Braumeister - Tips & Tricks

[lael]

nice! thank you niels! - funny that is exactly what someone suggested I do for my ridiculously long center shaft in another thread!

 

[paulmclaren11]

I am just finishing up cleaning my BM after it's maiden brew.

All in all, a pretty successful brew day - albeit much longer than my typical BIAB day but I did take things slow and hit a snag along the way. Ended up with 78% brewhouse efficiency and 21 litres into my cube (first time no chilling also).

I brewed a pretty simple Pale Ale - looking for ~ 4.5%, hopped with Magnum, Amarillo and Simcoe.

In summary:

- First time using my grain mill - ran the grain through twice as the first crush wasn't as fine as I needed. Went to about 1.1 mm which seemed to work well.

- Mash went well, did a 3 phase mash.

- Main issue was grain was coming out of the top screen - I think I have read this is an issue and will need to look at getting some rubber for it - spent a heap of time during the ramp up to the boil scooping out loose grain with a sanitised sieve - not my idea of fun for each brew. Any other tips from anyone on this?

- Used a hop sock which seemed to work out well, had a nice trub cone after whirlpooling.

A long day, but can't wait to taste the final product.

I learnt a lot off of here and youtube videos, made some pretty detailed notes to follow and they helped me heaps (happy to share them for any other noobs out there with their new toy).

Cheers.

 

[Edak]

78% BH efficiency is amazing! I only get 70% because I leave out all dregs from fermenter. I get about 82% mash efficiency though...

 

[paulmclaren11]

I use Brewmate and it calculates brewhouse efficiency on amount in kettle at end of boil and SG rather than what makes it into fermenter.

As stated I got ~21 litres into the cube which I am happy with as all I want to do is keg (no trub/break). Lost about 4 litres to trub etc.

 

[Camo1234]

I don't have the rubber seal around the top and only get the odd grain or two escape.... Just checking that you have the filter circle below the solid plate? Sounds simple but I stuffed that on my maiden voyage and after getting pissed that it wasn't working as I expected it to realised the error of my ways!

 

[paulmclaren11]

Ahhhh, no I had the mesh screen on top of the solid plate... Like it did with the bottom screen.

Will have to try this next brew, I wasn't pist bit obviously didn't read the instructions close enough.

 

[Black n Tan]

Ahhhh, no I had the mesh screen on top of the solid plate... Like it did with the bottom screen.

Will have to try this next brew, I wasn't pist bit obviously didn't read the instructions close enough.

I did the same first time. The top mesh should be below the solid plate and this will likely explain the grains breaking free. Onwards and upwards!

 

[paulmclaren11]

Yep, a quick consult of the old manual states to do this.... Oh well all learning!

 

[stakka82]

Also no need for a hop sock mate, let them run free... whirlpool works great in the brau you will trap >95% of them.

 

[paulmclaren11]

I did the same first time. The top mesh should be below the solid plate and this will likely explain the grains breaking free. Onwards and upwards!

Second brew down with the mesh below the top solid screen!

I still had some grain break free, but nowhere near as much as first time.

I need to be more careful in making sure the malt pipe is dead centre when placing it in, I think that may have been my issue this time around as the screen at one side was slighty more open than the other (another rookie mistake...)

I will invest in the rubber seal I think, just for piece of mind more than anything - will hit up Clark Rubber or Marks Homebrew as I think he has them.

Loving brewing with this thing :super:

 

[niels]

Just started brewing 20l of quadruple with the 25l malt pipe.

Boiled my water the day before to reduce temporary hardness.

I have a day off so I'm also watching my 20-month old son. He's helping me out
I'm confident all will go well as long as I keep it all organised

Niels

 

[wide eyed and legless]

All you will get from Clark Rubber is synthetic rubber, in the U.K they use a silicone rubber seal but apparently they are a bit fiddly to fit, another downside is, if when you have the seal fitted the grain may not be able to push the perforated plate and the mesh upwards when the pump is on, meaning the grain remains compact and not floating causing a loss in efficiency.

The best way to fix the problem is fit another seal (same as the bottom seal ) around the top rim of the malt pipe, get anther piece of perforated plate with smaller perforations to fit on top of the malt pipe, I got mine for $10 then just clamp it down with cross tube and wing nut.
This will stop any grain getting through if you put the mesh on arse about and also prevent damage being done to the top lip of the malt tube

 

[wobbly]

My solution was a piece of muslin placed over the top of the malt pipe before the hold down bar was put on and then held in place around the outside of the malt pie by a piece of elastic from the sowing box when she wasn't lookin.

Works a treat any gain or husk that escapes past the top screen can't get past the piece of muslin and into the pump. Had this happen once and not again since I adopted this cheap and easy fix.

Cheers

Wobbly

 

[Crusty]

After a lengthy consultation with two Electricians on the best way to deal with the 15A requirement for the 50lt BM, I gave mine a water test run today.
I added 55lt of water & set about programming the unit. I was a little stumped at first working it out but it wasn't too bad to figure out.
I set it for a 40deg mash in, 52deg rest for 5mins, 63deg for 35mins, 73deg for 35mins & 78deg for 10mins. Boil for 90mins & added some hop additions in there as well. As expected it performed flawlessly & maintained temps extremely well. The beeping sound is a nice feature telling you when to add your hops.
The boil was very gentle, very much like my Urn & if you come from running a 32jet Mongolian to boiling on one of these, you'd be forgiven for thinking you were simmering a poached egg. It is definitely boiling, just a nice gentle rolling boil. I would assume the boil will be a tad different boiling wort rather than just water as the wort should be thicker in consistency ( I assume ? )
Looking forward to doing my first real run shortly & if you are considering getting one of these units, go for it, they are amazing.

 

[Andy_Chil]

Hi all. Long time listener, first time caller. I am seriously looking at getting one of these babies. After reading through the 24 pages of this post, I was wondering if somebody could define "whilpooling" for me. I can find it in any brewing stuff I have. It is just stirring the cool wort for a bit? You answers would be appreciated.

 

[warra48]

Whirlpooling is simply stirring the wort in the kettle in a strong circular motion after the boil.
This allows the trub and hop residue to settle into a cone shape into the middle of the vessel bottom, supposedly enabling you to drain off clearer wort.
Some brewers on here have good success with it, others less so.
I don't have a Braumeister, so don't know if it's possible to whirlpool or not with one of those.

 

[Rurik]

Whirlpooling is simply stirring the wort in the kettle in a strong circular motion after the boil.
This allows the trub and hop residue to settle into a cone shape into the middle of the vessel bottom, supposedly enabling you to drain off clearer wort.
Some brewers on here have good success with it, others less so.
I don't have a Braumeister, so don't know if it's possible to whirlpool or not with one of those.

Thats what I do on my BM20L

 

[paulmclaren11]

Wobbly that muslin trick sounds like a goer... onto my 3rd run of the BM and I am still getting bloody grain coming past the top screen. I have tried making sure the malt pipe is dead centre, but after each pump break I can see small bits and bigger husks getting though which means lots of sifting before the boil.

This has been my only glitch with this system (fingers crossed) so far but for the $$ this shouldn't be happening.

Will try some swiss voile that I have lying around as a filter next brew.

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

I've never seen any grain get through mine. Are you all on the 20l? Maybe that's the difference.

 

[paulmclaren11]

Yeah running a 20 litre. The screens are not wide enough.