Speidel Braumeister (brewmaster)

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Hello all BM users. I have a quick question regarding sanitation of the output nozzle (or tap, not sure of the name in English) of the machine. Do any of you dismantle it for a thorough cleaning/sanitizing before/after each use? It seems to me like it could harbour bacteria after each use and storage. Thanks for your help. Pedro (Spain)
 
it gets pretty hot during the boil! i don't think any beer spoilage molds or bacteria are going to survive 1 hour at 100 degrees. i make sure to run a liter or so of boiling wort through it before chilling, and then run a lot of water through it when cleaning, but i have never disassembled mine. i have to say it is the least thrilling part of the BM, i think it is ripe for an upgrade. the flow is odd and it is prone to dripping, and recently the position of the arm for a fully closed valve shifted to a different angle on mine!
 
Hello,

After much research and a few emails with Ralf Leukert of Speidel I have opted to join the BM club and ordered a 20L unit. After finding the US dealer out of stock on this unit I found a dealer in Ireland which will ship to the USA. Even with the EUR to USD conversion my total cost was 1,739.01 - which is cheaper than morebeer @ 1,950.00. Something to remember if you are ordering from another country is to try and use a no foreign transaction fee credit card - if you have one - as it will save you 3-4% in conversion fees.

I have poured over this thread and think it will be invaluable in my upcoming learning curve with this unit. I am certainly no engineer or electrician, so the recent posts about "plug 'n play" L6-20 cords/receptacles have saved me a lot of legwork. I am ordering the suggested 15 foot cord - so I won't be splicing - and installing a new L6-20 twistlock receptacle in my brewing area.

Overall, despite the obviously high price tag, I think this unit will be a worthwhile replacement to a traditional 3v system which can cost quite a bit itself - along with the associated increased footprint and clean up times. I have been brewing for about 2 years starting with the usual progression from extract to partial-mash. This is my entry into the all-grain world and I hope it was the right decision :)
 
NWMushroom, sparging (or rinsing) is really no big deal. Two first brews I did not, started with 23L and bottled 15L. Now I start with 26L and rinse with 6L (lately not boiled but hot tap water, the water is from my own well) and bottle 22-23L. I still hit the OG with 89% ME and get more beer - you do the math!

When the wort is draining into the kettle I start the boil. Wait a few minutes then I lift the malt pipe onto a bucket and upside turned lid to drain and rinse. I space it so that before it starts boiling I've done rinsing. Slowly does it. Could save some to make a starter later.
 
Hello all BM users. I have a quick question regarding sanitation of the output nozzle (or tap, not sure of the name in English) of the machine. Do any of you dismantle it for a thorough cleaning/sanitizing before/after each use? It seems to me like it could harbour bacteria after each use and storage. Thanks for your help. Pedro (Spain)

I've only ran boiling wort and cooled wort through it.
 
Sorry to change the current topic, but DeGarre kind of got me thinking about volumes and software.

For the more experienced users of the BM; Who's using BeerSmith 2 and what's your equipment profile looking like? I've taken screenshots of those posted earlier in the thread and thought it may be worth asking again since you guys have most likely fine-tuned the numbers by now based on experience. If anyone does post their BeerSmith equipment profile, it'd be good to know what changes to the BM system you've made.
 
I do my malt bill calcs on a spreadsheet. I input the gravity I want and the percentages of various grains. Spreadsheet calculates then the weight for each grain, and colour. Brewlength is set to 24L, I mash with 26 and rinse with 6, ME% set to 76 (don't ask). I get to bottle 22-23L and my actual ME% is usually 89.

So I went back to old school and it's just a question of knowing your brewing system and how it fits your method.

This I bottled 2 days ago, look at the clarity of that:

homebrewing261_zpsdfec3182.jpg
 
No chill haze there :rockin:

I kind of figured the best place to start on Beersmith is BIAB, and work on it from there. I'm not really obsessed with hitting numbers as long as I know what the gravity & volume is going into the boil so I can adjust for IBU's.
 
Looking for an electrical expert here...

Looking at my stove outlet, the socket is printed with '250v 50A'. When I look in the circuit/breaker box in the house the circuit breaker for the stove is marked 40A.

Here is a picture of the stove outlet:

88550073.png


Here is a picture of the dryer outlet:

66111836.png


Here is a picture of the two breakers (dryer on left, stove on right).

67774385.png


I am a renter so can't install or change anything.

What are my options in terms of hooking up a Braumeister?
 
Toggels said:
http://www.amazon.com/LiteFuze-Series-Voltage-Converter-Transformer/dp/B002ITZTNO/ref=cm_pdp_rev_itm_title_1

I use a Step up or down transformer.... works great for me.. no issues...
20L Braumeister...

Several members have went this route...

Or just do the cord mod... plenty of pictures and instructions on the forum..

I tried the step up step down and would not recommend it. Mine fried after 30 or so brews. Those things aren't meant for heating elements like a brew system. I even had the 5k watt ultra heavy uber one.

So much happier now that I built a cord. One less piece of hardware to worry about.
 
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I have a plate chiller that I want to hook up to my Braumeister (to be shipped shortly) and am wondering what others have done to accomplish this. I was thinking I would just purchase the 9007-12-08 adapter and install a 1/2NPT ball valve like bach on pg 129 but I can't find it anywhere. Adaptall doesn't seem to make a SS 9007-12-08: http://www.adaptall.com/products/stainless/ss9007.html (they do have a carbon steel that is silver in color). Has everyone been able to find the adapter or are there any alternatives? Thanks!
 
Thanks! I checked that out but amazon stated that the part was only rated for 100 degrees F... I guess others aren't having any problems and for $6 i'll give it a shot
 
Looking to hook up with BM users in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sorry, if this is not the place to post this, please let me know so I can move it.

Hello,
I am a new 50L BM owner in Spain. Haven't had much luck yet (2 bad brews out of three!). I will be in San Francisco visiting friends from next April 3 until April 30. I would love to meet some of you out there, so I can lean something from you (little will you learn from me) and give you a hand if you need it on a brewday. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Pedro
 
My BM50 arrived in perfect condition earlier this week. :ban: Was able to modify the plug and malt pipe as I wanted relatively easily (kudos to those who broke the ground for the rest of us!).
Not yet able to brew, had to have carpal tunnel surgery and am having neck problems again (had c3-c6 fusion). Looks like I should be able to brew mid to late April, or once it warms up here in Ohio. I don't have a vent set up in my basement yet to get rid of the water vapor, so that's out for now. Also have to watch what I lift, I am setting up an electric hoist to lift the malt tube, and dollies to move the BM and carboys around.
I also found a way to deal with the sharpness on the vertical edges of the legs as I heard someone mention, I used some computer case modding 'U' rubber molding I got on eBay, see attached pic:
bm50leg.jpg
Didn't use any glue, they have stayed on just with friction, though I may need to use contact cement or something else if need be.
Hope to break this bad boy in REAL soon!!!
 
Sorry to change the current topic, but DeGarre kind of got me thinking about volumes and software.

For the more experienced users of the BM; Who's using BeerSmith 2 and what's your equipment profile looking like? I've taken screenshots of those posted earlier in the thread and thought it may be worth asking again since you guys have most likely fine-tuned the numbers by now based on experience. If anyone does post their BeerSmith equipment profile, it'd be good to know what changes to the BM system you've made.

These are the numbers I've been using. I've very carefully measured all my volumes and gravities and with these number I'm consistently hitting them right on. My equipment is the 20L with a dip tube and a Therminator plate chiller. I mash with 23L, sparge to bring volume to 28.1L (right at the bottom of the malt pipe when it's resting on the rim) and use a 90 minute boil. Hope these work for you.

Profile.jpg
 
Very quiet here too. While we are waiting for an interesting new post, have a look at my dry hopped in a cask Timothy Taylor Landlord clone.

IMG_2012_zpsaa457d67.jpg
 
A bit long winded, but here's how brew #1 went;

I finally broke it in with an Oktoberfest Marzen. I figured I'd put it through it's paces with a bunch of steps (acid rest, protein rest, sac rest, and a mashout). Seriously, how much fun is it to open the lid after a pump break and watch the wort flow over the sides! My gravity expectations were hit within one point which was nice. The 90 minute boil was dead steady for the duration and all in all the brew day was 100% more enjoyable than my most previous (cooler mash tun, propane burner, 2 pots, etc).

I have to admit, I was pretty anxious considering pretty much every piece of equipment that I used in my last brew sat in storage except for two pieces of silicone hosing. I had purchased a plate chiller from Duda Diesel about a year ago and never got around to using it. That got the wort by gravity feed from 96C (boiling temp at my elevation according to the BM's temp sensor) to 10C taking roughly 10 minutes to fill the fermenter.

I was concerned about the break material getting into the chiller so I used one of those long SS spoons to whirlpool. Holding the top rigid about 20 cm above the centre post and using my other arm to consistently swirl the wort created a beautiful cone of break material around the centre post. After filling the fermenter, I still had 2 full litres of clear wort that I threw away as well as 1 litre of break material (the fluffy egg-drop soup type that pilsner malt tends to throw.

I opted to pass on any alterations to the BM on the first brew to set a baseline, and based on the efficiency of the brewday, I'll most likely leave it as is. Personally, I don't feel it necessary to make any modifications to this system if you use enough water up front to allow for the loss below the valve. Doing a whirlpool and letting it settle after the boil for about 10 minutes yields a 23L fermenters worth of crystal clear wort.
 
congrats on your smooth brewday! the only thing i'm not that thrilled about on the BM is the valve. mine has recently shifted its open point; used to be that if the handle was sticking straight out it was fully open. then suddenly the highest flow was about 15 degrees past straight out, and the max flow rate was waay lower than normal. i had never disassembled it (a mistake, there was quite a bit of gunk in there, i will now do this regularly), and when i did open it i saw the plastic sleeve (in which the metal cylinder spins) had turned a few degrees inside the valve housing, see before and after pics. maybe this was because it had sticky wort in it that i didn't properly clean, don't know. i always just ran oxyclean through while soaking the kettle but this isn't quite enough. you can see the gunk on the valve in the pics. you can bet that's getting a good cleaning later. anyways it was easy enough to turn the sleeve back to normal with pliers (shredding the end a bit, oh well). so in the before pic you see a crescent of the plastic sleeve.
now back to the good part;
yesterday's brewday, 25 liters of 16.8P (1.069) maris otter based wort, 24 L into the fermenter!! kept a good eye on the mash and stirred a lot, no problems. my best overall extract yet, i usually only shoot for 19-20 L of higher gravity wort
2qmiwox.jpg

1exkkw.jpg
 
81% is great for efficiency! A couple $'s or €'s per batch saved in grain adds up to full batches over time.
I'd bet the plastic rotated like it did on yours because of small amounts of dried wort building up over time. You know, how it needs to be "cracked" to break the beer-shellac like on taps that sit unopened for a week.
 
Has anyone tried one of these stainless steel strainers with their 20L BM? http://www.stainlessbrewing.com/Hop-Strainer-with-SS-Mesh_p_123.html

Because of my chill plate I really need to reduce the amount of trub and love the idea of the reusable stainless. Do you think this will interfere with the heating element?

Are you noticing a lot of hop/break material being purged from your chiller when you rinse & clean it after a brew? I'm no authority on plate chillers (I've only used mine once) but after a good whirlpool and letting the wort come to a full stop (about 5 mins after stirring) the cone of break material was about 3-4 inches away from the outlet. I kept the plug in the utility sink while flushing the chiller to observe what came out...nothing but wort tinted water. Granted, the beer in question was a Marzen with very little hops. A IIPA may be another story.

...that really didn't answer your question at all did it? :p
 
He'd have to hack a hole right through the middle of that mesh...hope he's got band-aids

Check out this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/new-way-control-pellet-hop-gunk-352293/

this guy has been doing a lot of custom work for people with really reasonable prices:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/members/chads454

You can find his site in his profile. I was thinking about getting one of his brew filters, but rather than having a hanger on top, having him weld a tube on the outside so the filter could be slid down the interior rod of the Braumeister.

Robert
 
I can picture what you're describing flemming, that's a good idea. Like I said in an earlier post, a IIPA worth of hops is something that no amount of whirlpooling is likely able to contain to the centre of the kettle. I'm just still giddy about dropping the wort temp from boiling to 10C in one pass.
 
Forgive my laziness but I dont want/have time to read through 200 pages of BM info. Hopefully I'm not repeating too much.

Iv done a few dozen brews on my 20L BM and I have figured out how to work with it to get good beer for the most part. Here are my two problems:

1) High gravity beers: The instructions say the max AG OG is 1.056. Iv managed something like 1.061 and that's a struggle when adding grain. Any clever mods/work arounds aside from just adding DME?

2) Whirlpool/trub: Im having a hard time keeping my brews clear. The higher outlet means I lose precious wort unless I lean it or use a dip tube in which case I get lots of trub. I haven't had great success with whirlpooling with a spoon as the centre post seems to interfere. Maybe im doing something wrong. I was planning on designing a whirlpool add-on kit that would work with a BM as well as most other kettle designs but if anyone can save me from buying a bunch of SS bits and a pump I would appreciate it.
 
Forgive my laziness but I dont want/have time to read through 200 pages of BM info. Hopefully I'm not repeating too much.

Iv done a few dozen brews on my 20L BM and I have figured out how to work with it to get good beer for the most part. Here are my two problems:

1) High gravity beers: The instructions say the max AG OG is 1.056. Iv managed something like 1.061 and that's a struggle when adding grain. Any clever mods/work arounds aside from just adding DME?

2) Whirlpool/trub: Im having a hard time keeping my brews clear. The higher outlet means I lose precious wort unless I lean it or use a dip tube in which case I get lots of trub. I haven't had great success with whirlpooling with a spoon as the centre post seems to interfere. Maybe im doing something wrong. I was planning on designing a whirlpool add-on kit that would work with a BM as well as most other kettle designs but if anyone can save me from buying a bunch of SS bits and a pump I would appreciate it.


The most grain I have packed in is almost 14 lbs and ended at around 1.072 I think with a bit over 5 gallons, this system isn't designed for big beers. About the only thing you can do is add Dme or double mash or boil down less than 5 gallons.
 
Thanks guys for the responses...I am still waiting on Thorsten to see when my unit will be shipped. I don't have the BM yet which puts me at an obvious disadvantage when trying to "complete" my brew setup so thanks for the feedback. I really like the links Flemming provided and will be looking into those once I actually receive the unit. Thanks!

@TheDecline I wonder if Whirfloc during the last 5 minutes of the boil would help as well as adding a packet or two of unflavored gelatin in the secondary? With my humble 5 gallon extract brews I noticed a significant improvement in clarity.
 
1) High gravity beers: The instructions say the max AG OG is 1.056. Iv managed something like 1.061 and that's a struggle when adding grain. Any clever mods/work arounds aside from just adding DME?

you can improve on this a lot. you must be getting 60-65% efficiency? how much grain are you using? i just posted a couple days ago (sorry to repeat) 81% efficiency to get 25L of 1.069 wort post 60 minute boil, using 6.86 kg grain total. for a 20L batch i can get into the high 1.070's easily. some things to consider trying perhaps: adjust your crush, maybe try the exact same mash with a finer or coarser crush and see how it changes your efficiency. stir the mash frequently, 3-4 times in a 60 minute mash is a minimum. for sure this helps a lot. i always do a small protein rest, i have no idea if this helps efficiency. mash with the lowest amount of water you can circulate and sparge as slowly as possible, get your volumes just right so the sparge gets you exactly to your pre-boil volume. i also like to add specialty grains that don't need mashing at the end (last 10 minutes) of the mash.
it's worth noting that the instructions in the manual are for no-sparge brewing.
 
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