Speidels Braumeister. Impressive Yes. Expensive Yes.

[Eater]

That would be great if you could MHB, much appreciated

 

[Florian]

Photos would be great, MHB.

What I have gathered from the the german forums so far:

- some users mash in to 38 degrees water and leave it at that temperature for 2,5 hours or even overnight > apparently helps efficency

- quite a few users do not use the fabric filter, but only the stainless steel false bottom in the malt pipe. Apparently this works with an 0,8mm crush, and no grain is left over in the wort. Some others remove the fabric filter, but substitute it with a smaller stainless steel mesh, e.g. made from a splash guard for a wok or pan (from IKEA)

-5.5kg of crushed malt seems to be the absolute upper limit for the 20L Braumeister, anything above that and the pump is not able to circulate the mash anymore, as it gets too compact.

-people who naturally carbonate take a portion of the finished wort, freeze it, and use it later for priming. This is also recommended in the manual that comes with the Braumeister. Great method for all forms of brewing, rather than adding sugar or dextrose.

-most users are very happy with their purchase and don't regret it.

-some users have built a simple "stand" (basically two square ss pipes) for the malt pipe to sit higher on the unit, so more sparge water can be used.


That's what I remember so far, but I'm sure there was more interesting stuff to note.

Florian

 

[MarkBastard]

By that diagram it looks like the malt gets sort of squeezed? Is that correct? If so that's pretty awesome. Can you use it to squeeze the grain after raising as well?

 

[hazard]

Photos would be great, MHB.

What I have gathered from the the german forums so far:

How did you figure all that out Florian? I checked this link, but its all double dutch (deutch??) to me!


I studied German to Year 10 high school but that was 33 years ago (whoops, showing my age) and I don't think we focussed on the terms relating to brewing.

 

[Florian]

How did you figure all that out Florian? I checked this link, but its all double dutch (deutch??) to me!


I studied German to Year 10 high school but that was 33 years ago (whoops, showing my age) and I don't think we focussed on the terms relating to brewing.

Well, that must have something to do with the fact that I am... errrrr... very intelligent errrr... german
Now it's out! Please don't hold it against me

 

[winkle]

Florian,
you really need to get the 50l one.
(Mainly so I can get a good look at it in action )

 

[hazard]

What I have gathered from the the german forums so far:

- some users mash in to 38 degrees water and leave it at that temperature for 2,5 hours or even overnight > apparently helps efficency

I think John palmer also recommends a mash-in at 40 deg - says that you get better gelatinisation of the barley. But he writes in English so i can more easily understand him . I think he also recommends a first rest at 45 deg if there's lots of wheat and stuff, this combines the gelatinisation rest and a protein rest (normally 50 deg) in one hit.

 

[Florian]

Florian,
you really need to get the 50l one.
(Mainly so I can get a good look at it in action )

Not sure yet, but Christmas is coming up, so we will see. Not sure though why I should get the 50L, I think the 20L would be enough.

Here's a link on how to pimp up the filter plates with an $5 IKEA splash guard. The pictures speak for themselves, no need to translate the whole thing.

Florian

 

[dr K]

what's gelatinisation?

 

[felten]

http://www.encyclo.co.uk/define/Gelatinisation there you go, now you know, and knowing is half the battle

 

[MHB]

That will teach you to be subtle Dr K, I reckon he's thinking of a β-Glucan rest, not the same as the old German overnight mash in which allowed all the enzymes to get into solution (and probably some bio-acidification). Means that as you heat the mash to more conventional mashing temperatures you're going to hit all the enzymes on the way up.

Ah the joys of brewing with under-modified malt.

MHB

PS felten you just had your leg quite royally pulled.

 

[felten]

I know Dr K is an old hand, just taking the piss myself and procrastinating instead of cleaning my kettle ;\

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Hydration rest I think...

Thanks MHB, the filter cloths go a long way to making me understand how this jigger works, I wasn't aware of them before.

Sort of a bastard cross between a standard mash/lauter paradigm and a mash filter. Anything fine enough to make it through the filter cloths is basically going to get converted to sugar, any leftovers are well trapped in the middle of a fairly well constrained grain bed... And there is still the filter cloth to deal with even if they didn't..

I like these things, always have and the more I learn about them the more I like them.. Still, in the interests of exploring their potential and their limits - What about "big" beers?? With the malt pipe apparently being limited to 5.5 or so kgs (20L unit) you'd struggle with high gravity beers? Mind you you could just do a re-iterated mash, but if high gravity beers were your "thing" that might be a bit of a PITA to go through regularly?

 

[hazard]

That will teach you to be subtle Dr K, I reckon he's thinking of a β-Glucan rest, not the same as the old German overnight mash in which allowed all the enzymes to get into solution (and probably some bio-acidification). Means that as you heat the mash to more conventional mashing temperatures you're going to hit all the enzymes on the way up.

Ah the joys of brewing with under-modified malt.

MHB

PS felten you just had your leg quite royally pulled.

:icon_offtopic: Or was it me having my leg pulled? OK so I tried to quote Palmer without checking the reference text and confused myself and others. Here is what he actually says on the on-line version of HTB (I've got the book at home I think the text is somewhat different)

"To the best of my knowledge, the temperature rest (holding period) for phytase is no longer used by any commercial brewery. However, this regime (95-113F) is sometimes used by brewers for "Doughing In"- mixing the grist with the water to allow time for the malt starches to soak up water and time for the enzymes to be distributed. The debranching enzymes, e.g. limit dextrinase, are most active in this regime and break up a small percentage of dextrins at this early stage of the mash. The vast majority of debranching occurs during malting as a part of the modification process. Only a small percentage of the debranching enzymes survive the drying and kilning processes after malting, so not much more debranching can be expected. With all of that being said, the use of a 20 minute rest at temperatures near 104F (40C) has been shown to be beneficial to improving the yield from all enzymatic malts. This step is considered optional but can improve the total yield by a couple of points."

Does this make it clear? And to answer Dr K's original question, Palmer also says that "Once hydrated, the starches can be gelatinized (made soluble)" ie gelatinisation is dissolving the starch in solution. But it appears that you already know this.

 

[haysie]

Does Barry from Canberra use a Braumeister? <_<

 

[proudscum]

That will teach you to be subtle Dr K, I reckon he's thinking of a β-Glucan rest, not the same as the old German overnight mash in which allowed all the enzymes to get into solution (and probably some bio-acidification). Means that as you heat the mash to more conventional mashing temperatures you're going to hit all the enzymes on the way up.

Ah the joys of brewing with under-modified malt.

MHB

PS felten you just had your leg quite royally pulled.

When brewing do you use whole hops/pellets/hop bag to stop the trub and hops going from your kettle to fermenter?Or do you use a filter of some nature between kettle and fermenter?

cheers.

 

[Florian]

The term Purification can be confusing; it comes from someone whose first language isn't English doing the translation. A better term might be Clarification.

Looking through the german document, it seems they are actually talking about lautering here, so basically just lifting the malt pipe up. Not sure why they used 'purification' in the english version, just a bad translation for a word that doesn't really need translating.

What about "big" beers?? With the malt pipe apparently being limited to 5.5 or so kgs (20L unit) you'd struggle with high gravity beers? Mind you you could just do a re-iterated mash, but if high gravity beers were your "thing" that might be a bit of a PITA to go through regularly?

The re-iterated mash is a great idea, hadn't thought about it before, but that would be the way to go for big beers I guess. I wouldn't want to do it on a weekly basis, but once in a while should be OK, especially seeing you really only need to lift the malt pipe, empty it, fill it again, put it back in and let it run through another automated mash cycle. Not too hard, really.

 

[ausdb]

I'm "that guy" which drew the diagram that Randyrob posted on how the Braumeister works.

I have always been intrigued by these things and would welcome some info on what sort of pump they use, from the stuff I have seen it just looks like a brass circulating pump? and also what is the fabric filter material made from?

I am sure with some modifications to Robs HABS control system an "aussie brewmaster" could be put together.

 

[Florian]

I have always been intrigued by these things and would welcome some info on what sort of pump they use, from the stuff I have seen it just looks like a brass circulating pump?

In this link you can see a few pictures of the pump, more towards the end. I have seen a better picture somewhere else, but can't find it now. They are from the company Laing.

and also what is the fabric filter material made from?

As far as I know you will do better without the fabric filter, just modify one of these:



this is commonly done in Germany, the consensus is that it increases your efficiency and is easier on the pump. I have posted a link to instructions on how to implement it earlier in this thread.

Also, have a look at the "quarter-square-meter-brewery". This is a very impressive home made Braumeister clone, it has even an automated hop feeder.

Sorry if this is getting too :icon_offtopic:

 

[winkle]

(snip)
Also, have a look at the "quarter-square-meter-brewery". This is a very impressive home made Braumeister clone, it has even an automated hop feeder.

Very impressive indeed :icon_cheers: