sebring96hbg
Well-Known Member
I have ordered a 20L. And, now, the wait begins. That's going to be tough.
sebring96hbg said:I have ordered a 20L. And, now, the wait begins. That's going to be tough.
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...
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.
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.
Gotta love those Germans!
Also, what is the water to grain ratio on these units?
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.
Proud new member of the club, my BM20 just arrived yesterday!!!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.
pjk49202 said:For those who have received their systems recently, what was the led time on getting your BM?
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?
Hmmm...if I understand you right, then you need an extra pot to preheat the sparge water
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 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
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?
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?
Hmmm...if I understand you right, then you need an extra pot to preheat the sparge water
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.
Also, what is the water to grain ratio on these units?
Greatly appreciated.
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...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
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