Braumeister - Tips & Tricks

[DeGarre]

Batz, the control box arrived safely in Germany but their sparky was on holiday so a slight delay to brewing plans and some damage to my pipeline. As soon as I get it back I'll brew a simple EKG single hop with pale ale malt and flaked oats - will let you know how it all goes.

 

[DeGarre]

Won't be long now, all fixed and ready to ship!

1. oatmeal pale ale EKG
2. burton ale/winter warmer
3. possibly a competition beer depending on what style is wanted, otherwise a boring brown First Gold

 

[DeGarre]

Arrived today. Heating up to mash temp now. V4.01A. Seems to work fine. The new software has 3 hop schedules to key in, handy to remind of protafloc also.
The ventilation cycle in the beginning has definitely changed.

Brewing an oatmeal pale ale with EKG today. Happy days - the dry times are over.

 

[doon]

Bloody hell how do we update it apart from sending back!

 

[niels]

Bloody hell how do we update it apart from sending back!

I'm pretty sure you can't... You need the binary files of the firmware to be able to flash the chip.

Unless of course someone wants to donate his freshly updated control box to someone who can dump the chips contents

- Niels

 

[DeGarre]

I am taking part in a competition where I need to brew a min 1070°/7.5% DIPA. I don't wish to use too much sugar so I am thinking about a double mash which I've never done before. The grist half half and the 1st batch as single temperature then some steps for the 2nd. I'll also boil for 90 minutes so that'll help too.

Then I stumbled onto this in the internets, shameless copy paste:

I was mailing with one of the Speidel-people and according to him:
- the BM 50L is a 85L vessel
- you can brew up to 70L with it, via double mashing
- after malt pipe is filled, up to 70L of water can be added.
"You can overfill also the malt pipe so that the water level is higher then the malt pipe. So you have no overflow, but the circulation will still be going on."

The mind boggles. Anyone tried this?

 

[zoigl]

Let us know how you get on, it sounds amazing.

 

[wobbly]

I am taking part in a competition where I need to brew a min 1070°/7.5% DIPA. I don't wish to use too much sugar so I am thinking about a double mash which I've never done before. The grist half half and the 1st batch as single temperature then some steps for the 2nd. I'll also boil for 90 minutes so that'll help too.

Then I stumbled onto this in the internets, shameless copy paste:

I was mailing with one of the Speidel-people and according to him:
- the BM 50L is a 85L vessel
- you can brew up to 70L with it, via double mashing
- after malt pipe is filled, up to 70L of water can be added.
"You can overfill also the malt pipe so that the water level is higher then the malt pipe. So you have no overflow, but the circulation will still be going on."

The mind boggles. Anyone tried this?

It's basically "full volume" mashing similar to what I understand you do in BIAB. I have also shamlessly copied this from the Braumeister Forum. Even though the malt pipe is "overflowing" the liquid still circulates up through the mash and down the outside of the malt pipe


That is what we are talking about. Over filling. Using the full volume of water in the vessel.
These are the steps that I use.
Fill the BM with the volume of water I calculate I will need.
Heat to dough in temp.
drain down to about 25l.
Dough in.
Refill the BM with water with the water that you drained off. This will be close to the top of the vessel
Mash as usual.
Carefully remove the hold down nut and bar.( I use silicone glove for this)
Remove malt pipe and set aside to drain.
Start ramping to boil.
Pour draining into boil and proceed as usual.

Cheers

Wobbly

 

[DeGarre]

Wobbly, my only worry is if the grain escapes into the wort. Although I do have a seal on top.

 

[wobbly]

DeGarre

Not sure how the grain could escape into the wort as it would have to get past the top filter plate which is in place just as per normal operation

Cheers

Wobbly

 

[stevemc32]

I did a back to back test of full volume mash vs small sparge (grain wash) on my Fakemeister a couple of weeks ago to see what sort of difference I'd get. The sparge volume was 3.6 litre and sized to match the expected boil off.

The end result was that the full volume mash was a good 5% down on full system efficiency but made for an easier brew.

If you're not approaching the limits of your malt pipe it's a good way to save a bit of effort at the cost of a bit more grain.

 

[SnakeDoctor]

So what kind of volumes are the 20L Braumeister punters able to get via overfilling?

 

[wide eyed and legless]

DeGarre if you are only talking about a few grains getting past the filter it shouldn't matter, the impeller moves as it is not a direct drive, they should pass through the pump, if you are getting a lot of grain passing the filter, scrap the filter and plate and make a mesh and plate to fit over the top of the malt pipe, nothing will get past then.

 

[DeGarre]

Yes, one could tie a net or something on top of the malt pipe couldn't one?

I'll definitely try it sometime when I'll brew a stronger beer, but first I want to try a double mash, later this week in fact. 1075° is the target so not that high actually.

 

[SnakeDoctor]

Anyone found their malt pipe rod is slightly off centre?

Appears to be affecting the filter clearance (end up with grain in wort).

The spacers on the malt pipe are up against the outside of the unit on one side and a few mm gap on the other for example.

This is my first time using the unit so go easy please

 

[Black n Tan]

Anyone found their malt pipe rod is slightly off centre?

Appears to be affecting the filter clearance (end up with grain in wort).

The spacers on the malt pipe are up against the outside of the unit on one side and a few mm gap on the other for example.

This is my first time using the unit so go easy please

Just move the malt pipe slightly when the filter plates are in place to centre it and make the gap even on all sides.

 

[tiprya]

I put the first filter into the malt pipe before putting it in, allows you to line it up perfectly with the rod.

 

[Batz]

Or perhaps your malt pipe is a little out of round? Do you have a gap if you place the filter in while not fitted on the center rod?

Quite easy to fix if that's your problem.

Batz

 

[SnakeDoctor]

Thanks for the ideas, doesn't appear to be out of round as its centred at the bottom of the pipe and if I move the rod whilst holding the malt pipe down I can centre the filter.

I ended up just tightening the bar down whilst putting a bit of sideways pressure on it, stopped any further grains leaking, didn't do anything of course for the ones that had already escaped but hopefully no worries about that.

Might look into making up one of those MHB style seals.

 

[Black n Tan]

I really don't get it. The filter is somewhat fixed in position by the centre rod, but the mash pipe has plenty of play. So the mash pipe goes in and when you drop the filters in you shimmy the mash pipe over until the filter has an even spacing around it. Done, no stray grains, so need for a silicon seal. It works exactly as the german engineers intended.