Braumeister vs 3V: pros and cons

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Blind Dog said:
Hmmm

Can't think of a single thing that makes my BM a pain to use other than my brainfarts, so intrigued
yes but there are some nice pieces of tech that could improve it's usability, then again the controller lael has been working on could be used to replace the standard BM control box. Though I think someone has switch to matho's controller on a Genuine BM before, can't remember who though.

ED: from memory they had to switch out the thermometer
 
So far today, I took 7yr old to auskick, 3 loads of washing hung out, chasey with the 2 kids, made pasta, roast slow cooking in the and also had a brew going in the braumeister. That's why my wife loves it.
 
Pretty hard to compare both until you have used both. Then you sell your 3v
 
I am concerned that after picking up the new pots yesterday and seeing just how god dam big a 170L pot is, and how conveniently the 100L equivalent fits inside, I can see a change in mindset to a pseudo-BM build.
 
sponge said:
I am concerned that after picking up the new pots yesterday and seeing just how god dam big a 170L pot is, and how conveniently the 100L equivalent fits inside, I can see a change in mindset to a pseudo-BM build.
Now you're talking :). Don't you work with plc's and stuff sponge?
 
sponge said:
I am concerned that after picking up the new pots yesterday and seeing just how god dam big a 170L pot is, and how conveniently the 100L equivalent fits inside, I can see a change in mindset to a pseudo-BM build.
I have seen and am building one with a 100L as main 170L as main would be epic, I just hope you've got some mates who appreciate a decent brew!

Ed : typo again
 
Its an awesome idea. I would be cautious as your minimum batch size will be massive
 
170L BM clone with a 100lL malt pipe. I feel like I'm standing next to John Holmes in the gents
 
mje1980 said:
Now you're talking :). Don't you work with plc's and stuff sponge?
That I do Mark. A single vessel sort've takes away from the need for so much I/O and could easily be controlled by one of the PIDs I have now. It really does seem like the most logical option. Having a HMI on a single vessel would be nice, but seems a little excessive.

MastersBrewery said:
I have seen and am building one with a 100L as main 170L as main would be epic, I just hope you've got some mates who appreciate a decent brew!

Ed : typo again
Well I'm hoping with the move into our new place we'll have some entertaining space and will have mates over more often for the beers. The two keg fridge I have at the moment suffices for a decent weekend with mates, but that doesn't happen too often due to space restrictions at our current place. A 6 tap keezer should take care of that.

I'm just keen on making a few cubes and cube hopping with different hops or fermenting with different yeasts but only having to brew once or twice a month.

lael said:
Its an awesome idea. I would be cautious as your minimum batch size will be massive
Yea I've contemplated that issue and I will still have a 50L keggle for smaller batches so can get the mashing done in the 'BM' and just boil in the keggle. Should still be more than enough liquid with the malt pipe in place for a smaller batch.
 
Yeah, That could work. The big issue isn't necessarily the boiling, but fluidising a malt pipe when your outer pot needs a lot of water to cover the heating element.
 
lael said:
Yeah, That could work. The big issue isn't necessarily the boiling, but fluidising a malt pipe when your outer pot needs a lot of water to cover the heating element.
I've often struggled to explain the mash process and the malt pipe. Fluidising, good word.
 
lael said:
Yeah, That could work. The big issue isn't necessarily the boiling, but fluidising a malt pipe when your outer pot needs a lot of water to cover the heating element.
Good point. I might have to have a little think about my options for that.. Having a 50L malt pipe (or smaller) as a backup would help reduce the amount of water required to 'fluidise' (tis a nice word, innit?!) the malt pipe and still have enough to cover the element.

Anyways, enough of me going off topic for a bit. Back to the BM v 3V discussion!
 
It seems from what I've read and as mentioned above, a big part of the braumeiser design is selecting your batch size up-front. Does the same apply to 3V in the greater sense, or is the mash tun dead space really the only issue which is solved by some foil or even a smaller esky backup tun?
 
DJ_L3ThAL said:
It seems from what I've read and as mentioned above, a big part of the braumeiser design is selecting your batch size up-front. Does the same apply to 3V in the greater sense, or is the mash tun dead space really the only issue which is solved by some foil or even a smaller esky backup tun?
Of course the dead space issue doesn't apply to RIMS or HERMS systems, I use an Igloo cooler for my tun and do singles and doubles in it, when doing singles my mash is thinner and heat loss compared to doing a double is negligible.

MB
 
Oh yeah duh!!! How silly of me to miss that. Thanks for clarifying.

Unfortunately for me there are too many positives of going either way and not enough negatives to rule one out!! Perhaps I need to see both in action on a brew day. Do grain and grape do 3V demo days or only BIAB and BM?
 
G & G do a standalone demo brew with BIAB on one weekend, and on the other they do a side by side with BM and 3v..

So if you want to compare the two it's perfect.. I dropped in a couple of weeks ago and they were doing it, it's normally once a month.
 
As luck would have it, I went to a brew day yesterday with two other home-brewers (I've brewed with these guys a few times over the last 12-18 months). We did 3 beers concurrently (a RIS, Hefe & a Saison). One of the guys (not on this forum) brings his 20 litre BM, so as you can imagine I was all over his system like a rash.

What I found really interesting though is that he doesn't use any of the BM's programmable mash temp features, basically just puts the BM in manual mode, heats his water to strike temp, then puts in the malt pipe and pours the grain. He tells me he always does it this way, i.e. a single infusion mash.

He also doesn't bother sparging at all, just pulls the malt pipe at the end of the mash, and lets it drain back into the BM. He gets around 65% efficiency, and simply adjusts his grain bill to work with that. Once the grain is out he manually sets it to boil temp, and when it beeps to say it's there, hop additions start.

Now what struck me the most about all of this is his process doesn't really seem to do much that BIAB doesn't already do? I know this is just the way he does it, but I just found it interesting. If you don't need/want a step mash, what is it the BM is doing to make brew day so much simpler/better than a BIAB process? I was surprised his efficiency was the same as mine (I currently BIAB), given the BM pumps all that water around during the mash, I would have thought that'd increase efficiency significantly.

I'm still very keen on a BM, don't get me wrong. But it was a bit of an eye opener, I have to admit. Oh, and of course this thread is about 3V vs BM, so apologies that it's off topic. I'll go looking for some BM v BIAB threads to see what I'm missing.
 
There are plenty of 3V'ers down Melbourne way I'm sure one of them would love a hand on brew day :D
I'd say that applies to most systems too
 
Step mashing is pretty easy with a BIAB, even gas fired it isn't that hard.

It does seem a little odd to have a BM and basically use it manually though.
 
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