Braumeister Experience so far...
I posted a while back asking for the "best" source of the braumeister in the US. Given the number of positive forum posts I read in this thread (and the lack of any direct response
) I went with a 50L from Thorsten at MoreBeer4U due to the slightly lower price and to avoid the large (9+%) tax hit of living in the same state as MoreBeer! (confusing naming between the two) and the fact that there was a shipping special running. Ended up saving a couple hundred bucks total.
For those wondering about delivery lead times, the bulk of the time was spent waiting for the unit to ship, however once it left Germany it took only 4 days to arrive in SF, CA! Thought for sure it was gonna take much longer! This may not have been a good thing. The box the unit came in took a serious beating on the way here. I unpacked the unit in front of the FedEx driver and noted the unit itself had what appeared to be some cosmetic damage to one of the legs. Slight deformation along the plane of the leg and a bit of an impact dent on the "foot edge." No big deal, or so I thought. The box the accessories I ordered came in was pretty much what you would expect.
Once I got it into the house I built a new power cable. I AM NOT AN ELECTRICIAN. I am however comfortable working with common household wiring/current. For those of you interested the 50L Braumeister unit (and maybe the 20L model, someone will need to confirm) has a male (inlet) IEC 60320 C19/20 type coupler.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_60320#C19.2FC20_coupler
I used a Tripp Lite 6 foot 12awg server power cord (this is probably overkill gauge in this case considering the thin cord included with the unit) rated 250v/20a that had the female (no prongs) c19/20 coupler on one end. I cut the other end (a heavy duty twist lock 3 blade) off, stripped the outer insulation down and wired the 3 connections within to a Leviton screw-it-together-yourself NEMA 10-50P type 3 blade range plug to match the electrical in my brewcave. It was a no brainer and the whole thing cost less than 40 bucks and 15 minutes. I chose these primarily due to the amazon super saver shipping (free) option in combination and no sales tax. You could probably hit Home Depot or Lowes or wherever and get similar stuff locally.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005KG3WKY/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000P9S9I6/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
Of course, if you're not sure what your electrical situation is at your home/brew spot and/or not comfortable with wiring and such definitely get an electrician out to at least survey what you have and give you some options. Knowing the type of connector for the BM might help some of you get yourself situated electrically in advance of delivery, or can tell your electrician what he has to work with on the BM side of the wiring equation. I'll post pics of the build when I can find my cable to get the pics off the camera.
After finishing that up I immediately ran a "dry" (no malt) test run in my kitchen (the GF was ECSTATIC about this) with the 50, filling it up with cold tap water and running through basic the program (also testing the load with a clamp amp meter). Ran like a dream, hitting the 38C mash in temp in about 8 minutes! My kitchen was around 65F at the time, not sure what the ambient water temp is, but it's at least 10 degrees lower than that.. I had the insulating jacket and lid on. That was crazy fast I said to myself, and checked with a thermometer. It was dead on at 38C according to my digital probe, so I hit the button to continue with the mashing schedule and watched the malt pipe water level rise...and then stop rising about 2 inches from the top of the pipe. I then noticed a lot of water turbulence outside of the pipe...right over the damaged leg. Water was jetting out the side of the pipe where it met the bottom of the pot. I messed around for a while, trying to center the pipe, pulling it out and re-seating the rubber gasket, then the pipe itself back inside...no dice. It was at that point I stuck my hand down there (with the unit plugged in like a dumba$$) and noticed that the damaged leg "wing supports" had punched into the metal bottom of the pot to make two deep dents under the outer heating element (one almost touches the element) and the resulting slopes interfere exactly along the curve where the malt pipe needs to rest. It must have taken a serious blow right under the leg to make it produce that much denting.
In short, there was no way to make it work as it was. The malt pipe simply will not form a seal with the pot.
I contacted Thorsten and he got in touch with Speidel immediately, as it stands now I'm awaiting a new 50L to be shipped out to me. :-(
Don't let that deter you though, Thorsten has been great to work with and I'm convinced the BM is a great product. Now if we can only get Speidel to ship them in crates!
Seriously, I suspect the boxing is fine for the most part, judging by the box something unusual happened to it on the way here.
Anyway, cheers and happy brewing!
