Dedicated Braumeister Guide, Problems & Solution Thread

[razz]

Put down another brew today, hop pellets straight in without safety net, results even better that the last time, was thinking of silver soldering the joints to syphon right down to the bottom of the BM. No need, liquor drained to the top of the spring filter, whoever thought of using a spring as a filter is now level pegging with the guy who thought of the cable tie as the most simple and useful idea.
View attachment 106392

What was volume of trub and hops Weal? Looks about two lts tops!

 

[Boxcar]

Gravity drain or pumped?

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Even better razz, I had 2 litres last time and about a litre in that last pic the liquor level came down to the top of the spring which is 20mm dia then sucked in air but most of what was left was trub.

Boxcar that is gravity drained through the original BM tap, drains just as quick as without any filter, so easy to clean as well.Glad to see the back of the hop sock.

 

[Madmen]

Hi all, new to the forum. I am considering purchasing a BM 20 as they are on sale this week. I really like the quality of the unit. My only reservation is that I plan to brew quite a few IPA's that are around 6.5-7.5% ABV. The HBS advised of double mashing, and that would be ok for the odd brew, however plan to brew these IPA's every 3rd or 4th brew. Can this be achieved on the BM even if it means smaller batches (no sparging). It would be nice to hear other BM owners on options. Regards

 

[Coalminer]

Pretty much limited to a max of 6.0 - 6.1kg single mash grain but can boost this with DME

 

[RobW]

Hi all, new to the forum. I am considering purchasing a BM 20 as they are on sale this week. I really like the quality of the unit. My only reservation is that I plan to brew quite a few IPA's that are around 6.5-7.5% ABV. The HBS advised of double mashing, and that would be ok for the odd brew, however plan to brew these IPA's every 3rd or 4th brew. Can this be achieved on the BM even if it means smaller batches (no sparging). It would be nice to hear other BM owners on options. Regards

There are a few ways to increase gravity including double mashes, shorter volumes and using adjuncts.

Have a look through some of these threads

 

[Dan Pratt]

Hi all, new to the forum. I am considering purchasing a BM 20 as they are on sale this week. I really like the quality of the unit. My only reservation is that I plan to brew quite a few IPA's that are around 6.5-7.5% ABV. The HBS advised of double mashing, and that would be ok for the odd brew, however plan to brew these IPA's every 3rd or 4th brew. Can this be achieved on the BM even if it means smaller batches (no sparging). It would be nice to hear other BM owners on options. Regards

I've tried double mashing, makes the brew day longer.

I've tried bigger malt bills, lower efficiency

I've tried using dextrose, works well but only for Imperial or Double IPAs

What I do now is target a lower ferment able volume of 17Lts. This way I can use 5kg of malt mashed at 64c and finish @ 1010 gravity for a 7% ABV beer, which is quite standard american IPA. I get 85% mash efficiency and my brewhouse stays at 75% overall.

I do a couple of other things:

Overnight mash with extended mash out at 76c
Flip the top screen over with a 5mm nut spacer, give about a 1 litre of space in the malt pipe for the grain.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

By simply making a perforated plate to sit over the top along with a fine mesh or perforated plate you will be able to take your grain volume up to around 7.5 kg. This is what I did with mine and got an extra bottom seal to fit around the top.

Grain and Grape are now doing it using a domed false bottom.
https://www.facebook.com/melbrau/posts/1768221540166578
Also check out the Grain and Grape double mashing technique.

 

[Madmen]

Thank you all for great suggestions.

I've placed order of BM20 and expect it next week.

I may need further assistance to implement some of the suggestions you provided....I'll keep you posted.

Thanks again

 

[fungrel]

Yeah just bought a 50L model, will probably frequent this thread a bit to get some guidance. Upgrade from Grainfather.

Will probably need some sort of profile for Brewersfriend to reference at some stage.

 

[Wimmig]

Hey guys, many current users of the BM Plus around (even better if you've used both)? I'm on a first gen 20 and thinking of an equipment update, i do like the idea of the additional flush drainage though am unsure as to how effective the cooling jacket is VS my current BM IC. I've got a bunch of additional equipment to get rid of so was thinking of rolling it all into a new BM and calling it a day.

 

[EalingDrop]

There's BM group on Tapatalk, someone has done a review of the jacketed cooling of the new BM (2017 model).
From what I remember it wasn't as quick as an IC. The cooling rate is less effective for small batches when using the short malt pipe to brew 10L batches as the cooling jacket is too high up.

Hopefully this helps your research mate.

 

[captaincleanoff]

Got the 50L braumeister recently.

I've done two brews so far with horrible results. Woeful efficiency...

First brew:
11kgs of grain. 50L into fermenter. Aiming for 1.052Came in at 1.043... 65%. Was a bit disappointed with this. I thought my crush might not have been great, so for the second brew I did a double crush - which resulted in pretty fine crushed malt.

Second brew (with double crushed fine malt)
12.1kgs of grain, 50L into fermenter. Came in at 1.034. WTF?!

What is happening here? I thought a finer crush would have definitely got better efficiency... A kilo more grain too, and it dropped by a whole 1.010 to 1.034, which is absurdly low.

Could it be, that the crush was so fine, that the circulation was affected? I can't believe it was this poor though

 

[razz]

Hey CC, you need to go the other way with mill settings. Back it off for more of a course crush. I occasionally get some mini fountains happening (more like small percolations) so I backed the mill off one setting and that resolved the problem and the efficiency was still good.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Got the 50L braumeister recently.

I've done two brews so far with horrible results. Woeful efficiency...

First brew:
11kgs of grain. 50L into fermenter. Aiming for 1.052Came in at 1.043... 65%. Was a bit disappointed with this. I thought my crush might not have been great, so for the second brew I did a double crush - which resulted in pretty fine crushed malt.

Second brew (with double crushed fine malt)
12.1kgs of grain, 50L into fermenter. Came in at 1.034. WTF?!

What is happening here? I thought a finer crush would have definitely got better efficiency... A kilo more grain too, and it dropped by a whole 1.010 to 1.034, which is absurdly low.

Could it be, that the crush was so fine, that the circulation was affected? I can't believe it was this poor though

That doesn't seem right, what were the steps you used, did you use Beersmith or any other programme?

 

[captaincleanoff]

Yeh I used beersmith.
Filled with 55L, 12kgs g normal mash schedule starting at 58c ending at 78c in different steps over 90 mins (45 mins at 62c).. Pulled out malt pipe, topped back up to 55L. Boiled, and then topped up to 55L again at end of boil.

The fine crush is all I can think could be the problem. Used less grain on the first brew and got higher efficiency

 

[razz]

Yeh I used beersmith.
Filled with 55L, 12kgs g normal mash schedule starting at 58c ending at 78c in different steps over 90 mins (45 mins at 62c).. Pulled out malt pipe, topped back up to 55L. Boiled, and then topped up to 55L again at end of boil.

The fine crush is all I can think could be the problem. Used less grain on the first brew and got higher efficiency

Adding water post boil will also drop your gravity reading. If you are going to add water after mashing then you may as well sparge and get some more out of the grain. Looking at those things together (fine crush, top up water) then I can see why your readings are so low. Just for your info I also start with 55lts, regardless of grain weight, after mashout I sparge back to 55lts and then boil down for 2 hours which gives me 45lts post boil. I then usually end up with approx 42 its into the fermenter.

 

[clarkie54]

Agree with the above. Would suggest a gravity reading between each step too so you can isolate the problem. Just give it a good stir, take sample amount, throw that back in and test the next sample amount. Make sure your getting an accurate sample in other words.

 

[captaincleanoff]

yeh I accounted for all the extra water in beer smith though, aiming for 55L finished, around 50 into fermenter.

 

[clarkie54]

Because of the amount loss to trub / deadspace at the bottom there can be a big difference between mash efficiency and brewhouse efficiency with a BM.