Braumeister - Tips & Tricks

[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

 

[redwing_al]

Hey everyone, for the fun of it, I created this collaborative map. Let's created a global view of Braumeister owners. I have added mine:https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid= ... u7E_M_58-A

If you want to add yours, follow the link and use the "add marker" to post the location. I have placed mine in the middle of the city in which I live, not necessarily my home address.

Link: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid= ... u7E_M_58-A

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

Have you ever stopped to give your impellers a good clean? I haven't. The pumps get a good run of PBW through them and the impellers usually get a rinse after I tip the unit on its side, but today I took a good look at them...filthy.

There are lots of crevices for **** to hide. Obviously in between the channels, but there are also small tunnels running through the impeller as well. The following embarrassing photo is after 10 mins in PBW and a bit of toothpick through the holes. I am leaving again overnight in fresh and ultra concentrated PBW. Will get the toothbrush out tomorrow.



Pretty disgraceful I let it get this bad, but I'd take a bet there's at least a few BM owners who haven't paid much attention to this part of cleaning, so I thought I'd share...

 

[Dan Pratt]

My impeller used to be like that until I changed my processs for post brewing so I understand how you feel.

I used to just rinse/clean with water but now Im running 80c water with a strong PBW solution through the BM outlet tap, into Kiaxen pump, CFC and return to BM while the BM pump is also running. I let that run at that temp for 20-30mins then flush with cold water and put starsan in for 5mins. The impeller and pump housing is the cleanist its ever been.

I had tried the soak overnight but found that the impeller has like you know, very hard to get to places, flushing with 80c PBW solution for a while works great.

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

Hmm. I use PBW *almost* every brew and always run it through the pumps. Maybe not hot enough....

 

[Dan Pratt]

Hmm. I use PBW *almost* every brew and always run it through the pumps. Maybe not hot enough....

Increase the temperature for best effect! As you know the pump/s cut out @ 88c which is why I run mine @ 80c

I just use 20L of Hot tap water which is already at 58c and then pour that into the BM with the PBW already in the base of the BM and then turn on the system heat and set manually and vent the pump/s and leave it for the time required.

 

[RobW]

I like to wash and rinse first to get rid of the particulate matter, then run the pump with fresh PBW in hot water.
After that let it soak for a day or so and then rinse and dry.

 

[Dan Pratt]

I like to wash and rinse first to get rid of the particulate matter, then run the pump with fresh PBW in hot water.
After that let it soak for a day or so and then rinse and dry.

sorry I should have mentioned that the process I use now is after a good cleaning with the bristal brush and rinsed out, then the PBW & Hot water is used.

 

[Crusty]

I'd like to mention a couple of points that may or may not happen to you but it's happened to me.
I assumed there may be something wrong with my BM but now know that this is normal & if it happens to you, don't panic like I did & abort the schedule, just be a bit more patient.

1. I added my immersion chiller 15mins before the end of the boil & after about a minute or so, the boil countdown time froze & stopped flashing. I thought, ****, it's **** itself, so I just timed it manually until the end of the boil. The actual problem was that the BM sensed the temp dropping below 97degC & it would of resumed & continued the countdown once it hit 98-99degC. This is not a fault, the BM is supposed to do that & will not countdown until a stable boil temp has been reached, even after the timer has commenced. Let it go, it will continue as normal.

2. I reached my boil temp of 99-100deg but the countdown timer would not flash & begin it's countdown. I let it go for a minute or more & once again thought that my BM has a problem. Again, I aborted the programme & manually boiled for the 90mins. This again is completely normal & the countdown timer will only commence once a stable temp has been reached. This can actually take up to 4mins so again, don't hit the panic button like I did & think there's something wrong. It will commence, just be patient.

To test the above two issues I've had, I deliberately made the BM drop temp whilst boiling, the timer froze & I waited to see what would happen. Once a stable boil temp was reached, the timer continued where it left off.
Next, I let the BM heat up to boil temp & @99deg, the timer began flashing & away it went. Completely normal behavior.
Depending on your brewing environment, the stabilizing boil temp may be longer or shorter than my example but again, relax & leave it alone.

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

Increase the temperature for best effect! As you know the pump/s cut out @ 88c which is why I run mine @ 80c

I just use 20L of Hot tap water which is already at 58c and then pour that into the BM with the PBW already in the base of the BM and then turn on the system heat and set manually and vent the pump/s and leave it for the time required.

I've always used hot water, but this week I let it get to 75 and did an hours circ rather than the usual ten min. Maybe it's because I cleaned them really well last week, maybe it was the heat, but they are looking great after a brew.

 

[Black n Tan]

The other day I set mine to 102C to clean and filled with hot taps water (around 50c) and homemade PBW and let it boil for about 10 minutes (well until my wife went into the laundry and it looked like a swedish sauna). The stainless looked as good as new, so I think the hotter the better. Yes the pump will cut out, but not before it has given the pump a good flush.