We'll I've done a bit of all grain and advanced the hear in the process. Gone from stovetop for $30 to a 40l pot with esky mash tun, to single 50l keg recirc biab. I liked the idea of the 1v keg but didn't build it good enough with false bottoms, plumbing wasn't 100%, just a few little things that needed work. So I figuire new brewery, new build.
Planning Braumeister clone build - Need advice
- Thread starter neo__04
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What gravities do you want to be able to do? And what volumes at those gravities. Essentially higher gravity = more grain = bigger volume malt pipe. Grain in kg * 2.7 = volume of pot you need. Or x 2.8 to give a little more fluidisation in the malt pipe. But the bigger the malt pipe the more volume, which means you get have to have more water (bigger match size) to allow the water to overflow. Hence why i made the spreadsheet.Neo__04 said:
Then... You have to evaluate what size pots you can realistically buy.
For a lot of people a big w pot allows 19L or a little less after you take away above and below the plates. divided by 2.8 = about 5.5 to 6kg grains. Do you know what outer pot size you can get / want?
The ideals I've run figures for are larger. I'll run some in a week or so when things are quieter. in the mean time q
What gravities do you want to be able to do? And what volumes at those gravities. Essentially higher gravity = more grain = bigger volume malt pipe. Grain in kg * 2.7 = volume of pot you need. Or x 2.8 to give a little more fluidisation in the malt pipe. But the bigger the malt pipe the more volume, which means you get have to have more water (bigger match size) to allow the water to overflow. Hence why i made the spreadsheet.Neo__04 said:
Then... You have to evaluate what size pots you can realistically buy.
For a lot of people a big w pot allows 19L or a little less after you take away above and below the plates. divided by 2.8 = about 5.5 to 6kg grains. Do you know what outer pot size you can get / want?
The ideals I've run figures for are larger. I'll run some in a week or so when things are quieter. in the mean time take a look at the spreadsheet.
Are you happy to order pots from aliexpress? Any size diameter you like?
Yes you can use two different height malt pipes, it can just be hard to get the pots the same diameter so the same filter plates fit.
Most beers i would do would be approx 1050. It would be nice to be able to do up to double batches of 1050, but also run single batches for new brews, experiments etc.
Im flexible with the outer pot size, and where to buy from.
My ideal solution would be to be able to do double batches and single batches in the same vessel.
Im flexible with the outer pot size, and where to buy from.
My ideal solution would be to be able to do double batches and single batches in the same vessel.
ok - so this will be a starting point for you and hopefully you can play with the spreadsheet to work out what you want...
I've ignored what you want. Yep. Rude.
Here's why: the volumes outlined in the spreadsheet are awesome. They provide about the most flexibility that you could ask for. The limitations in a brau style system lie in getting the malt pipe fluidised with various amounts of grain, and the limitations of having a set malt pipe size (ie - you have to fluidise the pipe, but the larger the pipe, the more fluid which means you need more water, which means smaller batch sizes become problematic. Inversely you have a smaller malt pipe size to target smaller batches at lower OG's which means you have issues getting more malt in there and you face problems when trying to do a high gravity beer because you can't get enough malt in there).
So which is the lesser of two evils? the one which affords the best flexibility. The Germans wanted set sizes, but weren't flexible in their design limitations - which means high gravity beers are hard to do in a braumeister. In my mind - create a system that allows both with least fuss. In a brau - that means extra capacity, but you can't really do a small (19L) batch size (need more water to fluidise larger malt pipe).
But... would you rather be able to make a high gravity beer... or waste a few litres of wort every time you brew (or keep it for starters etc or just make more beer... ). In my case - I'm happy to have a minimum batch size of appx 30L for a 1040 or 1050 beer, but be able to make a wort up to 1090 (which means imperial stouts etc up to 1100 or so as they all use sugar above that... well... there is one I know of that doesn't). The brau is limited to... (brau owners feel free to correct here... but check the spreadsheet - you might learn what you can do in your brau [theoretically - not tested! ... but the models have worked so far] ) 36L of 1070 beer with the 50L malt pipe and a 25L 1055 beer or so in the short malt pipe in a 50L braumeister.
So in the spreadsheet I've assumed that you agree with me and think that the lesser of two evils is spending a little extra up front (bigger pots) to have a system that will be easy to upgrade to larger batch sizes and be able to have the flexibility of doing high gravity when you want to (drink a few Belgians and you will want to...).
Caveats - there is no pot that I am aware of that is the outer pot size I've listed - but the Craftbrewer 100L is 46x60... and is what I would get - you can dilute any ridiculous size lower OG batches (>90L) in the fermenter. I'm also not sure about finding two pots that will make you a small / large malt pipe. The milk pots I've found have the big one - shipping adds up, but they will add nested pots for good prices (about 200 total for a 35x60 and a 30x60cm pot which makes a nice fermenter). Or you can do what I did and buy two straight wall pots and then cut the base off one and slits up the sides and force them together with gentle persuasion which I've found works well... but it would be neater and slightly less fiddling (but more storage) to have two pots - one for each malt pipe size.
ok - let me know if you have any questions...
View attachment Ideal Braumiser Volumes_latest.xls
I've ignored what you want. Yep. Rude.
Here's why: the volumes outlined in the spreadsheet are awesome. They provide about the most flexibility that you could ask for. The limitations in a brau style system lie in getting the malt pipe fluidised with various amounts of grain, and the limitations of having a set malt pipe size (ie - you have to fluidise the pipe, but the larger the pipe, the more fluid which means you need more water, which means smaller batch sizes become problematic. Inversely you have a smaller malt pipe size to target smaller batches at lower OG's which means you have issues getting more malt in there and you face problems when trying to do a high gravity beer because you can't get enough malt in there).
So which is the lesser of two evils? the one which affords the best flexibility. The Germans wanted set sizes, but weren't flexible in their design limitations - which means high gravity beers are hard to do in a braumeister. In my mind - create a system that allows both with least fuss. In a brau - that means extra capacity, but you can't really do a small (19L) batch size (need more water to fluidise larger malt pipe).
But... would you rather be able to make a high gravity beer... or waste a few litres of wort every time you brew (or keep it for starters etc or just make more beer... ). In my case - I'm happy to have a minimum batch size of appx 30L for a 1040 or 1050 beer, but be able to make a wort up to 1090 (which means imperial stouts etc up to 1100 or so as they all use sugar above that... well... there is one I know of that doesn't). The brau is limited to... (brau owners feel free to correct here... but check the spreadsheet - you might learn what you can do in your brau [theoretically - not tested! ... but the models have worked so far] ) 36L of 1070 beer with the 50L malt pipe and a 25L 1055 beer or so in the short malt pipe in a 50L braumeister.
So in the spreadsheet I've assumed that you agree with me and think that the lesser of two evils is spending a little extra up front (bigger pots) to have a system that will be easy to upgrade to larger batch sizes and be able to have the flexibility of doing high gravity when you want to (drink a few Belgians and you will want to...).
Caveats - there is no pot that I am aware of that is the outer pot size I've listed - but the Craftbrewer 100L is 46x60... and is what I would get - you can dilute any ridiculous size lower OG batches (>90L) in the fermenter. I'm also not sure about finding two pots that will make you a small / large malt pipe. The milk pots I've found have the big one - shipping adds up, but they will add nested pots for good prices (about 200 total for a 35x60 and a 30x60cm pot which makes a nice fermenter). Or you can do what I did and buy two straight wall pots and then cut the base off one and slits up the sides and force them together with gentle persuasion which I've found works well... but it would be neater and slightly less fiddling (but more storage) to have two pots - one for each malt pipe size.
ok - let me know if you have any questions...
View attachment Ideal Braumiser Volumes_latest.xls
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