to tight. The amount of grain that does escape is very minimal so I think I'll just carry on regardless.

Ok so I visited MHB on my travels and he showed me the sealing rubber, what I bought is not the same. The rubber I have is very similar, but perhaps .5 of a mm larger, so 1 mm on the diameter, that'll do it!

Batz

 

[tateg]

Ok so I visited MHB on my travels and he showed me the sealing rubber, what I bought is not the same. The rubber I have is very similar, but perhaps .5 of a mm larger, so 1 mm on the diameter, that'll do it!

Batz

You didn't happen to get a photo of it did u batz?

 

[Batz]

Dicko posted a photo back in this thread.

 

[MHB]

Guys, I looked at rubber pretty seriously before I settled on one, its an EDPM rubber and under 150oC its pretty benign. you have to heat it until it starts to vaporise before there are any serious issues with volatiles.
The same rubber is widely used in heat exchanger seals in the brewing industry, but feel free to Google up a couple of MSDS and decide for your self if its a matter for concern, I'm not trying to make anyone use it tho I do myself - and I don't reuse PET bottles.
Personally I'm much more concerned about the amount of DDT in some Eastern European hops than I am about EDPM rubber, enough, look for your self and make a decision based on the facts.
Mark

 

[whitegoose]

Do you still sell them mate?

 

[MHB]

Not really, I include one free with new Braumeisters, the trouble with selling them is that I've never made a secret of where I get the rubber from, if I mark it up even to cover GST and the cost of driving to Clarke Rubber - I'm a robbing ******* for not selling it at "cost" and if I don't mark it up I'm going backwards. What you call a classic no win situation.
Mark

 

[DeGarre]

Very weird thing happened today when I started brewing, first time I ever had a scare with BM. The light didn't come on when I plugged it in, then it started flashing without anything showing on the screen. I disconnected the wiring then connected again, nothing and some flashing. Then it just came on as normal except it took almost 10 minutes to key in the values because the buttons were super sensitive to the touch and I was skipping many entries all the time.

My one explanation is there was some moisture somewhere in the connections. Or, BM was sulking as it has been a few weeks since the last brew. Seems like there was a reboot in the system because of the sensitivity to the buttons.

Everything seems normal now. An old saying "if you want to panic, panic early" still holds.

 

[paulmclaren11]

Glad all is well in the world again mate - I would panic too.

I think I have read somewhere else someone experiencing this - not sure what the outcome was.

 

[real_beer]

I had a guy who worked for me had a metal plate in his head, we had to keep him away from the microwave when it was on, if he got to close he would piss himself and forget who he was

Clark Griswold's brother-in-law Eddie had his metal plate swapped for a plastic one because of something similar I believe.

 

[DeGarre]

Very weird thing happened today when I started brewing, first time I ever had a scare with BM. The light didn't come on when I plugged it in, then it started flashing without anything showing on the screen. I disconnected the wiring then connected again, nothing and some flashing. Then it just came on as normal except it took almost 10 minutes to key in the values because the buttons were super sensitive to the touch and I was skipping many entries all the time.

My one explanation is there was some moisture somewhere in the connections. Or, BM was sulking as it has been a few weeks since the last brew. Seems like there was a reboot in the system because of the sensitivity to the buttons.

Everything seems normal now. An old saying "if you want to panic, panic early" still holds.

The following brew and almost the same happened. When I connected the power lead. for a few minutes the power didn't come on at all. Then it started flashing again. After almost 10 minutes it just started working as normal, no problems from then on.

Very strange, I'll email Ralf at Speidel who sold my BM to me and ask him if I need a new box and if he's come across this before. 68 brews in exactly 3 years without a hitch. Perhaps where the lead goes has had some sticky malt or something...

 

[DeGarre]

Very fast reply again from Ralf, it is the capacitor (16v, 1000uf). Got instructions how to take out the pc-board and the capacitor is indeed like a small hill, not flat. One project that I will not take on is how to learn to solder those tiny things, so I'll send it to Speidel for them to fix.

Alas no burton ale this week...top marks for customer service though, no wonder the German economy is steamrolling all the other EU countries...

 

[DeGarre]

I'll send the whole control box to Speidel and they will change the capacitor and check everything and put in a new updated software etc. The whole electronics works.

Then when I get it back I will:

Brew another 70 x 24L of beer the next 3 years. Did some math. 1680L = 3360 x 0.5L "pints". 5090 x 0.33L bottles. Let's put some Finnish beer prices into the picture. From a shop 0.33L bottles at average 3.5 euros per bottle - and this is very conservative for a good beer - makes over 17k euros. If I'd prefer to drink in a craft beer pub and was downing regular 0.5L glasses at around 8 euros a pop that would be just under 27k euros.

No thank you. I'd rather pay 40 euros + VAT to have a German sparky to cast his beady eyes on my beautiful BM.

 

[zoigl]

DeGarre, thanks for the headsup. I wonder if an upgrade would be a useful thing to do. My 50l BM is a few years old now. Like you I find emailing and dealing
direct is an easy way to go. Let's know how everything pans out
Cheers
Zoigl

 

[DeGarre]

The reason I deal with Ralf directly is because he actually sold me the BM as in Finland they were between official dealers at that time.

 

[zoigl]

The reason I dealt with Ralph is that the only dealer in Australia couldn't get his act together, I reckon that I would still be waiting! I got a replacement pump impeller sent later as I found out that they do not bounce on concrete floors. :lol:

 

[Howlingdog]

a replacement pump impeller sent later as I found out that they do not bounce on concrete floors. :lol:

Same here, luckily I only broke one blade so it still works. I now dismantle over the lawn just in case.

HD

 

[Batz]

I'll send the whole control box to Speidel and they will change the capacitor and check everything and put in a new updated software etc. The whole electronics works.

Then when I get it back I will:

Brew another 70 x 24L of beer the next 3 years. Did some math. 1680L = 3360 x 0.5L "pints". 5090 x 0.33L bottles. Let's put some Finnish beer prices into the picture. From a shop 0.33L bottles at average 3.5 euros per bottle - and this is very conservative for a good beer - makes over 17k euros. If I'd prefer to drink in a craft beer pub and was downing regular 0.5L glasses at around 8 euros a pop that would be just under 27k euros.

No thank you. I'd rather pay 40 euros + VAT to have a German sparky to cast his beady eyes on my beautiful BM.

So how did this all turn out?


Batz