Dedicated Braumeister Guide, Problems & Solution Thread

[razz]

Had my first overnight mash last night, what a joy! I got up at 6:45 and the malt pipe was ready to be lifted. Previous batch kegged and all cleaned up in time to take the wife out for lunch. And "The Speckled Hen" on nitro at Pig & Whistle Arthur's Seat was bloody beautiful!

 

[Batz]

Had my first overnight mash last night, what a joy! I got up at 6:45 and the malt pipe was ready to be lifted. Previous batch kegged and all cleaned up in time to take the wife out for lunch. And "The Speckled Hen" on nitro at Pig & Whistle Arthur's Seat was bloody beautiful!

Great way to brew hey? I always do an overnight mash now.

 

[micblair]

does anyone notice that bright wort becomes cloudy when you pull the malt pipe? My malt screens aren't deformed and my gasket is still in tact.

 

[razz]

Can't say I noticed Micblair, I'll check it out next brew session.

 

[Black n Tan]

I haven't noticed it either. I could imagine if you lifted the malt pipe too quickly using a pulley or similar that you may create a vacuum and pull some cloudiness, but in normal use I haven't seen this.

 

[micblair]

it seems to start as soon as you stop the pump and loosen the wing nut.

 

[Dan Pratt]

it seems to start as soon as you stop the pump and loosen the wing nut.

dont be to worried about it, you wont notice it in the final beer. sure it would be nice to boil up crystal clear wort but with the BM thats not possible.

The use of whirfloc or some kind of finning agent will see that drop out when you finish the boil and whirlpool before the rest/transfer phase.

If your keen to try a few things, maybe grab a a kitchen strainer and wrap a stocking over it and transfer all the wort into handy pails through the stariner, clean the vessell and add the wort back to the BM. Alot of effort but you will see how much trub/mash particles are actaully in the beer pre boil.

 

[alfadog]

does anyone notice that bright wort becomes cloudy when you pull the malt pipe? My malt screens aren't deformed and my gasket is still in tact.

I have noticed this issue too. I had always thought it was malt that had gone over the top and through the pump and been stuck on the base of the bottom filter. Hence why you see it when you lift the malt pipe. I just use a SS sieve to filter out the bigger chunks. The Kopperfloc does the rest.

 

[razz]

Not really a guide or problem, more so a solution. I've had my unit for three months or so and used it three times. Tonight I thought I would put it to good use as a sous vide cooker. Not on my Pat Malone there, I'm sure many of you have done the same. Anyway, two nice chicken breasts in glad bags for 80 mins @ 65 degrees and I chucked a few pine nuts and dry basil in the bag as well. Nice chicken, very soft and tender to the tooth and it got a few minutes in the fry pan to give it some colour. It sat nicely atop some mashed spuds with steamed greens and gravy. I'll give some porterhouse cuts a go on the weekend.

 

[Crusty]

Not really a guide or problem, more so a solution. I've had my unit for three months or so and used it three times. Tonight I thought I would put it to good use as a sous vide cooker. Not on my Pat Malone there, I'm sure many of you have done the same. Anyway, two nice chicken breasts in glad bags for 80 mins @ 65 degrees and I chucked a few pine nuts and dry basil in the bag as well. Nice chicken, very soft and tender to the tooth and it got a few minutes in the fry pan to give it some colour. It sat nicely atop some mashed spuds with steamed greens and gravy. I'll give some porterhouse cuts a go on the weekend.

I own two of the original Anova precision cookers & have been doing heaps of stuff sous vide. Chicken breasts are fine @60deg for 60mins.
Salmon portions are incredible at 52deg for 30mins & eggs in the shell @75deg for 15mins. It's a fantastic way to cook & I use this technique at least three times a week. I love it. Got a nice special on too at the moment to clear out the original Anova One models which I have.
Anova sous vide

 

[danestead]

Not really a guide or problem, more so a solution. I've had my unit for three months or so and used it three times. Tonight I thought I would put it to good use as a sous vide cooker. Not on my Pat Malone there, I'm sure many of you have done the same. Anyway, two nice chicken breasts in glad bags for 80 mins @ 65 degrees and I chucked a few pine nuts and dry basil in the bag as well. Nice chicken, very soft and tender to the tooth and it got a few minutes in the fry pan to give it some colour. It sat nicely atop some mashed spuds with steamed greens and gravy. I'll give some porterhouse cuts a go on the weekend.

I have done the same but with eye fillet steak, about half a dozen times. I put the steak between the 2 malt pipe grill type mesh things. Itkeeps them from floating to the surface and stops them from accidentally resting on the heating element.

 

[Cervantes]

I have done the same but with eye fillet steak, about half a dozen times. I put the steak between the 2 malt pipe grill type mesh things. Itkeeps them from floating to the surface and stops them from accidentally resting on the heating element.

How long and at what temperature do you cook the steaks?

 

[razz]

I own two of the original Anova precision cookers & have been doing heaps of stuff sous vide. Chicken breasts are fine @60deg for 60mins.
Salmon portions are incredible at 52deg for 30mins & eggs in the shell @75deg for 15mins. It's a fantastic way to cook & I use this technique at least three times a week. I love it. Got a nice special on too at the moment to clear out the original Anova One models which I have.
Anova sous vide

I was just looking at those last night Crusty, I would have bought one in hindsight. The BM will do me fine for the next few meals and I was very surprised how quickly it bought 20 lts up to 65 degrees.

 

[danestead]

How long and at what temperature do you cook the steaks?

The temperature depends on how you like your steak cooked. I think I usually use about 60 or 65ish for medium but I forget. I really should write it down one day when I get it right! Just google meat thermometer temperatures.

I've always done it for an hour or so but I believe you can do it for a shorter period.

 

[Black Devil Dog]

I've had my 50l Braumeister for several months now, done about 10 brews and I think every batch has been quite cloudy after whirlpool. There are also some white coagulated bits still floating around, which I scoop out before transferring to a no-chill cube.
When I whirlpool, I leave it to settle for 20-30 minutes.

The wort after the mash is very clear.

Initially I put it down to out of date, or a bad batch of whirflock, so I've been using Kopperflock recently, but there has been no noticeable change.

Before I bought the BM, I was doing BIAB in a 40 litre hot water urn and always had very clear wort after whirlpool. My recipes are much the same, just brewing bigger batches.

The beer clears well after fermentation, tastes fine and doesn't have any chill haze, but I would be happier if I could eliminate it.

Is this a common thing with Braumeisters? I've researched quite a bit and can't really see that it comes up as an issue.

I'm not sure what the cause could be.

Here's a photo I took on my last brew day. This was taken roughly 20 minutes after I had whirl-pooled the wort.

 

[Crusty]

The beer clears well after fermentation, tastes fine and doesn't have any chill haze, but I would be happier if I could eliminate it.




Here's a photo I took on my last brew day. This was taken roughly 20 minutes after I had whirl-pooled the wort.

You answered your own question right there.
Cloudiness after removing the malt pipe is normal so don't stress about it.
All my beers are crystal clear at the end of mash & cloudy after removing the malt pipe & during the boil. The whirlfloc takes care of business at the end of the boil & your beers are clear with no chill haze & taste fine. It's the nature of the beast mate & it sounds like your process is spot on. I chill until I cant get the temp to drop any further, remove the chiller & give it a really good manual whirlpool. I put the lid back on &nwalk away for a minimum of 30mins. Crystal clear beer into the fermenter.

 

[Black Devil Dog]

The cloudiness is after I've added whirflock/kopperflock and done a 20-30 min whirlpool.

I know the wort becomes cloudy during the boil, but there's still a lot of stuff in suspension after whirflock and whirlpool, when it should have settled. In my experience of doing BIAB, the wort was very clear at the end of that process.

After I transfer to a cube, it's stored for a month or so and my concern is that if I'm transferring too much hot break into the cube, it could have a detrimental effect on the final product.

My beer does taste fine and maybe it's nothing to stress about, but improvements in process and results are part of being a home brewer and I personally feel that it should be clearer.

 

[Crusty]

Ok, gotcha.
You should be getting clear wort after the whirlpool. Im not sure what's going on to be honest as my wort to the fermenter is crystal clear.

 

[Roosterboy]

This is off topic and I don't have a Braumeister but who services them or fixes them under warranty here in OZ ?

 

[razz]

From the info I gathered before buying one Roosterboy I reckon the few faults people have had have been parts exchanged under warranty. Pumps were a problem early on and I think there has been the odd control unit that would not work, out of the box, and the unit was exchanged by the retailer.

 

[Roosterboy]

Thanks razz, I have no doubt they are quality units and the high price has more to do with currency and freight but if
I was a brewpub owner thinking of spending $ 22000 or $44000 on one I would want a service engineer at least in
Australia. I think Speidels should train a local.

 

[razz]

If you are thinking that way then a chat with the boys at Grain & Grape would be the go, they started off with a 200t model and have bought another (maybe 500 lt?)

 

[Sean_72]

Call out to the geeks.
I received my wifi module for the Braumeister, had no problems connecting and updating the Braumeister with the new firmware via my laptop but when trying to connect the Braumeister to my network I keep getting 'Error OAFD'. Any ideas? I have googled OAFD with no luck, Outside Air Floor Duct was the main response.
I have double and triple checked the password I entered, turned the Braumeister on and off, even tried putting the IP address of the router in directly.
Any ideas?

 

[razz]

Perhaps give Grain n Grape a call, they have them in stock and the boys over there a fairly knowledgeable

 

[kcurnow]

Does anyone know what kind of connector the wifi / firmware update port on the gen 2 braumeisters is? It looks to be some sort of Screw in mini DIN fitting. I'm looking to get a cable so I can update my firmware.

 

[banora brewer]

Hi guys, I used to own a 20 ltr braumeister but had to sell it, I'm getting back into brewing, not sure what to get, another braumeister or the grainfather.

 

[razz]

Never had an issue with my BM50 until today. The unit was at 89 degrees and climbing nicely to a boil when I noticed the boil timer had started. I'm guessing that the temp had been steady for two minutes and it did what it is programmed to do. No bigy, I had to abort the program and ran the unit in manual mode.

 

[Goose]

Hi guys, I used to own a 20 ltr braumeister but had to sell it, I'm getting back into brewing, not sure what to get, another braumeister or the grainfather.

I am not really qualified to comment on the GF as I only own a BM, but I will anyway. As I see it the major advantage is the controller on the BM which is pretty much set and forget after dough in to the point of removing the malt pipe prior to the boil, while with the GF you need to manually enter each step after the completion of the last.

One thing I prefer on the GF though, is the top down flow of wort through the grain bed. This has the advantage filtering the fine particles effectively which stay at the top of the grain bed when the malt pipe is removed. On the BM, the fines are trapped at the bottom of the malt pipe and alot seems to fall back into the wort as soon as the malt pipe is removed. The result is you end up boiling cloudy wort.

Flamesuit on because I know that what is important is the clarity of the wort to the fermenter, not so much the boiler, but I'd still rather be boiling clarified wort which to me is part of what a RIMS system should achieve.

 

[thewobblythong]

Never had an issue with my BM50 until today. The unit was at 89 degrees and climbing nicely to a boil when I noticed the boil timer had started. I'm guessing that the temp had been steady for two minutes and it did what it is programmed to do. No bigy, I had to abort the program and ran the unit in manual mode.

This is a known firmware issue. apparently something to do with it taking too long (slowly) to get to the boil temp, and the unit triggering into boil mode to 'avoid boiling dry'. at least that was what I was told. returned mine to Grain & Grape and they did a free firmware update and it's seemed to fix it.

 

[Bridges]

Ok 20l owners how many of you have seen grain and grapes method for getting 38litres of wort from the 20 which they've had on facebook for a while? You'll see in pics 4 and 5 the handy trivet they use whilst sparging. After a bit of searching I reckon I've tracked it down to ikea. Surprisingly only $5.

One day next week I'm going to be right near an ikea so I'm going to grab myself one. Just putting it out there if anyone else is interested as ikea stores are not everywhere and they don't sell on the web I could probably help out any interested parties. Let me know maybe I'll set up a seperate buy thread. I'd guess post would be around $10 or so.