Speidel Braumeister (brewmaster)

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We had a near catastrophe yesterday

When it came time to lift the malt pipe, I removed the wing nut and the top sieves and the grain under them suddenly rose, and before I could react, were 1/8" above the top of the malt pipe and grain was overflowing into the outer compartment.


I've figured out what happened. I brewed another batch of beer Sunday (a Brown Ale). When the system announced that the mashing process was complete. It waits for you to press a button acknowledging the message.... BUT it does not pause its processing until you acknowledge the message - at which time it prompts for removal of the malt pipe and pauses processing - including stopping the pump.

When the aforementioned, near-catastrophe, event occurred, and the system announced that the mashing process was complete, I erroneously assumed that it was paused. The wort was not overflowing the malt pipe, and the pump was off; but, apparently, just as I removed the malt pipe hold-down bow, the pump kicked on, and the wort and grain rose.

In a previous post I stated that I did not think the pump was on, but it had to be. In the excitement, I lost all awareness....
 
In a 60 minute gentle rolling boil I gain 4 points.

I gained 9 points in my previous brew with a 60 min boil. My pre boil gravity was 1.036 and OG 1.045. That's an increase of 20%, and with a 90 min boil I usually get around 28%. I have the 50l and the boiling temp set to 102 C.
 
I've been using this system for a while and typically see 75-78% efficiency. I hadn't really given much thought to the flow through the grain as most of the grain bills were reasonably similar as far as total pounds.

Yesterday though, I brewed a mild which was about 8 pounds of grain in total including the specialty malts. This is for the 20 liter setup. My preboil gravity (and post boil) was about 9 points over what it should have been. As this is a low gravity/low alcohol beer that's quite a lot.

Could it be the grain had so much room in the malt tube that the efficiency was that much better? Has anyone else had this experience and if so do you adjust your efficiency assumptions?

I'm not particularly fussed about it as the beer will taste great and just be a brown ale. I could have added more water but I really only wanted 5 gallons at the end of the day. Just curious if anyone has had similar experiences.
 
@Refly

What was your efficiency for that last run?
How/what software are you calculating your efficiencies?
How/what size are you milling your grain?

With a grain bill of around 4 Kg (<9lb) and my BC set to 1.2mm (0.048") I typically get ~85% efficiency (using BeerSmith).
 
If you're hitting your final volume it doesn't really make sense that your chiller is leaking. To have no change in gravity from pre to post boil means you'd have to leak the same amount you've evaporated in which case your final volume would equal your starting volume. For the sake of being thorough you could try checking your hydrometer in a known sugar solution. Dissolve 10g of sugar in 90g of distilled water and see if it reads 1.040. Don't forget to adjust for whatever temperature your hydrometer is calibrated at.

Robert

I tested my hydrometer using your suggestion and the hydrometer was right on. I think I've figured out what's happening. I'm dealing with two issues:

1) BeerSmith calculates its predicted OG using batch volume NOT post-boil volume. Except for allowing for cooling shrinkage, how can the gravity change just by transferring the wort to the fermenter? You would think these numbers would be the same. Not so in BeerSmith. See

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=17961&start=0

When I adjusted the numbers in BeerSmith it turns out my predicted pre-boil gravities changed and were not spot on as previously thought.

2) I sparge to the bring boil volume up to the planned pre-boil amount. I figure there must be a density gradient with all the heavy wort at the bottom of the tank and the lighter, newly sparged wort at the top. When I take my pre-boil sample I'm taking it through the BM spigot (with dip tube) getting nothing but the heavy stuff, basically getting a gravity reading of the pre-sparge density. This makes my pre-boil gravity readings higher than what the wort as an average really is. This would explain why my pre-boil and post-boil gravities appear to be about the same, I'm boiling off about the same amount that I sparged with leaving me with about the same gravity readings.

When I finish sparging my next batch I'm going to use a turkey baster and take samples from various depths in the tank and compare the results to see just how much of a gradient there is.

Thanks for the help.

Happy Thanksgiving,
Brian

Remember, Thanksgiving came about when the crew and passengers on the Mayflower stopped short of their intended destination because they ran out of beer. Therefore beer must be included in any truly traditional Thanksgiving celebration.
 
I hit 85-90 % efficiency with my typical 4.5-5.5 kg grain bill, using 26 litres water to mash and 6 litres to rinse, but I do need to work hard for that efficiency:

1. rinse water is ~75 DegC
2. as soon as the mash is over and I have lifted the pipe to drain, and most of the wort is in the kettle, I move the malt pipe onto an upside down turned lid and buckets
3. sloooooooooow rinsing begins, 6 litres might take half an hour easily, I rotate the pipe a bit every now and then so fresh spot is on top of the slit hole in the lid
4. after a while I take off the top grill and sieve and while rinsing, poke the grain with a paddle and squeeze off liquid. Despite this wort stays clear
5. at some stage I switch buckets and use a kitchen sieve to pour wort into kettle so no loose grain goes in

A bit labour-intensive when I'd rather be sanitising FV's and tending to the yeast.
 
Well, I made the move and ordered a 50L Braumeister after deciding to move the brewery indoors. The good news: I ordered on 10/25 and FedEx delivered on 11/20 less than 4 weeks. The bad news: The box was in good shape, no visible damage to the box. When I unpacked it, the lower rear handle is pushed in, denting the tank at both welds and the handle weld is broke on one side. Talked to Thorsten, he was helpful and I am sending pictures. But a heads up- Thorsten said it's better to unpack in front of FedEx no matter if the box is in good shape in order to help him/Speidel to make a shipping claim. I'll follow up on how this is resolved.
 
I hit 85-90 % efficiency with my typical 4.5-5.5 kg grain bill, using 26 litres water to mash and 6 litres to rinse, but I do need to work hard for that efficiency:

Have you checked your gravity before you start sparging to see how your gravity changes throughout the sparge? I've noticed that when I mash with around 5 Kg and have my mash efficiency set on 78%, I'll hit my gravity with +/- 2 points without any rinsing. I'd rather throw in a couple hundred more grams of malt to make up for my efficiency, then to waste half an hour sparging, just to get those few extra percentages.

When talking homebrewing you really don't need to worry about mash effiency. Anything over 60% and you'll be allright. I would be more concerned about pre boil gravity, knowing your boil (evaporation rate) etc.

I'm still trying to dial in all my 50l. On my last brew, my target OG was 1.046 and I hit 1.045, but my pre boil gravity was only 1.036. I still got -1 point from my target OG because i had a huge evaporation rate (20%) on a 60 min boil @ 102 C, which I think is way too much.

I personally wouldn't care even if my mash efficiency dropped down to 65% as long as I hit my preboil gravity, and my evaporation rate stayed at around 10% on a 60 min boil. I'v had some problems with my lighter beers turning out somewhat cloying, even if I just used a small amount of crystal malts. The only thing I can think of, is that the too vigorous boil crystallizes the sugars contributing to a heavier mouthfeel.

But as I said, I'm still dialin in the system. Next time I do a similar batch I'm gonna set my boil temp to 100 C just to see if it makes any difference. I'd might also have to lower my efficiency a bit to make up for the lost evaporation rate.

There's really nothing more I can do then to brew more, and take precise notes on everything that goes on during the brew day. When I get my system dialed in, that's when I finally can start fine tuning my recipes.


Damn this Nøgne ø imperial Stout is making me drunk. :)



Edit: Got this new wingnut that a friend made (he actually made me two) .

542862_10151211472109681_366492370_n.jpg


No more do I need to worry about the small Spiedel nut dropping into the wort when removing the screens to stir the mash.
 
I'd rather throw in a couple hundred more grams of malt to make up for my efficiency, then to waste half an hour sparging, just to get those few extra percentages.

me too. i try to walk the line between high grain load and higher efficiency only when making big beers and not wanting to overload the pipe. i got burned a couple times early on, overloading the pipe and losing efficiency big time. i always sparge but i don't wait around long for it. when i sparge i let the main flow drain into the pot, then remove the malt pipe to a separate pot. whatever collects in there in the time it takes to get the wort to a boil, i add to the pot, depending on how my pre-boil volume is looking. i wonder if you start to pick up astringency if you over-sparge, like everyone says you do? for me it's not worth finding out. i'd rather fine tune with dme

Damn this Nøgne ø imperial Stout is making me drunk. :)

awesome beer
 
.....I'd rather throw in a couple hundred more grams of malt to make up for my efficiency, then to waste half an hour sparging, just to get those few extra percentages....
+1

Edit: Got this new wingnut that a friend made (he actually made me two) .

No more do I need to worry about the small Spiedel nut dropping into the wort when removing the screens to stir the mash.
I like that

With a grain bill of up to 4.5 Kg and my BC set to 1.2mm (0.048") I typically get ~85% efficiency using BeerSmith. Counterintuitively, I found that a coarser crack improved my efficiency. I have recently started adding 50-100g of rice - hulls but I’m not sure how much this helps.

Reasoning that improved wort flow through the grain bed is behind the improvement in efficiency, I now always fill to the 30L mark which gives me 25-26L pre-boil without sparging – just draining the malt pipe. I think it results in a further few points because the flow through the grain bed is faster with the reduced lift required - the wort level in the kettle is higher. There is also the added bonus of clearer wort at the start of the boil.

Even with a 90 minute boil I always end up with maybe 3 or 4L after filling a corny. No problem, I enjoy the bottle-conditioned version too.

When I have done a second similar type mash the same day, I have sparged the grains into a bucket and added it to the next mash . I suppose I could also sparge maybe 4L and freeze it in plastic containers for future use if I were THAT concerned about efficiencies.

BUT this is complicating the procedure after buying the rig for its ease and simplicity of operation. I’m still beating my previous efficiencies (with 5usg Igloo and 10usg Rubbermaid coolers with SS false bottoms) WITHOUT sparging. Unlike some locations, grain is cheap enough here that the extra cost involved is negligible.
 
@Refly

What was your efficiency for that last run?
How/what software are you calculating your efficiencies?
How/what size are you milling your grain?

With a grain bill of around 4 Kg (<9lb) and my BC set to 1.2mm (0.048") I typically get ~85% efficiency (using BeerSmith).

87% according to iBrewmaster. I have eeked out 80% plus with a longer mash, but this was just 60 minutes so I expected more in the 75% range which is what I normally get with a larger grain bill for that amount of time.

I'm still at the factory default on the mill as I've never had to change the crush. Unfortunately I'm not sure what the setting is. That being said it's the same crush I always use so it wasn't one of the variables.

Do you change your estimation of efficiency based on the size of the grain bill or has it remained constant for you? It could be I had some other variable change that I'm not accounting for so I'm trying to figure out if this was a one-off experience or if I should expect a better efficiency with less grain.
 
87% according to iBrewmaster. I have eeked out 80% plus with a longer mash, but this was just 60 minutes so I expected more in the 75% range which is what I normally get with a larger grain bill for that amount of time.

I think 87% is about as good as it gets for most of us. That number gets lower as the grain bill approaches maximum malt tube capacity.

I'm still at the factory default on the mill as I've never had to change the crush. Unfortunately I'm not sure what the setting is. That being said it's the same crush I always use so it wasn't one of the variables.

The default setting on my BC is 1mm (0.039"). I always condition my grain and I found that going tighter improved my efficiencies when using my 10usg cooler and false bottom for batch sparges. I quickly discovered that the Braumeister works much better with the default 1mm setting, better still with 1.2mm. (Yep, I had channeling - with a small fountain.) I mill my wheat separately at the default 1mm setting.

Do you change your estimation of efficiency based on the size of the grain bill or has it remained constant for you? It could be I had some other variable change that I'm not accounting for so I'm trying to figure out if this was a one-off experience or if I should expect a better efficiency with less grain.

I leave my estimated mash efficiency at 80% in BeerSmith and now ALWAYS beat that number (low 80's to 87%). I never measure the total volumes accurately, but try to estimate as accurately as possible based on my graduated primary fermenter and an actual measurement of trub.

I must admit that I am not interested in chasing abv's much higher than 6%. Someday I might try a barleywine. I suspect the best route being repeat mashings of the same wort - if I don't go the DME route.

I'm not necessarily a "purist". :mug:
 
Well, I made the move and ordered a 50L Braumeister after deciding to move the brewery indoors. The good news: I ordered on 10/25 and FedEx delivered on 11/20 less than 4 weeks. The bad news: The box was in good shape, no visible damage to the box. When I unpacked it, the lower rear handle is pushed in, denting the tank at both welds and the handle weld is broke on one side. Talked to Thorsten, he was helpful and I am sending pictures. But a heads up- Thorsten said it's better to unpack in front of FedEx no matter if the box is in good shape in order to help him/Speidel to make a shipping claim. I'll follow up on how this is resolved.

Sorry to hear that. I had a similar experience with my first 50L. The box was beat to bejeezus when it showed up so I did unpack it in front of the FedEx driver. Everything appeared OK, there were a few minor appearing dents I assumed were cosmetic. I pointed them out to the driver and accepted the shipment. Turns out they weren't, even tho everything worked properly on the component level the malt pipe couldn't make a seal with the bottom of the pot. I had to go through a long waiting period to get a replacement. According to Thorsten Speidel was resistant to sending a new one out due to the damage not being noted by FedEx. Even though I did point it out the driver it didn't get into the system somehow. The replacement arrived in better condition, though there were still some cosmetic dents, they were nothing like the first one and it worked fine.

If I were Speidel I'd consider revamping the packaging. I'm sure it's adequate 90% of the time. However in international shipments I suspect that there are that many more opportunities for loading docks, trucks, and less-than-gentle handlers to do some damage.

Anyway, Thorsten is a good fellow and will get it sorted out for you I'm sure.
Good luck!
:mug:

ps. speaking of Thorsten sorting out problems, one of my pumps has been acting wonky (odd pressure fluctuations and on/off cycling out of synch with the other pump) for some time, months at least. During my last epic brewcave clean-a-thon (which I did sober :p) this past Sunday I had dissembled the pumps when I noticed one of my impellers had a broken blade that either had just occurred or perhaps had been there for some time. I am normally not an oblivious person, but I could see how one could not notice. The blades seem to be molded from a homogenous material so it's actually almost camouflaged against the same dark color. You can see it in the attached pic. I hunted for the missing piece but couldn't find it anywhere...I use a filter when I pump my wort out through my chiller into a fermenter I'm guessing it may have ended up in there with all the trub or something? It wasn't in the pump fittings or the pot itself.

Regardless Thorsten was quick to act and I hope to receive a replacement soon.

IMG_20121125_122446.jpg
 
I must admit that I am not interested in chasing abv's much higher than 6%. Someday I might try a barleywine. I suspect the best route being repeat mashings of the same wort - if I don't go the DME route.

I'm not necessarily a "purist". :mug:

me neither. last weekend i brewed my biggest beer, 1.100, on the speidel so far (well, not entirely on the speidel) so i thought i'd post my strategy. i'm not at all saying this is the best way to do it but it went well and was relatively easy. i was going for general easy brew day, i'm not really feeling the consecutive mash schedule, although crazily impressive, and i am also no AG purist. so it's part speidel, part extract (about 10% of the fermentables), part BIAB. made the tricentennial stout (russian imperial) from brewing classic styles. i ferment in a temp-controlled corny (19L) so i was aiming for something like 17 L out of the kettle, expecting an explosive fermentation (that proved true enough, it's still blowing out both blowoff tubes volcanically) so this was calculated as a 20L batch on beersmith, with 70% efficiency i think. i mashed only the base grain in the speidel (5 kg maris otter, 800 g wheat malt in ~23 L), short protein rest and then mash at 65 for 90 minutes, mash out. the mash was beautifully clear and ran off easily, towards the end i took the enormous load of chocolate, roasted barley (1 kg each) and crystal (350 g) and brew-in-a-bag steeped them in 5L of 65 degree water on the stovetop. meanwhile prepared 4 L of 65 degree water as sparge. removed the grain bag and gave it a hearty squeeze to get most of the oily thick black goo out, then dunked it in the sparge, stirred well, drained again. then used this sparge water to sparge the mash. added the 1st runnings of the specialty grains directly to the kettle. collected enough sparge runnings to get to ~26 L all together, which took very little time with the well-flowing grain bed. boiled down to 20 L which took 135 minutes. of course i waited to see what the approximate boil off rate was before calculating the hop additions. added 1 kg of light DME towards the end of the boil. the hop bill for this beer is enormous and all low AA hops, added them as free range pellets, huge trub loss there, as anticipated. hit my gravity of 1.100, cooled, aerated (repeated at 12 hours), allowed to settle for over an hour, knocked out just the right amount of clear wort to the corny. pitched a shocking amount of fresh wyeast 1968 yeast cake. commence eruption
 
.....last weekend i brewed my biggest beer, 1.100, on the speidel so far (well, not entirely on the speidel) ..... the tricentennial stout (russian imperial) from brewing classic styles.....

Wow! That’s an impressive brew Dinnerstick.

I liked the sound of that brew so I did a search and imported it from BeerSmith Recipe Cloud to take a closer look. 10.68kg grains, 357g hops, etc. for a total cost of $622.35 – WTF! – The UK Pale Ale Malt was priced at $52.91/kg everything else had weird prices too. Substituting my costs it still comes to $99.33. I’ll have to start feeding my piggybank for this brew.

You used Wyeast 1968 (London ESB) yeast, I have White Labs 013 (London) on hand as well as WLP004 (Irish). I wonder how two consecutive mashes(5.34kg each) would compare with your results?

What are your thoughts?
 
wasp - i wonder also but have never tried the consecutive mash strategy. maybe someone who has can comment. my total grain bill (excluding extract) was only 8.15 kg; here the MO is about 13 euro for 5 kg and the others around 3 euro per kg, so plus 1 kg extract (8 euro) was only 30 euro or so. it' CAN'T be that your base malt is $50 / kg! even over there in bob & doug ville. due to AA differences i used 125 g EKG and 120 g NB hops, in all only about 10 euro worth of hops, and the yeast was harvested, so free. so not really a bank breaker but english malt is relatively cheap here, and my character and wheat malt was belgian; cheap. the recipe calls for irish ale yeast (is 004 the same strain as wyeast1084?) i believe for both the slightly higher (than 1968) attenuation and because the recipe's author mike riddle says the diacetyl that it produces at higher ferm temps (~20) is part of this beer's character. i went with 1968 because 1. i had a lot of it, very freshly harvested, and 2. i love it in my other stouts, but if i had the irish on hand i would have used it. let us know how you get on, someone should try the same recipe with a double mash and send me a few bottles to compare.
 
I must admit that I am not interested in chasing abv's much higher than 6%. Someday I might try a barleywine. I suspect the best route being repeat mashings of the same wort - if I don't go the DME route.

I'm not necessarily a "purist". :mug:

I'm with you on the abv's. I like bigger beers - I'll take a Belgian triple/quadruple any day - just usually not in quantities of 5 gallons. In this case I was actually going for the low end on abv. I was brewing a mild so I was looking for something around 3.0-3.5%. It's still low in alcohol, but a bit out of style with the higher efficiency. No big deal - it's still beer.

Thanks for all the feedback. :)
 
Just bottled my triple mashed Imperial Stout the other day. OG on this bad boy was 1.141 and the wlp090 got it down to 1.040. Had it sitting on 160 grams of Jack Daniel's wood smoking chips for two weeks just to get a bit of Bourbon caracter to it. I really have my hopes up on this one. All that recidual sweetness combined the Bourbon flavor in the back ground should be great.
 
@ dinnerstick
Yeah, the cost of everything in that recipe was F’d up when I imported it. Maybe something I did? :eek:

The last 25kg bag of MO I bought cost me $74 CAD (58.60 euro) = 2.30 euro per kg, my specialty malts are $3.99 CAD/kg, my hops cost from $5 to $10 per 100g. Maybe Bob & Doug ville ain’t too expensive.

I’m really pissed-off because I have everything in that recipe in stock - I don’t even need to raid the piggy bank - but commitments mean that I cannot get it brewed for maybe 3 months. I love my darker “Brit-Brews” in the winter months, but that means that it will be ready for serving just as the temperatures start to soar and I am ready for PA’s, IPA’s, Lagers, Kölsch, and the Cerveza lawnmower brew that my friends favour ’cos it reminds them of vacations in Mexico.

Someday I’ll brew it and I’ll be sure to let you know how it turns out. Don’t know how well it would travel across the pond though.:mug:

@ Refly
Mild @ 3% and Bitter around 4% definitely have a place in my choice of beers. I also quite like Mild or a Cerveza with some lime when I’m lawnmowing in sweltering weather, or want to keep a clear(er) head. OTOH, plenty of friends help me out when I have too much of any style of beer - I wouldn't want to waste it - nor would they. :)

@ Batfink
What was the weight of each charge of grains? Did you mix all the grains and then divide it into 3 equal parts or did you leave the specialty grains to the last mash, mashing the pale grains first?
 
@ Batfink
What was the weight of each charge of grains? Did you mix all the grains and then divide it into 3 equal parts or did you leave the specialty grains to the last mash, mashing the pale grains first?

I did three 6kg mashes and put all the speciality grains in the last run. My efficiency was only about 35%, so I doubt I'll try this again. I'd rather just do a double mash and correct my pre boil gravity with DME if I want to brew a + 1.100 beer.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/speidel-braumeister-brewmaster-229225/index173.html#post4561147
 
I did three 6kg mashes and put all the speciality grains in the last run. My efficiency was only about 35%, so I doubt I'll try this again. I'd rather just do a double mash and correct my pre boil gravity with DME if I want to brew a + 1.100 beer.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/speidel-braumeister-brewmaster-229225/index173.html#post4561147

35% - Ouch! :eek:

I'm wondering whether 2 x 5kg mashes (+ DME if necessary) might be the best way to go.

Here's my reasoning:

18kg x 35% = 6.3

10kg x 80% = 8

Or is my reasoning off?
 
You used Wyeast 1968 (London ESB) yeast, I have White Labs 013 (London) on hand as well as WLP004 (Irish).

i know it's off topic for the speidel thread, but my 1.100 RIS was down to 1.033 in 4 days with a big pitch of wyeast1968!! only 51 more weeks until drinking time
 
That´s pretty amazing dinnerstick 67% in four days you are already in the low end of the attenuattion of the strain. I´m getting Christmas time of off from work, I´m planning a big barley wine for the 21st of December and was thinking about 1968 but was afraid that it may end up too sweet. please, let me know how it goes and how much attenuattes looks promising
 
i'm guessing it's done, but i'm giving it another week before doing anything, it's been 6 days now and it's on the dry hop, that will be 2 weeks total in primary, starting at 20 and ramping slowly to 22 degrees. i don't have pure O2 but aerated twice with a sterile filter and pump, and pitched a lot (400 ml) slurry from a previous brew. when i rack from the primary i'll post the gravity. i bet it's pretty close to 1.033.
 
If you're hitting your final volume it doesn't really make sense that your chiller is leaking. To have no change in gravity from pre to post boil means you'd have to leak the same amount you've evaporated in which case your final volume would equal your starting volume. For the sake of being thorough you could try checking your hydrometer in a known sugar solution. Dissolve 10g of sugar in 90g of distilled water and see if it reads 1.040. Don't forget to adjust for whatever temperature your hydrometer is calibrated at.

Robert

Just had a brewday Friday and tested my theory about the density gradient after sparging. Taking a sample of the wort form the top of the kettle gave my a pre-boil gravity of 1.038. Taking a sample from the bottom of the kettle gave me a pre-boil gravity of 1.059. I stirred the wort and turned the pumps on to mix things up and got an overall pre-boil gravity of 1.047. Post-boil gravity was 1.059. If you look at the pre-boil gravity from the bottom of the kettle and the post-boil gravity, they're the same. This is the problem I was having, measuring it from the wrong place. The numbers now make sense.

Thanks for your help,
Brian
 
Finally putting up some BM brewing vids in youtube, linking them to my boring recipe log blog -

http://tavastlandbrewing.wordpress.com/2011/10/23/fumbling-my-way-through-a-brewday/

Boring stuff, nothing like Rob's. If nothing else, at least you'll see what the footprint is

I just watched your videos and am impressed with the Braumeister. I got a Sabco in 2007 and while it's a great machine it certainly wouldn't fit in the kitchen. It looks like Speidel got it right: in function, size and quality. Kudos on your purchase!
 
Hello everyone!

Been brewing on the Braumeister for a little under a year now, only about 10 brews under my belt with it. Went through a pump and it sounds like the replacement is going but other than that i have been having fun.

Running into a slight issue with power at the moment however, i have been using a 5000w power converter for all of my brews and it has started to blow fuses within itself and smell a lot like melting solder recently...the last thing i want is a fire while i am brewing.

I have recently moved into a new house that has a brew room in the basement (the previous owner made wine and built an awesome room with a utility sink)

I have power in the basement area next to this room and a dryer vent and plan on using these.

The problem is that the power is not a 220 line...it is a 250v 30 amp line.

My plan was to order a power cable for the braumeister that would fit on this plug (when i thought it was 220) but seeing that it is 250v i do not want to blow up my awesome beer making machine.


The plug it the picture attached.

If i order a plug that has the braumeister end and then a 250v on the other end to fit this am i going to blow up my braumeister?

bm.jpg
 
Hello everyone!

I've been brewing with the braumeister 20 liter for about 7 months, and recently i've been interested in brewing some sour beers.
After cooking up a Flanders red I decided to do a Berliner weisse. And instead of buying lacto I went with the sour mash technique, which went like a charm. First I did a regular mash with pilsner and wheat malt (+ oat husks) at 65 c for 1 hour, and sparged as usual. Og 1.034. Then I put in my immersion chiller for a couple of seconds to bring the wort just down below 50 c.
After that I tossed in a hop bag filled with about 0,5kg of uncrushed pilsner malt and put the braumeister in manual mode set at 43 c with the pump off. Then i purged some co2 on top of the wort before putting a plastic bag over the braumeister before the lid.

48 hours the wort smelled great (no baby diapers or vomit what so over) and was sooour as a lemon!
After the sour mash I boiled for 15 min with a few grams of hops, chilled and pitch s-05. Bottle time this weekend!

Has anyone else done a full sour mash with the braumeister? what were your results?

Greetings from a blizzard in Stockholm!
 
Hello everyone!

Been brewing on the Braumeister for a little under a year now, only about 10 brews under my belt with it. Went through a pump and it sounds like the replacement is going but other than that i have been having fun.

Running into a slight issue with power at the moment however, i have been using a 5000w power converter for all of my brews and it has started to blow fuses within itself and smell a lot like melting solder recently...the last thing i want is a fire while i am brewing.

I have recently moved into a new house that has a brew room in the basement (the previous owner made wine and built an awesome room with a utility sink)

I have power in the basement area next to this room and a dryer vent and plan on using these.

The problem is that the power is not a 220 line...it is a 250v 30 amp line.

My plan was to order a power cable for the braumeister that would fit on this plug (when i thought it was 220) but seeing that it is 250v i do not want to blow up my awesome beer making machine.


The plug it the picture attached.

If i order a plug that has the braumeister end and then a 250v on the other end to fit this am i going to blow up my braumeister?


Your actual electricity voltage is probably somewhere between 220v and 250v. It should be the same as all other residential 240v systems in the U.S. The 250V on the receptacle is just its rating. It is not the voltage of your electricity. If you measure the voltage across the two hots of the receptacle you will see your actual voltage (under no load. - It might drop a bit under load). If measure from the ground of the receptacle to either hot you should see 1/2 of the voltage; i.e. ~120v.

Running your Braumeister on this will not damage it because of the type of plug (assuming everything is wired correctly). And as long as the voltage does not exceed the Braumeister voltage rating, everything should work just fine. In fact, you should be better off without the converter.

The Braumeister manual shows '230 V ~'. That means 'approx. 230 V'. I believe U.S. electricity is more properly called 240v (and 120v), but you will hear it referred to as 220, 230, 240, etc. Spiedel says that the Braumeister is designed to run properly with U.S. electricity.
 
Your actual electricity voltage is probably somewhere between 220v and 250v. It should be the same as all other residential 240v systems in the U.S. The 250V on the receptacle is just its rating. It is not the voltage of your electricity. If you measure the voltage across the two hots of the receptacle you will see your actual voltage (under no load. - It might drop a bit under load). If measure from the ground of the receptacle to either hot you should see 1/2 of the voltage; i.e. ~120v.

Running your Braumeister on this will not damage it because of the type of plug (assuming everything is wired correctly). And as long as the voltage does not exceed the Braumeister voltage rating, everything should work just fine. In fact, you should be better off without the converter.

The Braumeister manual shows '230 V ~'. That means 'approx. 230 V'. I believe U.S. electricity is more properly called 240v (and 120v), but you will hear it referred to as 220, 230, 240, etc. Spiedel says that the Braumeister is designed to run properly with U.S. electricity.



Thank you for putting my mind at ease. Now maybe i can get these guys to make me a cable http://www.elecordset.com/moreinfo.aspx?pid=NEMA10-30P&cs=/products/HeavyDuty.aspx&ai=M

From what i read the Braumeister uses a c13 end, so a nema 10-30p with a c13 female should do the trick.

Then on to installing a vent hood and i can be brewing nearly every day while i do my day job!
 
Hello everyone!

After that I tossed in a hop bag filled with about 0,5kg of uncrushed pilsner malt and put the braumeister in manual mode set at 43 c with the pump off.

interesting, i was wondering where i was going to do my first sour mash (wort). might have to try that. but in the summer! light lemony beer in a blizzard?? a snowblower beer? crazy swedes!
hope it turns out great, cheers for the idea
 
I see they are now making a 500l unit. That would work good for a small brew pub, no price on the unit post yet,so that would be approx 8 kegs. They also have now posted new 550l ferms, with 5-7 of those, I think that would be a nice cheap way into a brew pub.
 
Another alternative to the dryer plug end. First, to add to the post by psehorne - voltage ratings are "nominal" numbers and not the actual measured voltage. You have to use a volt meter to measure the actual Line-to-Line (black wire to black wire) voltage at your panel. Typical US line-to-neutral (black wire to white wire) voltages can be anywhere from 110V to 120V (220V to 240V Line-to-Line). The Line-to-Line voltage on a single phase residential system is double the Line-to-neutral voltage. The Speidel is rated at 230V and as psehorne said is rated to work on the US (220V-240V) line-to-line system. The difference between the US and Euro systems is that Europe is 50Hz and US is 60Hz. This only really matters for motors and analog clocks, etc as they will not operate correctly. But, no issue with the Braumeister as it mainly a resistive heater, the computer power supply converts the voltage run the computer, and the pump(s) are rated 200-240V 50/60Hz (I is an electric utility engineer...).
If you want to use the Speidel plug as-is International Configurations Inc sells a European receptacle that fits in a standard US single-gang box.
The receptacle is part # - 70100X45
Adapter frame is part # - 79120X45-N
White cover plate part# - 79130X45-N
about $30 total.
They also sell a GFCI version which was discussed in Post #636.
 
I have the 50L Braumeister
Fill to the prescribed mark.
Sparge to replace the water absorbed by the grain.
Boil as stated for the recipe. 60 or 90 min
Adding hops (pellet) directly to kettle.
And end up with much less than 5 g. in each carboy due to trub.
Finishing with about 4 1/4 g. or less in each Keg.

I know some people use sacks/screens to keep the loss of wart to a
minimum.
And some just add there hops to the kettle not worrying about the loss.
As stated by some whirpooling is difficult at best, and letting the hop gunk settle out before transferring to carboy helps.
I know it is expected to lose a bit of wart when racking but ....not happy

Are there any Braumeister's ending up with 5gallons of finished beer in there kegs?
If so, where am I going wrong?
What is the average amount of finished beer you guys and gals are getting out of your systems?

I wish Ya'll a safe and happy holliday season.
 
I have the 50L Braumeister
Fill to the prescribed mark.
Sparge to replace the water absorbed by the grain.
Boil as stated for the recipe. 60 or 90 min
Adding hops (pellet) directly to kettle.
And end up with much less than 5 g. in each carboy due to trub.
Finishing with about 4 1/4 g. or less in each Keg.

I know some people use sacks/screens to keep the loss of wart to a
minimum.
And some just add there hops to the kettle not worrying about the loss.
As stated by some whirpooling is difficult at best, and letting the hop gunk settle out before transferring to carboy helps.
I know it is expected to lose a bit of wart when racking but ....not happy

Are there any Braumeister's ending up with 5gallons of finished beer in there kegs?
If so, where am I going wrong?
What is the average amount of finished beer you guys and gals are getting out of your systems?

I wish Ya'll a safe and happy holliday season.

I have a 20L not a 50L, but perhaps the following will still be useful to you.

I fill wort up to the neck of my 5 gal carboy. That means about 20L (5 gal + 1L up to the neck.). In doing so I have had wort left that would not fit into the carboy that I threw away or used later for a starter. When filling the carboy to the neck it is necessary to use a blow-off hose, in which case there will be a more than a liter of loss into the blow-off reservoir, leaving a little less than 5 gal in the carboy. Additional loss will occur when racking from the carboy. Total loss in fermenting and racking about 2.4 liter. So starting with 19.5L in the carboy (the most it will hold) I end up with about 17.1 into my keg. I would need to use a larger carboy to do better.

I use BeerSmith and set the batch size to the amount I want to go into the carboy (19.5L) and set the trub loss in the kettle of .6L (best I can do by tilting the kettle when moving wort to the carboy) and adjust the ingredients to get the OG, SRM, and IBU I want.

EDIT: In addition to setting the kettle trub loss to .6L I also set the fermentation loss to 2.4L.


To leave the least amount of trub in the kettle I use one of the malt pipe fine screens in front of the kettle outlet (inside the kettle) to get as much wort out as possible and leave the trub in the kettle. The screen will get clogged quickly; so I rotate the screen to a new spot several times throughout the process to draining the wort from the kettle into the carboy.

I haven't tried it but I think I could get more more out of my 20L. Using BeerSmith it would just be a matter of increasing the batch size and the ingredients appropriately to maintain targets. At some point the amount of ingredients that would be required could exceed the Braumeister capability. How soon this occurs would depend on the OG you are shooting for. So far (5 batches) I have not brewed anything with an OG higher than 1.055; so I think I could increase the batch size (and carboy size) so as to end up with a full 5 gal in my keg. I have thought about doing this, but just have no sprung for another carboy.

Hope there is something here that helps you.
 
I have a 20L not a 50L, but perhaps the following will still be useful to you.

I fill wort up to the neck of my 5 gal carboy. That means about 20L (5 gal + 1L up to the neck.). In doing so I have had wort left that would not fit into the carboy that I threw away or used later for a starter. When filling the carboy to the neck it is necessary to use a blow-off hose, in which case there will be a more than a liter of loss into the blow-off reservoir, leaving a little less than 5 gal in the carboy. Additional loss will occur when racking from the carboy. Total loss in fermenting and racking about 2.4 liter. So starting with 19.5L in the carboy (the most it will hold) I end up with about 17.1 into my keg. I would need to use a larger carboy to do better.

I use BeerSmith and set the batch size to the amount I want to go into the carboy (19.5L) and set the trub loss in the kettle of .6L (best I can do by tilting the kettle when moving wort to the carboy) and adjust the ingredients to get the OG, SRM, and IBU I want.

EDIT: In addition to setting the kettle trub loss to .6L I also set the fermentation loss to 2.4L.


To leave the least amount of trub in the kettle I use one of the malt pipe fine screens in front of the kettle outlet (inside the kettle) to get as much wort out as possible and leave the trub in the kettle. The screen will get clogged quickly; so I rotate the screen to a new spot several times throughout the process to draining the wort from the kettle into the carboy.

I haven't tried it but I think I could get more more out of my 20L. Using BeerSmith it would just be a matter of increasing the batch size and the ingredients appropriately to maintain targets. At some point the amount of ingredients that would be required could exceed the Braumeister capability. How soon this occurs would depend on the OG you are shooting for. So far (5 batches) I have not brewed anything with an OG higher than 1.055; so I think I could increase the batch size (and carboy size) so as to end up with a full 5 gal in my keg. I have thought about doing this, but just have no sprung for another carboy.

Hope there is something here that helps you.

One more variable. In addition to the batch size you get out of the kettle, if you are using a pre-made starter, you will have that much more to go into the carboy. You can account for that in BeerSmith also.

I've not been using a pre-made starter (that's another topic for later). So my batch size does not include the benefit of adding a starter to the wort coming out of the Braumeister. If I were to use a pre-made starter and leave the batch size the same in BeerSmith and tell BeerSmith to add the starter to the wort going into the carboy fermentor I could brew that same batch size but have 22.5 L go into a (larger) carboy - 19.5 brewed batch plus 3L starter. With 2.4L fermentor loss I would end up with 20.1 L for the keg. (Don't know that it would fit though since a 5 gal keg is designed to hold only 19L.
 
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