Speidel Braumeister (brewmaster)

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Dinnerstick brings it strong! Thanks or that, it answered a question I was going to ask about stirring the mash.

Just be sure if you are stirring the mash and are in manual mode (or even in program) that the pump is OFF.

It may sound stupid but i made this mistake somehow and ended up with a ton of grain being pushed out and into the system. Had to turn everything off. Strain it, clean everything and put the wort back in and shovel soggy grain back into the malt pipe. A very time costly mistake.
 
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.

Thanks for the reply. I will definitely try stirring the mash more frequently to see what happens. As for milling, I have basically been using my barley crusher at fairly close to the default; around .040. I haven't changed it much since i'v been using my BM as it was what worked best on my old 3 vessel setup. What do you mill at?

Also, the numbers I mentioned were pre-boil not post boil. I think I should try starting with less water and maybe sparging more. I just figured the point of the BM is to not have another pot on the stove so my sparge has been limited to usually around 2L from my kettle which means starting my mash around 27L if im doing a 90min boil to achieve a full 20L batch. This is also partly because of how much I leave behind in the trub.

I have an idea for a whirlpool system but I'm not sure how well it would work. Ideally I would like to have a small inline pump attached to two SS lines, one which would draw from the middle of the pot near the top of the liquid level and the other end discharging on the side to create the whirlpool and and piece of steel to support it all resting horizontally across the top of the pot.


I just don't know if I can find a proper pump that will be small and light and self priming and food safe for a reasonable price and if it will prime totally dry. My other thought was putting in a drill pump. Otherwise, I could always change out the OE spigot and put in a 3/4 SS ball valve and attach a pump to that and then plumb it up over the top and back down to whirlpool.

Thoughts?
 
$80 CAD/USD is about as good a deal as you're likely going to find on a high temp pump IMO.

http://greatbreweh.com/Beer_Pump.html


...and you can always keep it familiar

http://www.ebay.de/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=vortex+bw152&_sacat=See-All-Categories

http://www.ebay.de/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_nkw=ecocirc&rt=nc

Keeping in mind that these are designed for residential hot water applications according to the manufacturer's site ( http://www.deutsche-vortex.de/index.php?id=103&L=1 ) Boiling, high SG liquid may not be ideal, but it may be worth sending an email to the company if you're thinking about one of these.
 
How about something like this?



image-2260025296.jpg

(Forgive the crude sketch...it's early)
 
How about something like this?



View attachment 113387

(Forgive the crude sketch...it's early)

Yeah thats basically what I was thinking. I tried to draw it with text but it didnt turn out right :(

A few feet of SS tubing, a pump and some fittings would be all you need. Im just not sure how these pumps handle solid particles. The magnetic drive one should be okay but maybe using some sort of hop strainer would be ideal. I think i'm going to build this
 
Yeah thats basically what I was thinking. I tried to draw it with text but it didnt turn out right :(

A few feet of SS tubing, a pump and some fittings would be all you need. Im just not sure how these pumps handle solid particles. The magnetic drive one should be okay but maybe using some sort of hop strainer would be ideal. I think i'm going to build this

Keep us updated :mug:
 
Pulled the trigger on a 50l tonight. No more moving half the garage to brew for me! Damn growing family takes up alot of space ya know?......

Not sure what system you brewed on before, but, it's great to see how little space your brewery takes up after getting the BM. I've gotta get going on a brewing garage sale (pots, cooler, burner, blah blah blah).
 
For those of you who adjust your mash water are you also adjusting your sparge water? If so, how and how are you sparging? I use RO water so I make additions for the mash but for the sparge I just heat up the RO water with no additions in a tea kettle to 170*F and pour it in the malt pipe as it sits on the support bracket. Any better ideas (without getting into too much chemistry)?
 
For those of you who adjust your mash water are you also adjusting your sparge water? If so, how and how are you sparging? I use RO water so I make additions for the mash but for the sparge I just heat up the RO water with no additions in a tea kettle to 170*F and pour it in the malt pipe as it sits on the support bracket. Any better ideas (without getting into too much chemistry)?

I limit my salt additions to the mash itself, but I will acidify the sparge water with lactic acid to bring the pH down. I also don't bother heating up my sparge water beyond what comes out of my instant hot water tap. In the end, when I do sparge, I probably sparge with 4L of something in the 60C/140F range with a tiny bit of lactic acid added.

Robert
 
How long were you quoted by the Irish dealer for delivery? I'd be curious to know if/what any import or customs fees turn out to be on the unit. Keep us updated!

I took delivery of the unit today and am happy to report it was duty free. I paid nothing over the price of the unit which was $1,741.39 from http://www.homebrewwest.ie/ in Ireland. They were really good about communicating during this uncertain process (I've never ordered internationally before) and it saved me a nice sum over morebeer (who is out of stock anyway). I bought the 15-foot cord recommended by another forum member - instead of modifying the existing cord - and will have a 220-volt receptacle installed next week. This thread is going to be my instruction manual and I'm looking forward to my first brew on this beautiful piece of equipment...
 
Hey guys,

Been brewing faithfully on the Braumeister system for exactly a year now. Last year I made over 240 gallons of beer—most of it excellent. I wanted to revisit and offer some tips to those folks new on the Braumeister. These are all strictly my opinions and insights—others may disagree and your mileage may vary, etc.

The Mash—First, with respect to efficiency—I assure you it's EXCELLENT on the Braumeister. Remember, there are two commonly measured efficiencies: Mash Efficiency and Brew House Efficiency. The former measures strictly how much sugar you extract during the mash. The latter is dictated by many other variables like how much trub loss you have, etc. Mash efficiency for me has consistently been 80%+. If your MASH efficiency is less than that, I urge you to look at your mash ph, crush, minerals (you need at least 50ppm of calcium ions for an efficient mash), and the volume of water you're using.

I personally use RO water that I adjust with calcium chloride, gypsum, and a couple of teaspoons of Phosphoric Acid. This ensures I hit that ph sweet spot of 5.25-5.5. Outside of that range, your efficiency will suffer (on all systems). I use a minimum of about 14.5 gallons or so (1/3rd to half way between the last two notches on the middle post) to mash in. Again, your mash will go much better if you use a decent amount of water. The only exception to this is when I high-gravity brew, which I'll cover later.

The Sparge— I don't do it anymore. I've tried things like pumping hot water out of the main spigot back up through the suspended mash pipe/grain. That doesn't work too good—my pump flow is too fast. Using a pitcher to take some wort and pouring it through the top works better, but I've only seen a couple of gravity points of improvement that way. And I'm not going to heat a separate pot of water and watch the temps, etc—so you can forget it :). Bottom line is, if your end brewhouse efficiency is less than 64%, look at your mash efficiency. It's probably fine. You're probably leaving behind a ton of wort as I was in the beginning. Fashion a diptube, or better yet, tip the braumeister to get the last bit of wort when you're transferring to your fermenters. This way you'll need less malt, have less waste (less than 1 gallon loss) and you can easily achieve gravities of 1.050 to 1.060.


The Boil—...Is weak. The insulated jacket helps. Honestly, this is the one thing I wish the engineers at Speidel would have improved. I've gotten docked some points in competition due to DMS off-flavors. After that, I simply do a 90 min boil standard, and haven't had any issues. It takes me exactly 90 minutes to boil down from 13.5 to about 11.1 gallons. After cooling loss and trub loss I end up with right around 10.5 gallons or so... roughly a boiloff rate of 1.4 gallons per hour.

High Gravity Brewing—Yes, it's possible goddammit. Double mashes aren't fun, so I prefer an extended boil to make a 5 gallon high gravity batch (1.080+, if it's under 1.080 I just make 10 gallons and add DME to achieve my gravity). Doing an extended boil can be a bit tricky, because you don't want to be there all day, so what I do is use as little water as I can—just enough to complete the pump circuit. For my 55L unit, this works out to be around 10.5-11.5 gallons or so, depending on how much grain I have in there (usually I do not exceed 24 lbs.)

My mash efficiency definitely suffers, pumps kind of struggle initially, but gents—you can do 1.100+ with this method. After grain absorption, I'm usually left with about 9.75 gallons of very sweet wort, which I proceed to boil down to about 6.25 gallons or so (2.5 hour boil). After chilling and trub-loss I end up with about 5.25 Gallons. This method is great for making big dopplebocks, monster scotch ales, and other big beers. Double-IPAS are tricky because you will definitely get some color from the extended boil, so if you try this, omit any dark crystal malts and use very light base malt. Happy to answer any other questions on this topic.

Cleaning— This was the biggest nuisance to get used to when I switched from my old turkey fryer setup. If you can afford it—as I can guess you can, since you bought the ****ing Braumeister—buy yourself a 50lb bucket of pbw at the local homebrew shop (have them order it). That stuff is incredible and works with ANY water, and I have some HARD water. Oxiclean will not do it like PBW can, I don't care what you say. After you pump/pour all the gunk out of your Braumeister, close the valve and spray/rinse it out with some hot water. Next, fill with about 6-10 gallons of water and add like 5-10 scoops of PBW. Turn the heating elements on to about 45 C or so and run the pumps. Stir to make sure the pbw is dissolved. This soak will totally eliminate your need to scrub the heating elements as the stuff comes off TOTALLY. Believe me, I scrubbed for a while before i discovered the power of PBW in my braumeister.

I use a regular ass dishwashing brush to scrub the inside of the Braumeister, dunking the brush in the warm pbw solution. Every few brew days or so, turn the clean braumeister upside down and unscrew the pumps and peek in there to make sure there is now grain or gunk stuck in them. That's IT!

Hopefully you found some of this info helpful. Feel free to follow up with any questions. Here's to another year of delicious Braumeister Brewing.
 
Thanks for that insights, Soviet.

I have been looking into this system recently and have been more than intrigued by it and am in fact considering to save some bucks to acquire it by the end of this year.

I have gone through the beginnings of this tread when FiveKaie and Yambor discussed their experiences with it, especially with regard to how they squared away the power supply dilemma (its 230 volts as opposed to the US 120) but I am still left wondering if there is an easier way to account for the power supply necessary to support the device than cutting the cord and do some rewiring; wouldn't a device such as this be more easier? I am a renter, so I would like to be able provide an easy, safe solution to powering this should I acquire it.
 
Thanks for that insights, Soviet.

I have been looking into this system recently and have been more than intrigued by it and am in fact considering to save some bucks to acquire it by the end of this year.

I have gone through the beginnings of this tread when FiveKaie and Yambor discussed their experiences with it, especially with regard to how they squared away the power supply dilemma (its 230 volts as opposed to the US 120) but I am still left wondering if there is an easier way to account for the power supply necessary to support the device than cutting the cord and do some rewiring; wouldn't a device such as this be more easier? I am a renter, so I would like to be able provide an easy, safe solution to powering this should I acquire it.

Those are expensive considering you could make your own with a few plugs and connectors from a hardware store and a volt meter/multimeter.

In a rental situation where adding new circuits isn't practical I would usually suggest either; getting an adapter plug to your electric oven/electric dryer as those both provide 240V and more than enough current, or you make something like what you linked above which takes 1 phase from one 120V receptacle and combines it with 120V of a different phase from another receptacle to give you 240V. To check for this all you would need to do is connect the leads from a volt meter to the 'hot' side (the small plug hole on the right of a standard receptacle) of two different receptacles until your meter reads 240V then wire some plugs so those two hot leads connect to the BM plus a ground.

Be warned though. There is a possibility that you won't have two receptacles that are out of phase from each other. Especially in smaller apartments, if all the wall receptacles are on one circuit or the circuits in the panel are connected to breakers 2 apart, you wont get 240V.

To better illustrate this I attached a picture of my electrical panel. Ignore the poor spelling and labeling, I rent. The dark breakers are one phase and the red are a separate phase. You need to combine 120V for a receptacle on alternate phases to be able to achieve 240V. I hope this helps.

8vpx88.jpg
 
TheDecline, that is a method we use occasionally to use 220v tools on houses that we build. Just have to make sure that you are plugging into 2 outlets that are not on the same circuit. Many kitchens here (Canada)are wired that way, in that the top plug will be on a different circuit than the bottom.
 
Has anybody tried to start the mash with e.g. 25l and then directly after placing the mesh screen, added the sparge water? This would flood the malt pipe during the mash but eliminate the sparge step to simplify the process. Ignoring that it might hurt the efficiency.
 
Has anybody tried to start the mash with e.g. 25l and then directly after placing the mesh screen, added the sparge water? This would flood the malt pipe during the mash but eliminate the sparge step to simplify the process. Ignoring that it might hurt the efficiency.

That doesn't make any sense. The point of the sparge is to rinse the grain of the sugars which may still be trapped inside it after the wort is drained. Adding the "sparge" water at the beginning is simply mashing with a greater starting volume.

If you are mashing in the braumeister with a small starting volume (for example trying to do a high gravity 5gal batch w/ the 10gal malt pipe) you may need to pull some water from the spigot and dump it into the pipe in order to get your grain fully underwater to start, but that's the only time I've added water directly to the malt pipe before the mash.

Robert
 
I don't own a Braumeister, i'm just thinking about at the 20l.

Adding the "sparge" water at the beginning is simply mashing with a greater starting volume.

That was the idea: A full volume no sparge mash.

But my understanding was that the malt pipe would be flooded if all the water was added at the beginning, meaning that the grain would spil outside malt pipe, before the mesh screen was put on. That was the reason for adding the "sparge" water after the mash in.
 
I think he is asking what would happen if we add water to the mash until it is over the height of the malt pipe?
 
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.
2qmiwox.jpg

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.
 
In a rental situation where adding new circuits isn't practical I would usually suggest either; getting an adapter plug to your electric oven/electric dryer as those both provide 240V and more than enough current, or you make something like what you linked above which takes 1 phase from one 120V receptacle and combines it with 120V of a different phase from another receptacle to give you 240V. To check for this all you would need to do is connect the leads from a volt meter to the 'hot' side (the small plug hole on the right of a standard receptacle) of two different receptacles until your meter reads 240V then wire some plugs so those two hot leads connect to the BM plus a ground.

Thanks for the reply, TheDecline.

Looking at this makes me a bit more weary; my laundry is in the basement (I am on 2nd floor), and aside from the stove, which is gas, I don't see any need for my unit to have the kind of wiring necessary to handle something like this.

As someone who is completely out of his realm in this area - electrical - I'll have to do some further digging into how to pull this off.

Thanks for the insights here though, I'll take them into consideration.
 
My first 4 Brameister brews, all from Brewing Classic Styles are the best I have ever made. That includes about 150 extract batches and 44 BIAB's.
 
dinnerstick said:
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

Hi all, I had the same problem with the plastic sleeve turning in the tap and struggling to get the wort out. I asked my supplier in the UK for a replacement part and they said Speidel had decided to send me a full tap screw in part. A bit overkill I thought; until it turned up today!

If you can see from the pics below, they now recessed the plastic into the metal so it doesn't turn anymore....clever!

Love the thread by the way. Had a 20l for about 2 years and I love my machine, though I do struggle to get the beer bright which doesn't affect the flavour but does annoy me sometimes! :-/

image-1987611287.jpg


image-3727020058.jpg
 
godilovebeer, I want to do the same thing. It is the only thing I don't like about the system. The thread is 3/4" but it is a euro or british type thread and not easily found here. I believe most guys here are using npt threads with a heavy teflon tape and having succes at it. Even the 1/2" to 3/4" conversion in SS is not easy to find.
 
godilovebeer, I want to do the same thing. It is the only thing I don't like about the system. The thread is 3/4" but it is a euro or british type thread and not easily found here. I believe most guys here are using npt threads with a heavy teflon tape and having succes at it. Even the 1/2" to 3/4" conversion in SS is not easy to find.

This is correct. 3/4" NPT fits but the threads are a bit loose so a bunch of teflon tape works fine.

bargainfittings.com and stainlessbrewing.com both have 3/4 x 1/2 SS bushings along with close nipples and 1/2 ball valves. everything you need to go from an (in my opinion) inferior speidel valve to a full port ball valve which will also allow the connection of other fun stuff (camlocks, pumps, chillers, etc)
 
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...
 
At least for the 20L the stock valve is perfectly adequate and fine. I only ever really need it for running 20+ litres of wort into an FV through a funnel and while it's doing its thing I usually check the yeast and other bits and bobs.
 
The main reason I'm thinking of changing it, is because I run it into my plate chiller through a silicone hose. I can't really walk away since I'm afraid of the hose slipping off (I use a plastic ring clamp). That, and I have quite a few stainless fittings I'd like to put to use. It's great right out of the box though, I have to admit.
 
The main reason I'm thinking of changing it, is because I run it into my plate chiller through a silicone hose. I can't really walk away since I'm afraid of the hose slipping off (I use a plastic ring clamp). That, and I have quite a few stainless fittings I'd like to put to use. It's great right out of the box though, I have to admit.

go for stainless steel quick disconnects. not sure on the exact size off the top of my head but i have gone for standard disconnect throughout my whole system, which means my pump is interchangeable throughout the whole process, from the brau, to the chiller plate, to the whirlpool, to the fermenter, and then through the cleaning tubs and finally for the hose-off to the kegs. not cheap but will last a lifetime and makes for a trouble free brewing day!
 
in case anyone is considering doing a small beer in their brau, we gave it a run on the weekend and while it made for a long brew day, the results are pretty pleasing thus far. one 45l batch at 1.060, same grain but with an additonal 2 kgs in the mash (we removed 2 of the spent grain) just to ensure we got a 1.033-36 kind of range. the whole process ran smoothly and netted us an additonal 30l of small beer, coming in at 1.035. rich nut brown colour in the small which is a couple shades darker than the first run.

has anyone tried a small beer just using a continuous sparge cycling from the bottom of the brau over the malt pipe?

my feel is the brau is too efficient to leave enough in the grain for this to work but interested to hear if anyone has had a run at it.
 
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