Braumeister - Tips & Tricks

[Crusty]

Yep and I am in WA - much easier for me to get it.

My seal fits over the top solid screen well, but not both the s/steel mesh and screen which is what I have seen others do.

However this should still fix my grain escape issues - it's a tight fit in the malt pipe but I think once some heat and water are in it the plate will rise and fall like normal.

I still think my centre rod isn't straight so I will unscrew and have a look at that. Might scratch in a 30 litre mark while I am at it.

Don't tamper with the rod.
I'd just get a piece of wooden dowel & measure out 30 litres & mark that on your dowel.
Too easy.

 

[paulmclaren11]

I have been using a metal ruler from the 25ltr mark, as it's 1cm per litre to workout my water levels pre and post boil etc.

 

[Dan Pratt]

I measure with a metal ruler every brew to my required mash in volume. My 25lt mark is actually 26litres and we have all been throughbthat discussion already.

 

[DeGarre]

I just measure with a regular school plastic ruler: 11cm from the top of rod to the wort surface - 29L!

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

I measure with a metal ruler every brew to my required mash in volume. My 25lt mark is actually 26litres and we have all been throughbthat discussion already.

I think the 25l mark is 30l isn't it?

 

[alcoadam]

In regards to the rubber seal - I originally went out and bought the stuff from Clark Rubber but never bothered to use it. The problem I had was I could smell the "industrial" rubber odour with these seals.
All the soaking in the world wouldn't get rid of the fact that the hot water I soaked it in came out tasting a bit....well, rubbery. Smaller water quantities than the brau, but none the less - still flavouring the water. Maybe they keep "food-grade" quality these days?

A course crush and a bit of practice and you'll rarely notice an escaped grain.

If u must seal the top filters then something silicon would be best (no idea where you'd find it). Or possibly buy a genuine malt pipe seal and mod it?

 

[wide eyed and legless]

http://www.polymax.in/silicone-edging-strip-translucent

The above link is one that I saw someone had got their edging strip part number 3018102

 

[mason]

So Ive just completed my 2nd brew on my 50lt unit. First brew went well, the only trouble i had was lifting the malt pipe out after mashing.
I ended up getting a sliding door track from bunnings for $40 odd bucks and rigging it up as a sort of gantry with a rope pulley system in store for todays brew.
It ended up working great, but what didn't work well was not fitting the bottom filter plate and screen before mashing in!!!
I realised just as the last of the grain flowed in . I stood there staring at my braumeister just hoping that some miraculous solution would pop into my head.
Well after a couple of minutes of denial it was clear i was starting my brew day all over again.
Im now making a check list so I don't screw up this bad again.

 

[Dan Pratt]

when you forget to put in the base plate and mesh screen...as we all may of done once or twice..cough cough...lol. :unsure:

grab your esky and start removing all the the grain with a kitchen strainer that you normally use for your noodles and when you have most of the grain removed, decant the rest into the esky...including the water ( i imagine you have an esky like i did )....give the rig a hose out.

Replace with malt pipe inc screen and mesh and then transfer the malt to the pipe and the water that went into the esky....fill woth more water as required...then continue.

when it happend to me...made an awesome dunkelweizen!

 

[mason]

when you forget to put in the base plate and mesh screen...as we all may of done once or twice..cough cough...lol. :unsure:

grab your esky and start removing all the the grain with a kitchen strainer that you normally use for your noodles and when you have most of the grain removed, decant the rest into the esky...including the water ( i imagine you have an esky like i did )....give the rig a hose out.

Replace with malt pipe inc screen and mesh and then transfer the malt to the pipe and the water that went into the esky....fill woth more water as required...then continue.

when it happend to me...made an awesome dunkelweizen!

Good idea mate. I honestly couldn't think of a fix that wouldn't affect the beer. I'd mashed in at 66c and by the time would have figured that one out the whole mash schedule would have been way out.
Oh well, a big stuff up had to happen one day. I'm about 50 AG brews in with BIAB prior to the braumeister and hadn't really had a big stuff up to speak of.

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

Here's an approach if you are double batching and need to sparge about the grain line. It's a two person job and a bit precarious. I might look at getting a stable mount made for this purpose... The mrs is tolerable but I'm not getting a pulley in the kitchen!

 

[Dan Pratt]

I use a shelf from the fridge to Sparge on.

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

I use a shelf from the fridge to Sparge on.

1389402634026.jpg

Brilliant simplicity.

Do you ever find the sparge clinging to the rack and running to the edges? Have you checked if that coating is food safe?

 

[Dan Pratt]

Good questions. It does run to the side of the rail but the edges are within the perimeter of the vessel and the drips all go in. Food grade? No idea, I will look that up, if not I will get a stainless one from bunnings for 20bucks.

 

[wobbly]

I will work in imperial (because it's easy) but if you think about it a bit you don't need very much out put from the pump(s) to generate a quite a lot of pressure sufficient to lift the bottom plate and the grain

On a 20lt BM the malt pipe is about 12 inches dia so that equates to close to 113 square inches so if the pump(s) only produced 1 pound pressure then the pressure on the bottom plate will be something like 113 pounds force which is proberbly enough to lift the plate and a few kilos of grain

Cheers

Wobbly

 

[wobbly]

What practices do other BM owners use to settle the trub at the end of the boil. I don't and never really have got a trub cone no matter how hard I try and I understand that in relation to pot size wider is better than narrower because of the dynamics involved.

Also in post 14 of the Whirl Pool topic Floran mentions that he has stopped whirl pooling and just lest the trub settle to the bottom and then because of the height of the tap from the bottom draws off most of the wort until near the bottom and then slowly tilts the BM to get a bit more out

What do others do and in particular those with 20lt BM's

Cheers

Wobbly

 

[zoigl]

I use the upturned lid from my 50 l. BM to sparge, remove the knob first. I have a copper flue device as supplied with my BM, so the lid is pretty much useless.
I use a whirlfoc tablet 5 minutes before flameout/end of boil. I have an immersion chiller recirculating the water from my undergound water tank, and whirl the wort with a huge chef whisk, but i am not much concerned with trub entering my plastic conical fermenter. I have not had any off flavours. I completed a beer tasting course at TAFE so I have a rough idea what is an off flavour.
I also am of the opinion that the wort should be left to rest for 20 - 30 minutes after flameout and whirlpooling, and the trub allowed to drop into the centre, and then I dribble the wort into my fermenter, don't rush this step. I find that more trub than you want will stay with the wort if you open up the BM tap and let 'er rip, so to speak. I feel that it is better to leave as much trub as poosible in the BM, I made up a hinged platform ( I needed the extra height for my fermenter to go under the tap) and worked out a way of lifing the platform and wedging it at the "correct" angle for maximum wort to flow into the fermenter and leave the trub behind. Anyway, this works for me, others have tried different approaches, You will need to go back and sift through these notes.
Cheers

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

What practices do other BM owners use to settle the trub at the end of the boil. I don't and never really have got a trub cone no matter how hard I try and I understand that in relation to pot size wider is better than narrower because of the dynamics involved.

I have a 50l, so YMMV, but I find a whirlfloc at 10m and a strong whirlpool at zero works. I put a timer on for 15 minutes but usually get draining when my chiller is ready. Between about 10 and 15 minutes I really start to see the break coagulating and dropping down. I find my cone formation variable, but it drops well below the tapline in all cases. The only exception is super hoppy IPAs, and that's hop break. I suspect the variability relates to the grain bill, but I've not sat down to think it through.

I use the upturned lid from my 50 l. BM to sparge, remove the knob first. I have a copper flue device as supplied with my BM, so the lid is pretty much useless.
I use a whirlfoc tablet 5 minutes before flameout/end of boil. I have an immersion chiller recirculating the water from my undergound water tank, and whirl the wort with a huge chef whisk, but i am not much concerned with trub entering my plastic conical fermenter. I have not had any off flavours. I completed a beer tasting course at TAFE so I have a rough idea what is an off flavour.
I also am of the opinion that the wort should be left to rest for 20 - 30 minutes after flameout and whirlpooling, and the trub allowed to drop into the centre, and then I dribble the wort into my fermenter, don't rush this step. I find that more trub than you want will stay with the wort if you open up the BM tap and let 'er rip, so to speak. I feel that it is better to leave as much trub as poosible in the BM, I made up a hinged platform ( I needed the extra height for my fermenter to go under the tap) and worked out a way of lifing the platform and wedging it at the "correct" angle for maximum wort to flow into the fermenter and leave the trub behind. Anyway, this works for me, others have tried different approaches, You will need to go back and sift through these notes.
Cheers

I'm a bit confused - you say you aren't concerned with trub, but you're being very patient with the tap to avoid it? I've not had issues with the tap on full. With a platey you're getting cold break in the fermenter anyway, and I don't believe a bit of hot break is an issue.

Your hinged platform - are you hinging to lower the tapline (more wort into fermenter) or higher (less)?

 

[Dan Pratt]

I'm letting the trub settle during the immersion chilling which is about 15 mins. Like above I have minimal trub or hops unless its a big hopped IPA. I turn the tap on full blast and that aerates the wort nicely before I cool in the fridge and add o2 and pitch.....sure would be nice to chill to pitching temps

 

[djar007]

I have a pretty identical setup to the braumeister . I add brew brite at fifteen Minutes and whirlpool at flame out . leave for ten minutes and through the plate chiller . Very decent cone left at the end.