First brew with Braumeister

[MattSR]

Hi All,

After setting up and preparing my 50L Braumeister that I purchased last year, I have finally gotten to run it in anger.

First brew was the IPA recipe on the Speidel site, which uses 11KG of grain. One thing that caught me by surprise was that they said "55L plus sparing water" but they didn't detail the sparge water amount or method. Since it was a first brew, I wanted to keep it as simple as possible so I opted out of the sparge step. Recipe is here:- http://www.speidels-braumeister.de/ipa-recipe.html

In the end I yielded 44 litres of wort into the fermenter and the O.G. was 1.047, only one point off the 1.048 that the recipe suggests is the target. The problem is that the recipe says 52L at 1.048 but I only yielded 44L at 1.047. I guess the sparge step would help with this, and would probably give me the correct final volume too.. What do you guys think?

Still getting used to brewing and noting the numbers, I'm hoping that with some practice I can whip some beautiful, repeatable consistent beers!

Love the Braumeister - it made it a whole lot of fun and I can't wait to brew some more!

Oh and I just forgot to add - when I tipped the spent grain out, I noted most of it was dark in colour, but there were several clumps which were a lighter colour inside which I suspect contain some extra starch/sugar/enzyme that I missed out on. Next time I'll be sure to pause the brew, remove to top plate, and used my large wooden paddle to mix up the mash a bit.

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

Yes a sparge would have improved your output. Depending on your efficiency it might not have taken you right to full volume at the desired gravity, but it certainly would have helped.

Sounds like you did have some dough balls. A slow dough in and a couple stirs will definitely help.

 

[SnakeDoctor]

What is your mill gap set to?

I found a coarser mill (I'm at 1.2mm) + stirring a fair bit as you pour the malt in really helped the Braumeister mash recirc.

Never noted a difference in the 3x attempts at a mid mash stir so I stopped doing it.

 

[MattSR]

I think its about 1.2mm - I need to measure it somehow..

I can fit a 1mm thick steel ruler in and wiggle it around so I'm pretty sure its around the 1.2mm mark.

 

[Spiesy]

I think its about 1.2mm - I need to measure it somehow..

Get yourself some feeler gauges from a hardware store, or online.

 

[Hoppers]

Get yourself a set of Fila Guages, they are like a swiss army knife, only have different thickness of blade......and no tool for removing stones from horses hooves

 

[MattSR]

I always thought feeler gauges were for tiny gaps like hundreds of an inch. I'll have a look for some that are the right size..

Cheers,
Matt

 

[Cervantes]

Mashing in at 38 with a small rest at 40 also seems to help with the fluidity of the grain bed. And so lessens the need to stop and stir. I always do this and only stir once.

Congratulations on the BM. They are a great bit of kit.



Edit: Phat Fingers

 

[MattSR]

Hi Guys,

I have a feeling that poor mixing is the cause of my problems with the gravity. I found this little doover at Bunnings and I'll give it a whirl on the next brew to see how it impacts the efficiency. Hopefully I see a nice improvement..

Bit by bit I'm getting there with this thing


Cheers,
Matt

 

[stux]

I always thought feeler gauges were for tiny gaps like hundreds of an inch. I'll have a look for some that are the right size..

Cheers,
Matt

You can use multiple blades together, so 1mm plus 0.3 + 0.03 = 1.33mm

I got a metric one from super cheap. Quite like it

 

[Dan Pratt]

Hi Guys,

I have a feeling that poor mixing is the cause of my problems with the gravity. I found this little doover at Bunnings and I'll give it a whirl on the next brew to see how it impacts the efficiency. Hopefully I see a nice improvement..

Bit by bit I'm getting there with this thing


Cheers,
Matt

Hi Matt,

Sorry to say but thing wont do anything for your effiency.

The reason I say this is the malt doesnt even need to be stirred, we all do it becasue of the fearfull dough ball and plus we all love to mash in with the paddle, me included. Spinning that thing will be more work than using the paddle and likely to spill over the top of the malt pipe but certainly wont increase gravity.

Try this mash profile for your next Pale Ale

Mash in @ tap water temp

10m/55c
30m/64c - Beta rest will increase fermentability
30m/72c
30m/78c - this will allow for a few pump breaks during the mashout rest and when you lift the malt pipe it will drain better.

raise the malt pipe and let it drain for 15mins before adding any sparge water ( personally I remove all the malt from the pipe and use a seperate pail bucket lauter tun) You need to measure your post mash volume to know your required sparge water to get to preboil vol, dont over sparge.

Take note of what the grain absorbtion was, you can calculate this with start vol minus post malt pipe drain volume, before adding sparge water.

anyway I could go on for ages, the more you brew the more you will fine tune the process and hit targets and exceed efficiency.

 

[MattSR]

Hi Pratty1,

I should've clarified - the mixing paddle itself won't improve efficiency, but compared to my first brew which had several doughballs at the end, there should be an improvement. In fact when I dumped the malt pipe at the end, and about a quarter of the malt was light coloured and looked like it hadn't been extracted.

As for the paddle, well it worked really really well. The malt mixed up beautifully and it didn't spill out at all. I'll use it again and try to grab a video.

I used a similar mash schedule to what you suggested, except that I extended the mash out a bit longer.

I managed to get 50L into the fermenter, which was a big improvement, but in all the excitement I totally forgot to measure the gravity The 7 litre sparge probably helped a bit, but I won't know how much until I try it again and measure the gravity..

Anyways thanks for all the help, this thing is FUN and I'm learning heaps as I work out the processes!!

Thanks for all the feedback,

Cheers
Matt

 

[MattSR]

Well, nearly onto my fourth brew now on the Braumeister and I'm getting the hang of using it. I have discovered that the actual brewing is the easy part - the effort goes into the planning and design of the beer now..

Anyway, just for giggles, I figured I'll get one of these toys as well... Anything with "Ultimate" in the name must be good, right? --> http://www.norcalbrewingsolutions.com/store/Brewing_Paddle_Ultimate_Mash_Paddle.html

Cheers,
Matt

 

[dicko]

When I got my Braumeister I sold the mash paddle I had with my 3v system.
I have found that if I pour the grain into the pipe reasonably slowly...that is around three pours for 6 kilos in my 20 litre BM then give it a stir with a caterers stainless spoon after each two kios is added then I dont have any "dough Balls" and I get great efficiency.
I also do what Cervantes recommended and run a rest at 40c for 10 or 15 minutes and this really assists with efficiency and what Pratty said with the mash out at 30 mins also improves it as well.
My efficiency can go up between 5 and 10 points by allowing a mash out overnite.
Once you get all your figures dialed in and your methods sorted you will find that you have the ability to repeat the same recipe time after time which is a feature that I really like with my BM.
This ability makes modifying a recipe by one step at a time so easy.

Also a point to remember is that those Speidel recipes are only posted up by brewers and may or may not be completely accurate...the interpretation is up to the user. h34r:

 

[gilmoreous]

Mashing in at 38 with a small rest at 40 also seems to help with the fluidity of the grain bed. And so lessens the need to stop and stir. I always do this and only stir once.

Congratulations on the BM. They are a great bit of kit.



Edit: Phat Fingers

"I also do what Cervantes recommended and run a rest at 40c for 10 or 15 minutes and this really assists with efficiency"

Is it the acid rest helping lower the pH to increase your efficiency or is it the fact you're not getting dough balls? Are you getting better efficiency from that or the extra long mashout? Have you tried one but not the other?

I mash in at a sacc rest and give it a stir. The only time I got dough balls was when a pump broke. I would like to increase my efficiency as I'm always a couple points lower than expected. I've been using acid malt to fix the pH on lighter coloured beers. I'll try the longer mashout and see how it goes.

Thanks

 

[dicko]

I have tried one without the other and repeated results suggest, to me anyway, that both steps improve efficiency.

The long mash out has amazing results but I generally only find a big difference during an overnite mash.

The 40c rest is reported to improve the flow of the wort through the grain bed as it apparently assists with protien breakdown.

I have just commisioned a new grain mill and with both mills set at 1.2mm I do get a couple of more points from the new one.
I have only done two brews with the new mill so I have not made any software adjustments yet...may bump the % efficiency up over time if results continue to show that improvement.
I have a 40c rest on every mash now regardless of any other steps or overnite mash procedures.

Like most other things brewing....give it a try and check your results.

 

[dicko]

Here is what Brad Smih has to say about a 40c rest.

It is taken from one of his blogs. http://beersmith.com/blog/2009/07/16/mashing-for-all-grain-beer-brewing/

The other popular step used by modern brewers is the dough-in rest (protein rest). Usually done at a temperature between 100-120 F, the dough in allows the grains to soak and saturate as well as allowing the key various lower temperature enzymes to begin chopping up longer chains of molecules. This will generally lower your pH slightly, and improve your mash efficiency by a few percent. I personally recommend a 20 minute dough in at a temperature between 100-112F for maximum impact.

Edit: 100deg F = 37.7 deg C
I dont know why he referes to this rest as a "Protien Rest"

Cheers

 

[Blind Dog]

Presumably as the upper end coincides with the lower end of what I've typically seen given as the range for a protein rest?

Personally I dough in at 38C as from what I've read, little is going on at this temp and it warm enough to get the grains all nice and wet. Then stir and let it sit for a while, stir again and put the top plate on and get on with the rest of the mash.

Like Dicko I've seen significant improvements in efficiency from incorporating this rest into my schedules, and big improvements from an overnight mashout (in fact I shamelessly copied Dicko and Batz)

 

[dicko]

Blind Dog,

I am continually amazed at the extra efficiency from extended mash out times.

I have even adopted a 30 minute rest for mash out into my mash schedules even when not mashing overnite.
I find even this little extra time gives me a few extra points over say a 5 or 10 minute rest at 77c

I guess it is still washing fermentable goodness from the grains.
I would imagine that this is happening because of the coarser crush on the malt that is required in the Braumeister.

Cheers

 

[Blind Dog]

Dicko - think you may we'll be right on your theory above. To me the extra efficiency is 5 points or more from an overnight mash, I've also done a few 24 hour mash outs - no additional gains that I can tell other than it lets me brew during the week leaving the weekends free and SWMBO happy