Speidel Braumeister (brewmaster)

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hi all !
what a great thread, partly blamed for me buying 50l BM, receiving it 2 days ago :)
had a long brewday yesterday, brewed 2 batches and had weirdest problem on second one.

First brew went perfect, efficiency 80% ,OG 1.047
Second brew went without any problems as well, forgot to take pre-boil gravity, so only took gravity after cooling and I was shocked completely. estimated OG was 1.047, but actual was 1.040 (checked with 2 aerometers as I couldnt believe my eyes)!!!
Everything was the same as with 1st brew of the day, same grains, same mill, same water...
Only thing I notice was 'fountain' during the mash. Could this be reason for such low efficiency ?
pH of the mash was 5.55.
Puzzled completely...
Any ideas what might have gone wrong ?
I'm brewing just now 3rd batch and will see how this one goes...

Better late than never with the reply??

If you are getting a fountain, your mill gap is set too tight. The Braumeister is MORE EFFICIENT with a larger opening than you'd select for other types of brewing. That's counter-intuitive for most of us who used other AG methods before getting a BM.

I know - that doesn't explain the successful first batch and why IT didn't fountain. BUT I usually get mid 80's+ with that kind of OG. Setting my BC to 1.2mm/0.048" works well for me.

Some like pH 5.2 Stabilizer. That MAY help too.

Keep us posted
 
Hi.
I'm a BM user from Poland. I did 15 batches on this machine so far.
I had an identical incident with valve on my BM. I asked for a replacement, received it, and after 3 brews it happened again with the new one. I asked my BM dealer to check with Speidel directly as it seems to be general problem of this valves. In my opinion it has something to do with different materials expand and shrink differently if heated or cooled.

i emailed speidel from their website, just told them i had this problem with the valve and asked for advice, had a reply the next morning, they asked for my address and nothing more, i had the new model valve with the sunken divot to stop the plastic sleeve turning, within a few days. that's product support! awesome
 
Does anyone have an idea of what the threading size is? I'm thinking of replacing mine with a ball valve simply for the ability of using quick-connects.

3/4" BSP [female]


SS 9007-12-08 by Adaptall makes it into a 1/2" NPT [male]. However the lowest price is $69 from US distributor. I think there are 4 left now in USA. (Seems same stock as what was mentioned years ago, 6 down to 5 down to 4)
 
I am curious about getting BM but I had couple of questions if somebody can help me out.

So mashing design in this machine is fundamentally different from traditional "coolers/mash tuns". My concern is how does constant flow of liquid through grains affect the taste? I mean is it better to let grains mash quietly with occasional stir or it would not make a difference to let liquid flow through grains during the whole mashing process?

Also, what is the water to grain ratio on these units?

Greatly appreciated.
 
Nothing I worry about at all. Commercial mash tun's have stirrers to keep the mash moving and well mixed to help with efficiency and temperature stability. Do you think the Germans would make a piece of equipment that would produce sub-standard wort? Just buy one already! :)
 
Also, what is the water to grain ratio on these units?

you can't change the volume of water very much, you need a minimum amount for it to circulate. i typically start with 22-23 liters. a normal mash is 4-6 kg grain but you can go higher.
 
I am curious about getting BM but I had couple of questions if somebody can help me out.

So mashing design in this machine is fundamentally different from traditional "coolers/mash tuns". My concern is how does constant flow of liquid through grains affect the taste? I mean is it better to let grains mash quietly with occasional stir or it would not make a difference to let liquid flow through grains during the whole mashing process?

Also, what is the water to grain ratio on these units?

Greatly appreciated.

The flow through the grain bed in a Braumeister isn't all that different from the flow that would occur in a HERMS or RIMS type system. The only difference is the direction of the flow, i.e. bottom to top vs. top to bottom.

Since you don't sparge, at least by default, you do need to start with a lot more water than you'd have in a traditional cooler type setup. Thin vs. thick mass and its impacts or effeminacy, enzymatic reactions and flavor have been debated on these forums many time before.

While YMMV, the beer I'm producing is pretty damn tasty.
 
The flow through the grain bed in a Braumeister isn't all that different from the flow that would occur in a HERMS or RIMS type system. The only difference is the direction of the flow, i.e. bottom to top vs. top to bottom.

Since you don't sparge, at least by default, you do need to start with a lot more water than you'd have in a traditional cooler type setup. Thin vs. thick mass and its impacts or effeminacy, enzymatic reactions and flavor have been debated on these forums many time before.

While YMMV, the beer I'm producing is pretty damn tasty.

In regular cooler set up we dont circulate water nonstop only when we sparge.
Here it gets circulated non stop and at pretty good flow rate.
Just curious if that can decrease the efficiency and/or introduce off flavors.

I guess Germans do know what they are doing :)
 
The european 220 wire is quite small in diameter and the US 220 plug is made to accept a much larger gauge wire.
So I figured I would need to beef up the euro wire so the US plug could be attached and secured safely.

First I cut the European plug off in a way to use the portion next to the plug
so it could be used to make the euro wire thick enough
to be secured buy the larger 220 plug wire support.View attachment 37487

Next I threaded the euro wire through a section of 10 gauge sleeve that I had removed to expose
the wires for the 10 gauge wire extencion cord that I needed to make.View attachment 37488

I drilled out the part cut from the euro plug to be able to go over the sleeve from the 220 euro wire.
The inside had been molded to accept just the wires and was not large enough in diameter to go over the 220 euro wire sleeve.

I Threaded on the part cut from the euro plug (small end first) over the wires and sleeve
to make the portion close to the 220 plug big enough to be captured by the 220 wire keeper.
(green plastic part in the US 220 plug)View attachment 37489

I then wired the 220 plug with the green and yellow wire connected to the negative
as suggested in an earlier post.View attachment 37490

Then connect the other two wires to their respective parts of the plug and tested with a volt meter… Before plugging into the Braumeister.
Proud new member of the club, my BM20 just arrived yesterday!!!

Just now working on my plug and this post in particular was really helpful. I've got the same leviton 14-30P plug and although I'm certainly no electrician, isn't the green/yellow wire on the wrong prong? Redstag says he hooked it up to the "negative," which I assume he meant "neutral." Shouldn't it be on Ground?

From what I've read, again, I'm no electrician so correct me if I'm wrong:
In the old three-prong dryer plugs there were two hots and a neutral/ground (neutral/ground was the L-shaped prong). However, in the newer four prong plugs, which are now code, the neutral and ground were divided into two separate prongs: The round prong with the green screw is ground (to the right in his picture), and the L-shaped prong is neutral (to the left in his picture). The neutral prong isn't required since the BM doesn't need 120V. The BM's yellow/green wire is ground, not neutral, so it goes to the round prong with the green screw (ground). The BM's hot and neutral wires (brown and blue) then go to the plug's two hot prongs. Since the plug and receptacle's neutral isn't required, I'm not even going to insert the L-shaped prong into the case (the Leviton plug's prongs are are removable).

Does this sound about right? Hurry if I'm wrong, I'm wiring mine up this afternoon.

Cheers,
Todd
 
This is the pic I was referencing:

016.jpg
 
Did an 80L batch today in the 50L Braumeister. 25 lb grain then water+DME/sugar to proper OG. 1.06

Stoked that plate chiller, pump and CIP were all delivered in time and a success.

bb20g2.jpg


bb20g.jpg
 
This may have already have been covered, but I haven't found it with a quick search.

I'm thinking of brewing a Pliny the Elder clone. It needs about 14 lb. of grain. How about if I put 3 lb. in a bag, have the Braumeister heat a few liters of water to, say, 152 degees F in manual mode, put in the malt pipe and bottom screen with the pump turned off, and mash the 3 lb. for an hour ala BIAB. Then I would drain the bag for 15 minutes.

At that point I would add water to the drained wort to bring the volume to 23 liters, and go to automatic to mash the remaining 11lb. I would end up with 20 liters without putting in too much grain at any time.

Seems like it would work to me. Any problems that you can see?
 
Question about GFCI with 240v from a 14-30R:

Again, I'm no electrician, so I reserve the right to be wrong about any and all of this...

I've searched the forum and read a few things about GFCI with the BM, but nothing definitive, so I'll ask. I've also posted this to a few other electric brewing forums where people are using 240v.

In a US household 240v setup where you're using two out of phase hots to make 240, the neutral isn't being used. I thought GFCIs measure the difference between hot and neutral and trip if it exceeds parameters (the outgoing path exceeds the return path by certain limits). Neutral isn't being used in our setups though, each out of phase hot acts as the others neutral/return path. If the dedicated neutral isn't used, only the two hots and ground, will the GFCI still work? I'm not certain how a GFCI is wired internally - hopefully they also monitor the difference between out of phase hots. Somebody is using and posted a picture of a European GFCI receptacle and I wonder if it's actually working correctly. It's monitoring the return path, which in Europe is a dedicated neutral, but in the US is an out of phase hot. Hopefully it can handle the difference. Hopefully, these little GFCIs are smarter than me and can handle all of these iterations and trip appropriately.

[Note added for the forums where people are using the 120v and the 240v from the dryer plug, like http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/]
My electric brewery setup is a little different, I don't use 120v in mine. I'm still using a 14-30P four-prong dryer plug, but I'm only tapping the two hots and the ground, and then distributing it through a three-prong NEMA 6-20R. My brewery plugs in with a 6-20P, pulling 240v and ground. It's a Speidel Braumeister designed for European 230v and many people have simply put a four-prong 14-30P dryer plug on it, skipping the plug's neutral and wiring the European hot and neutral to the two hots on the dryer plug. Ground is still used. Nobody has any issues with it, but I'd like to add the safety of GFCI if possible.

Cheers,
Todd
 
pjk49202 said:
For those who have received their systems recently, what was the led time on getting your BM?

I had mine delivered within a week from Canadian Homebrew Supplies. They carry stock as far as I know, but they're a little more expensive than the US distributors.
 
It needs about 14 lb. of grain. How about if I put 3 lb. in a bag, have the Braumeister heat a few liters of water to, say, 152 degees F in manual mode, put in the malt pipe and bottom screen with the pump turned off, and mash the 3 lb. for an hour ala BIAB. Then I would drain the bag for 15 minutes.

At that point I would add water to the drained wort to bring the volume to 23 liters, and go to automatic to mash the remaining 11lb. I would end up with 20 liters without putting in too much grain at any time.

Seems like it would work to me. Any problems that you can see?

i can't see why it wouldn't work, but i also think it's not necessary. 14 lb is less than 6.5 kg; you should be able to get that in pretty easily in one go, with a bit of vigilance, frequent stirring. i have done > 7kg with success but for me that's pushing it a bit far. and i understand wanting to err on the side of safety! a stuck/overloaded mash in the bm is a pia
 
Hmmm...if I understand you right, then you need an extra pot to preheat the sparge water

you don't need it, but if you want to brew bigger beers then sparging will get you the extra efficiency needed to keep your grain load reasonable. but you don't need a big pot, a few liters will do. you can even use an instant electric tea kettle; just fill it up 1 liter at a time, heat it to sparge temp which should take a minute, pour it over, repeat a few times
 
Wasp, many thanks for reply.
Well I'm now 5 batches in and that 2nd batch seems like a fluke and/or most likely operator problem (too many homebrews at that second brew;) )
Last 3 batches were right around 80% eff, no fountains.

But thnx the mill suggestion. Will deffo change it a bit.

Also need to do some work brightness of the beer. I find my beers (still in fermentor apart from one) quite a bit more hazy than they used to be with old setup.
Might be down to a messy sparging i did as I'm still getting around how best to do a sparge.
What I did was : lift the pipe, add sparge water, let it drain, and then I removed half the grain or so and made a hole to the bottom of the grainbed in order to prevent another vacuum suction when I lifted grain bed out of the pot completely.
Maybe next time I'll just drain the pipe and put it in different pot where I'll collect sparge and see how clear it is and how much I gain in sugar to see if it's worth a hassle at all...
Also need to go back and reread old post once again to see how you guys do it, didnt pay enough attention in first read ;)






Better late than never with the reply??

If you are getting a fountain, your mill gap is set too tight. The Braumeister is MORE EFFICIENT with a larger opening than you'd select for other types of brewing. That's counter-intuitive for most of us who used other AG methods before getting a BM.

I know - that doesn't explain the successful first batch and why IT didn't fountain. BUT I usually get mid 80's+ with that kind of OG. Setting my BC to 1.2mm/0.048" works well for me.

Some like pH 5.2 Stabilizer. That MAY help too.

Keep us posted
 
Gotcha, I ordered mine through morebeer4u. I haven't received an order number from Germany yet. From what I understand that will take a while.

I ordered mine at the beginning of april directly from Speidel and they had around 2 weeks waiting list then.
Hope you get it soon, waiting is a b@tch :)
 
i can't see why it wouldn't work, but i also think it's not necessary. 14 lb is less than 6.5 kg; you should be able to get that in pretty easily in one go, with a bit of vigilance, frequent stirring. i have done > 7kg with success but for me that's pushing it a bit far. and i understand wanting to err on the side of safety! a stuck/overloaded mash in the bm is a pia

Thanks for the reply. I'm just starting out with the BM, so I'll probably go conservative and try the double mash.
 
rbdanley said:
This may have already have been covered, but I haven't found it with a quick search.

I'm thinking of brewing a Pliny the Elder clone. It needs about 14 lb. of grain. How about if I put 3 lb. in a bag, have the Braumeister heat a few liters of water to, say, 152 degees F in manual mode, put in the malt pipe and bottom screen with the pump turned off, and mash the 3 lb. for an hour ala BIAB. Then I would drain the bag for 15 minutes.

At that point I would add water to the drained wort to bring the volume to 23 liters, and go to automatic to mash the remaining 11lb. I would end up with 20 liters without putting in too much grain at any time.

Seems like it would work to me. Any problems that you can see?

I like the way you think, if works let me know.
 
Folks, In search of an opinion on the Braumeister use indoors. Not sure if this was covered yet in this super long thread.

I have the option of running this thing either in my laundry room or kitchen or garage (Having my house re-wired shortly considering 220v in the garage).

How much steam does this unit make. I would like to run it in my laundry room as it will be warmer to brew in the winter than in the garage. Are you guys using this indoors using this in the kitchen under the range hood or with a couple of windows open in a laundry room?

Just getting some ideas, the last thing I want to do in develop a moisture issue in my house all over putting on a jacket and brewing in the garage in the winter.

Thanks for the opinions.
 
I had wort rain (a saturated and dripping ceiling) in my kitchen the first time I brewed with the Braumeister and have since moved to the balcony. I did have a window open and the range hood on... That being said, the window slopes back into the room and the range hood is pretty useless.

A post way back in this thread suggested using the copper hood with an appropriately sized heating duct attached at one end and the other into an exhaust fan venting outside (at least this is how I pictured it).

I guess condensation will depend a little on other factors (such as ambient temperatures), but if you have a decent extractor or more appropriate windows, you should be ok. I know of others who brew indoors with much less mess than I incurred.
 
How much steam does this unit make. I would like to run it in my laundry room as it will be warmer to brew in the winter than in the garage. Are you guys using this indoors using this in the kitchen under the range hood or with a couple of windows open in a laundry room?

i brew almost exclusively in my kitchen. i close doors to bedrooms and such, and crack the kitchen windows, and weather permitting open some windows on the other side of the house to get airflow. when it's cool weather (which is most of the year here) i get some moderate condensation on the ceiling. we have that kind of paint that you can have on the ceiling of a shower so it doesn't seem to be a big deal. ideally i would run it under an extractor fan; those 2-3 liters boil-off have to go somewhere, but for my couple times a month brewing it's been fine for me just to open the windows. or on a nice day i take the show outside.
 
When I started homebrewing and did extract, I did my full boils in the kitchen, and never noticed anything. Of course, it's so dry here in the Winter, and the windows are open or the A/C is going during the warm weather, so that's probably why.
 
Hmmm...if I understand you right, then you need an extra pot to preheat the sparge water
1.jpg

80% mash efficiency isn't good enough for you? Why sparge? If you read books like Gordon Strong's Brewing Better Beer, you'll find he uses a "no sparge" technique or his maltiest and darker beers to limit the "graininess" that comes from sparging. With the Braumeister, you're basically never sparging and therfore always have that nice and smooth wort without the tannins.
 
i brew almost exclusively in my kitchen. i close doors to bedrooms and such, and crack the kitchen windows, and weather permitting open some windows on the other side of the house to get airflow. when it's cool weather (which is most of the year here) i get some moderate condensation on the ceiling. we have that kind of paint that you can have on the ceiling of a shower so it doesn't seem to be a big deal. ideally i would run it under an extractor fan; those 2-3 liters boil-off have to go somewhere, but for my couple times a month brewing it's been fine for me just to open the windows. or on a nice day i take the show outside.

I brew in my basement furnace room. I have no paint on the ceiling, just plumbing, hvac pipes, and rafters/wooden studs. I sometimes get concerned that I'll start growing mold there, but I brew one day every other week, and haven't seen anything forming there. The cold pipes do cause some steam to condense and drip down on the cement floor slowly over the course of the brew day. I wouldn't worry too much about it.
 
These questions about the efficiency of the Braumeister are getting tiresome. The efficiency is a NON-ISSUE with this machine, achieving 80%+ mash efficiency pretty consistently. Please see my post on 1 year after buying the braumeister for some insights into the machine's performance.

EVERY brewing system you will ever own will have it's limitations. Period. IMHO the biggest two limitations with the Braumeister 50L (and probably the 20L) are the volume/capacity of the malt-pipe limits the amount of grain you can put in it. Specifically, it limits you to a ceiling of ~ 1.060-1.065 for a 10 gallon batch without adding DME or other fermentables. The second limitation is that the boil is weak.

The former limitation can be worked around by doing a smaller volume of high gravity beer, or simply adding DME to achieve the gravity you want on a full 10 gallon batch. There's also the possibility of doing a double mash, but that's also a double PITA :).

The latter can be helped slightly by purchasing or making an insulated wrap, and doing an extended boil (I do 90 minutes standard) and rapid cooling with a good chiller to avoid DMS.
 
Also, what is the water to grain ratio on these units?

Greatly appreciated.

The whole idea of water-grain gets thrown out the window with this machine. Grain is pretty-densely packed in the malt pipe, and there's a larger volume (than you would see in most other systems) of water outside the malt-pipe that recirculates through it. Let's just leave it at that you get 80%+ mash efficiency with it.
 
Nothing you all haven't seen before, but who doesn't like looking at brewing pics :)

This was my second batch brewed on the BM, the first to be tasted (1st was a Marzen to be tapped late summer). I have to say, there's something more "refined" about this one compared to my old setup. Maybe it's all in my head. My brews were always good, but this one...

image-2462920191.jpg



image-1381165754.jpg



image-2630645762.jpg
 
These questions about the efficiency of the Braumeister are getting tiresome. The efficiency is a NON-ISSUE with this machine, achieving 80%+ mash efficiency pretty consistently. Please see my post on 1 year after buying the braumeister for some insights into the machine's performance.
soviet- great writeup, i hadn't seen it (was on vacation!). but i don't get 80% very easily on my 20L BM. the only time i got that high was with a lot of slow sparging. i had been on a corona mill and am now only 1 brew into a proper adjustable mill, so there is still room to fine tune that aspect, but on my first brew with the new mill i was in the same ballpark, 71% total efficiency with my standard ~23 L at dough-in plus about 4-5 L sparge, collect around 25 and boil down to 22. granted i don't know my mineral levels, my tap water "seems" middle of the road and mash pH when measured (admittedly not often) has checked in between 5.0 and 5.5...
and like you i am a friend of the dme. i plan big beer recipes around a dme addition, and use it to fine tune normal beers whenever needed
 
soviet- great writeup, i hadn't seen it (was on vacation!). but i don't get 80% very easily on my 20L BM. the only time i got that high was with a lot of slow sparging. i had been on a corona mill and am now only 1 brew into a proper adjustable mill, so there is still room to fine tune that aspect, but on my first brew with the new mill i was in the same ballpark, 71% total efficiency with my standard ~23 L at dough-in plus about 4-5 L sparge, collect around 25 and boil down to 22. granted i don't know my mineral levels, my tap water "seems" middle of the road and mash pH when measured (admittedly not often) has checked in between 5.0 and 5.5...
and like you i am a friend of the dme. i plan big beer recipes around a dme addition, and use it to fine tune normal beers whenever needed

Did you read the part in my write up about mash efficiency vs. brewhouse efficiency? Which one are you measuring? If you're using beersmith or the like, the "efficiency" you see on the recipe design main tab is brewhouse efficiency. Mine is more like 67%. My mash efficiency, however, is 80%+, and yours should be as well. Let me know if you need help figuring out your mash efficiency.
 
FedEx tried to deliver my BM today but alas I was not around. Unfortunately, this package is not available to hold so I have no idea when I'm going to be around during the day to sign for it. :( Can't wait to get cracking on this thing!
 
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