Braumeister - Tips & Tricks

[Thefatdoghead]

Just listening to the podcast on post #46. He pulls the malt pipe off then mixes the grain because there is a channel from the stud in the middle. Then he rinses the grain.

 

[doon]

After last nights brew I am thinking anything over 5.2kg bill is a struggle for it. I had 5.4 and 100 grams of rice hulls was included as I have had fountain issues with other brews. Was all pretty good till first pump break then poor little pump on my 20l struggled big time. Had to give the mash a really good stir and then it would be happy again but had to do this after every break.
When it got to last rest before mash out no amount of stirring would help so took it mash out.
When I had 5.2kg bill had no issues or fountains so this might be magical number. Still it's making awesome beers so can't complain!

 

[Malted]

Does anyone else think that the knob on the lid is difficult to grasp? I had thought of putting a drawer knob on it instead of the BM knob but some bastards stole my tap and die set during a burgalry of my house and shed so I could not cut an M8 thread into a drawer knob. The easier solution at this point was to put a longer bolt into it. I think it will need a locking nut too but it is shed loads easier to grab now.


Simple, easy and quick 'enhancement'. Original bolt and knob arrangement on the right, new M8 bolt and arrangement on the left. All good.

 

[Batz]

Does anyone else think that the knob on the lid is difficult to grasp? I had thought of putting a drawer knob on it instead of the BM knob but some bastards stole my tap and die set during a burgalry of my house and shed so I could not cut an M8 thread into a drawer knob. The easier solution at this point was to put a longer bolt into it. I think it will need a locking nut too but it is shed loads easier to grab now.

View attachment 51912
Simple, easy and quick 'enhancement'. Original bolt and knob arrangement on the right, new M8 bolt and arrangement on the left. All good.

That's a good idea, I think I have a few M8 stainless bolts just made for this.
Cheers Malted.

 

[Florian]

The bolt would still get hot though, no?
The only reason why I find the lid inconvenient is that I burn my fingers because the knob is so close to the lid. I don't think the bolt would fix the issue, unless you cover it with a piece of pvc pipe or something similar.
Now that's an idea, I might actually do that one day.

 

[Thefatdoghead]

Yeah maybe put a piece of silicon tube over the exposed s/s bolt.

 

[Malted]

The bolt would still get hot though, no?
The only reason why I find the lid inconvenient is that I burn my fingers because the knob is so close to the lid. I don't think the bolt would fix the issue, unless you cover it with a piece of pvc pipe or something similar.
Now that's an idea, I might actually do that one day.

Yes the bolt may get hot but I'd rather take my chances with it like this than squishing my fingers against the lid. A sleeve would be good too. You'd have to get the sleeve over the nut and the locking nut too if you were concerned about heat transfer. Mine was a quick and dirty 98 cents fix. If I still had my tap and die set I would have kept the original bolt and run an M8 thread into a drawer knob something like this:

He he, probably not so much an issue for those folks with little lids... Looking at you Flo...

 

[mikk]

Braumeister brewing tips, specifically for 'bigger' beers.

Using the 50L machine, you'll be able to end up with 40L at up to 1.077 using a 90 min boil, (or approx 36L at 1.085ish with a 120 min boil) using no sugars/extracts. Your mash temp/program will influence this, of course. Efficiency will be over 80%.

*Make sure the machine is 100% level. Builders wedges are only a few dollars & work perfectly for this

*Prime the pumps manually prior to starting brew program. Let the pumps run for a second or 2, then switch them off then back on again stright away. Repeat as necessary.

*Use 11.5kg of grain in the 50L machine. 12Kg is do-able too, but harder. You will still get over 80% efficiency if all these steps are followed.

*Mash in water volume should never be less than 50L. The malt pipe volume is fixed, obviously, so any reduction in mash-in water qty means less water outside the malt pipe to balance the volume in the malt pipe. Ie, a 45L mash-in compared to a 53L mash-in means the pumps are having to lift an extra 8kg of water BEFORE getting back to their intended flow rate. This is never going to happen.

*Mash-in at 38 degrees. No doughballs, good gelatinisation prior to the sacc rest. Pour of the grain in & stir it REALLY well, then the final , and stir really well again.

*Make any necessary water additions to get the mash PH & water minerals correct. Ezwater calculator works brilliantly.

*A 90 min mash is 100% necessary. With a large grain qty & reduced flow rate, 60 mins isn't adequate. Typically, the difference between a 60 min and a 90 min mash is at least 5 gravity points.

*You will need to stir the mash several times during the mash program. Personally, i've found 2 stirs during the temp ramp from 38-6? degrees, & 2 or 3 stirs during the mash (at 15, 30, 70 min, approx). If you're near the machine when it does it's pump interruption, just pause the program & stir then.

*Sparge. Just 4-5L or so, so it's nice & easy to do on your stove.

*After mashing out & the sparge water has slowed to a trickle, put the malt pipe on a bowl/plate/bucket & allow to drain for another hour or so. Add this toward the end of the boil.

Examples-
Belgian Dark strong
11.78kg grain, Mash schedule 10 min/38, 30 min/62, 60 min/68, 10 min/75.
50L mash in, 5L sparge.
90 min mash, 90 min boil.
OG 1.077, 40L final volume, 36.1L into fermentor after trub loss.

Maibock
12.09kg grain, Mash schedule 10min/38, 90 min/69. Note the high mash temp. This will lower the maximun OG.
50L mash in, 4L sparge
90 min mash, 90 min boil.
OG 1.073, 38L final volume, water added at end of boil to get 40L at 1.071.


The above method may well be improved upon, but i've found it to work very well for me. Beers above 1.070 easily & reliably, regardless of mash schedule, & over 1.085 with a suitable mash schedule & 120 min boil. Efficiency always at least 80%.

For beers bigger than this, just add malt extract to the boil as required, this will also enable you to have a shorter boil time again.

If anyone has some other tips they've found to work well for brewing big beers, please let me know!

Mikk.

 

[banora brewer]

Just finished a brew on my braumeister, started to clean it, set the temp for 40 degrees, I put my hand in there to start cleaning and I nearly burnt my hand. I got my thermometer out and it was reading about 65 when the display panel was saying 40, I don't understand why.

 

[SJW]

Just finished a brew on my braumeister, started to clean it, set the temp for 40 degrees, I put my hand in there to start cleaning and I nearly burnt my hand. I got my thermometer out and it was reading about 65 when the display panel was saying 40, I don't understand why.

That does not sound right. I did my first brew on mine yesterday and when I cleaned up I put enough cold water in to cover up the element and threw in some sod. per carb. and started wiping it around. It started off at 22 deg C and I could feel the element was warm/hot but could still rub it with my fingers to clean the gunk off. But I had my hand in there until it got to about 50 deg c before I had to pull out. This is part of the great design as the surface area of the 2250 w element is so great that it eliminates hot spots and burning of the wort.
Anyway, back to your problem, just make sure the temp probe is clean and try again. How did it go when brewing? Maybe it had something to do with not resetting or switching to manuel mode?

Steve

 

[banora brewer]

That does not sound right. I did my first brew on mine yesterday and when I cleaned up I put enough cold water in to cover up the element and threw in some sod. per carb. and started wiping it around. It started off at 22 deg C and I could feel the element was warm/hot but could still rub it with my fingers to clean the gunk off. But I had my hand in there until it got to about 50 deg c before I had to pull out. This is part of the great design as the surface area of the 2250 w element is so great that it eliminates hot spots and burning of the wort.
Anyway, back to your problem, just make sure the temp probe is clean and try again. How did it go when brewing? Maybe it had something to do with not resetting or switching to manuel mode?

Steve

Brewing seemed fine, I might fill with water again and test again

 

[matho]

banora,

did you have the pump on when you had the element on, I find with the temp probe on the bottom and the element above, the temperature reads a lot lower unless I have the pump on

 

[banora brewer]

banora,

did you have the pump on when you had the element on, I find with the temp probe on the bottom and the element above, the temperature reads a lot lower unless I have the pump on

Hey Matho, no I didn't, just filled it up again, I will see what happens

 

[banora brewer]

Hey Matho, no I didn't, just filled it up again, I will see what happens

Just tried it with the pump on, much better, thanks

 

[bullsneck]

I've been using cubes (NC) as a means to 'cool' wort from my BM previously. Now with an immersion chiller in my hot little hands I'm thinking about how this would go. I understand that moving wort will allow cooling to happen alot quicker than stagnant wort sitting around the copper coils. With this in mind, is there a foreseeable problem in running the pumps while cooling, say once the wort has reached 80c? Apart from the obvious mixed up trub, which could settle in time, do any seasoned BM owners who chill see a problem with this?

 

[bullsneck]

Bump for the evening crowd

 

[peas_and_corn]

You're essentially talking about a Whirlpool Chiller.

 

[bullsneck]

Essentially it will be a whirpool chiller, minus the whirlpool motion. It would be pumping wort, trub, break material and all. So my question is... Does that present a problem with the quality of the wort or am I being overly uptight about trub and break material?

 

[peas_and_corn]

As someone who for a while didn't whirlpool, I can say that you will have a couple of issues.

1- Your beer will be more difficult to clear out, or at the least take longer than usual to reach the same amount of clarity. If you use a low flocc yeast, this (in my experience anyway) will be a bit more exaggerated.

2- You will have more loss due to trub at the bottom of your fermenter

3- This is the biggest issue, you risk more off flavours. I have had a noticeable decline in hot alcohols and other off flavours since getting less crap into the fermenter. While this relies on correlation as its proof, I cannot think of another cause.


Re-using yeast cake of course multiplies these problems.

 

[Stormahead]

Anyone used an external pump with a BM?
I have a few issues with trying to gravity feed at a good rate through my wort chiller.