Dedicated Braumeister Guide, Problems & Solution Thread

[stakka82]

It's been done correctly at my place, just thought I could get away with a cheeky one here and there at a friend's.

Obviously not!

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Has your mate not got an electric oven power point ?

 

[whitegoose]

So I've just done my second brew on my 20L BM and have to say I am really not happy with the boil at all. It's probably more like what I would call simmering. Like others have said my temp dances around 98-99 for most of the time, which if you ask me is just not good enough. Even an hour into a 90 minute boil I still have hot break / scum collecting in a film over half of the wort surface, which I have never seen before. I have an insulation jacket around mine and I don;t think it makes any difference.

Anyway, I'm thinking about getting a submersible over-the-side heating element to supplement the BM element and get a proper boil going. Does anybody have any idea how much power would be enough? Some brewing shops sell 2400W over the side elements, but I reckon that would be overkill for a system that already has a simmering boil... Or will I need an element with that much power to get my wort to 100 degrees regardless of how hot the other element has made the wort? I don't really know much about the science of heating things up!!

Or would I be better off with the old floating tin trick... or just suck it up and live with it if my beers are okay?

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

... or just suck it up and live with it if my beers are okay?

This. 90 min boils with pils malt and no DMS for me. Do some historical reading and you'll find a number of classic brewing techniques used a slow boil no worries. Altitude can mean boil sub 100 anyways. I certainly can't break it, but the product works.

 

[Batz]

It freaks us all out a first, a slow boil is a good boil, just wait and see your results.

Really what is a strong boil? Hotter? no, boil off more, yes. I often compare cooking with brewing as I love to cook as well, so do you think a hard boil will improve your cooking flavours?

We are all led to believe a big boil almost climbing out the pot is the only way, otherwise what will happen? Armageddon? I survived three years.
Believe me you'll be happy, relax. :drinks:

Batz

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

Plus I think you'll be surprised how much that soft simmer actually boils off when you measure it...

 

[whitegoose]

Thanks peeps, I'll suck it up end enjoy the beer!

FWIW - I think I've getting about 3.7-4.0 litres boil-off per hour... does that line up with what you see? Not worrying about the rolling boil anymore - just trying to fine tune my spreadsheet.

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

For my 50l I work off 5.5 an hour. Informed by threads like this and a water based boil off test. I should revisit based in actual brews, but I haven't.

 

[Ckilner]

I've been using my 20l BM for 9 months now and have calculated the boil off rate to be 2l/hour and have confirmed this to be about spot on for quite a few brews. I set the boil to 102 degs C and it works fine. I too have a thermal jacket on it and I think it does help a lot but I'm in the UK and it's generally cold here.

 

[danestead]

I get between 11 and 12% boil off which equates to between 3.1 and 3.4L per hr for my size batch in my 20L brau

 

[Ckilner]

My mistake. My boil off is actually 3l/hour for a 20l BM - misread by figures. So I agree with Kit Master

 

[Dan Pratt]

hi,

Lately i have been reading that some 3v users and others are getting 90% + brewhouse efficiency for the brew day...i get 70%.

My mash efficiency is plus 85% on average depending on style and malt quantity and sparging however Im bothered that with a top rig like the BM i can only get 70% BHE.

I know if i kept the trub and decanted that into a container, chilled over night i would get another 3litres of wort but that only brings me to 80%.

What are you getting for your BHE % - not mash eff, Brew House Efficiency?

 

[danestead]

hi,

Lately i have been reading that some 3v users and others are getting 90% + brewhouse efficiency for the brew day...i get 70%.

My mash efficiency is plus 85% on average depending on style and malt quantity and sparging however Im bothered that with a top rig like the BM i can only get 70% BHE.

I know if i kept the trub and decanted that into a container, chilled over night i would get another 3litres of wort but that only brings me to 80%.

What are you getting for your BHE % - not mash eff, Brew House Efficiency?

82% mash efficiency and about 72% brewhouse efficiency on my 20L brau.

I find it incredibly hard to believe someone can get 90% mash efficiency, let alone brewhouse efficiency on a home brew scale. Besides, I thought there were issues with getting too high efficiency, but I may be wrong?

 

[stakka82]

Make sure you are tilting the unit when draining and getting a good whirlpool. I generally get 85-90% ME and 80-85% BHE.

On top of that do an extended mashout with meaty steps at beta and alpha temp ranges.

I almost always get 82-84% BHE with:

1o mins at 54
30 mins at 63
30 mins at 73
1hr at 78

Whirlpool, drain, tilt = less than 2 litres left in 50BM = less than 4% eff diff between ME and BHE.

Cheers

 

[Dan Pratt]

I find it incredibly hard to believe someone can get 90% mash efficiency, let alone brewhouse efficiency on a home brew scale. Besides, I thought there were issues with getting too high efficiency, but I may be wrong?

Thanks danestead.

I questioned the %'s for BHE and I asked the questions and ran the numbers and they are correct. mind you they fly sparge, control sparge pH @ ~6 and when they drain the boil kettle they get ALL the liquid, ALL of it - check out this link:

http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/ and go to the products and see the flat hop blocker they use.

 

[Dan Pratt]

I generally get 85-90% ME and 80-85% BHE.

Whirlpool, drain, tilt = less than 2 litres left in 50BM = less than 4% eff diff between ME and BHE.

Hi Stakka,

Thanks for your %'s, getting 80-85%BHE is great, when i compare to my current results.

Ive been batch sparging for about 45-60mins after pulling the malt pipe, i whirlpool at the end and let it settle out and then tilt her forward and still left with 3.5lts of trub. i could take the trub and like mentioning before decant/chill and my % goes up.

I wonder if we could fit a curved hop blocker to the inside outlet and get more wort into the FV?

 

[danestead]

Thanks danestead.

I questioned the %'s for BHE and I asked the questions and ran the numbers and they are correct. mind you they fly sparge, control sparge pH @ ~6 and when they drain the boil kettle they get ALL the liquid, ALL of it - check out this link:

http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/ and go to the products and see the flat hop blocker they use.

Oh nice, thats a great way to minimise losses!

 

[Dan Pratt]

Oh nice, thats a great way to minimise losses!

they show a bunch of pictures with the brewdays of the massive, i mean massive hop additions 20+ ounces ( 560grams aka halfa kilo ) and the wort is all in teh FV and just the hop/trub debris in the base of the kettle.

 

[dicko]

You wont be able to use the electric brewery hop blocker as you wont get the malt pipe in the BM

 

[Dan Pratt]

You wont be able to use the electric brewery hop blocker as you wont get the malt pipe in the BM

yeah i know, sure did try and figure out how to use one though....after the mash...80c...few pairs of gloves.....no?