Self-Contained Systems: Real Work Savers?

[Whisky River]

I have something similar that I got from a member here. Damned if I can remember what it is called. I have not gotten the hang of how to work it yet, but it is a pretty cool little gizmo for sure.

I think the independently made version is called the ispindle, maybe that’s the one you got?

The set it and forget it routine seems like I'm cheating the process. I prefer that hands on approach to brewing. But for all the other automation folks it's all fine as long as we all enjoy our brew day and enjoy the fruits of our labor - no matter how's it done!

Well said, and it’s nice to hear someone who is accepting of all the different methods. FYI in case you ever decide you want to try one out, I’ve been using the old Grainfather for a while now, it’s really well made and totally manual in operation. I feel like I have got the best of both worlds with it being an all in one, but also something you actually control.
To each their own and happy brewing.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

This weekend I'm brewing a Blonde Doppelbock so I'll ponder your suggestion. Thank you for those kind words.

 

[NeoBrew]

Thanks for all the tips. I brewed and kegged until around 2006, so I know a little bit about it. I'm just trying to catch up on the new stuff.

Welcome back to the hobby. The more things change, the more they stay the same. You are way ahead of the game in that you knew how to brew before. I hope the Braumeister helps you jump start right back into the hobby.

Wait until you start researching recipes. Even in the 10 years I've been brewing people's practices have changed dramatically. Who would have ever thought you would brew an IPA with no hop additions until flame out???

 

[DuncB]

I have something similar that I got from a member here. Damned if I can remember what it is called. I have not gotten the hang of how to work it yet, but it is a pretty cool little gizmo for sure.

Ispindel perhaps?

 

[redrocker652002]

Ispindel perhaps?

yep, that;s it. It worked the first time I used it, but then I could not get my wifi to stay connected. User error for sure, so I need to try and figure out what I did.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Who would have ever thought you would brew an IPA with no hop additions until flame out???

What?

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

The set it and forget it routine seems like I'm cheating the process. I prefer that hands on approach to brewing.

I hope no one who is new to brewing will read what I write and think brewing the old way is hard. It's not, unless you really hate washing things. I'm just ready to move to a system with less work and more focusing on recipes and drinking the product.

 

[DuncB]

They do say 11 out of 10 brewery problems are down to cleanliness.
I started with malt extract kits, you can't get simpler than that clean a bucket, clean a siphon, clean a spoon clean some bottles.
But my all in one, doing all grain, more cleaning, but the beer is so much better.
I'm happy cleaning more for the benefits.
However I wouldn't change to a chilly bin and propane rig at all. Unless we ran out of electricity.

 

[NeoBrew]

What?

It's true. (I don't want to hijack your thread, and what will come out next is going to incite a frenzy. I offer this tongue and cheek for your entertainment. Here we go...)

You were probably brewing in the time of the IBU wars. Brewers were in a battle to see who could pack the most hops into a beer and have super high bitterness. Then a bunch of lightweights in the North East figured out how to make beer smell hoppy without much bitterness. One of the side effects was cloudy beer, but the world seems to have justified that as a feature. They call it "hazy". Since traditional IPAs were all the rage from a marketing standpoint they decided to call this new, admittedly hoppy smelling, but not bitter and hazy thing an IPA. There was a lot of confusion, and still is to some degree. Eventually these came to be known as NE IPA, or a Hazy IPA.

I've never cared for them and so don't know all the voodoo science that goes into making them. You will hear all kinds of funky terms like bio-transformation. There are all kinds of techniques and yeast varieties used to make yeast NOT drop out. WTF? But one of the trends that has emerged is that there is often little to no bittering hops in them. This is part of how people have come to call beers "juicy". They smell like hops but are smooth to drink like a wine cooler. (Oh yeah, I just went there.)

Welcome back to the hobby. This was a fun exercise to think about. Maybe you have been following the beer trends all along and knew about all this. I hope you found it informative and entertaining.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

WTF? But one of the trends that has emerged is that there is often little to no bittering hops in them. This is part of how people have come to call beers "juicy". They smell like hops but are smooth to drink like a wine cooler. (Oh yeah, I just went there.)

Welcome back to the hobby. This was a fun exercise to think about. Maybe you have been following the beer trends all along and knew about all this. I hope you found it informative and entertaining.

Why would I follow the misguided deviations of filthy heretics???? UP AGAINST THE WALL, LATE-HOPPERS!

Actually, I had no idea.

Personally, I like to counter bitterness with sweetness instead of omitting it. Beer with no bitterness has a hipster sound to it, like, "I want people to see me drinking the latest beer, but I don't want to take a month to learn to like beer."

I miss the days when beer wasn't cool.

 

[NeoBrew]

Why would I follow the misguided deviations of filthy heretics???? UP AGAINST THE WALL, LATE-HOPPERS!

Actually, I had no idea.

Personally, I like to counter bitterness with sweetness instead of omitting it. Beer with no bitterness has a hipster sound to it, like, "I want people to see me drinking the latest beer, but I don't want to take a month to learn to like beer."

I miss the days when beer wasn't cool.

I love it!!!

 

[Teufelhunde]

Buy a wilserbag. $35, you're ready to brew.

The all in ones seem really great. I might go down that road one day. But they seem like they might trade a some brewing labor for a lot of cleaning labor. Maybe I'm wrong on that.

I brew with a Brewzilla, and the clean up could not be easier. It takes about an hour total, 55 minutes of which is waiting for the water to heat. About 5 minutes of actual work....

 

[mac_1103]

Beer has been cool since the first time somebody got a buzz from spoiled grain.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

The Braumeister arrived. The poor guy who sold it packed it really well. His Ebay listing said he could no longer drink beer. I don't know the reason, but it's probably not good. The wife and I will be praying for him.

I spent a lot of today buying a fermenting freezer and selecting a keg and Fermzilla. I'll be using a bucket, the freezer, and a Johnson control for this beer, but I will try to use the Fermzilla for the wheat beer I'm making next time.

I also went to Home Depot and bought an extension cord, a NEMA 6-15P plug, and a NEMA 14-30P dryer plug. I'll be crafting an extension cord so I can use the dryer receptacle in the laundry room.

It's kind of sad. I personally installed all sorts of 220 sockets in my shop, but I have thought it over, and I really want to brew in the kitchen. I'll just run a long cord of the appropriate gauge. the shop is in an outbuilding, but the kitchen counters are within 30 feet of the laundry room.

In case anyone else needs to know, the 20L V2 draws 10 amps (WRONG, SEE BELOW), and the plug uses a ground and two hots. No neutral. I am planning on using 14-gauge wire. Some would choose 12, but I'm not worried. If it starts to smoke, I'll change my mind.

Speidel has an English manual online. The paper manual I received is in German.

CORRECTION: the 20L takes a 10A fuse, which means it draws less than 10 amps. I got this wrong because when I read the manual, I chose not to pay much attention. Generally, this pays off for me.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

I can appreciate brewing indoors. I brew in the basement; right now I have the mash going, coffee made and checking on what's up on the first day of 2023.

I have an attached garage I'd love to have outfitted for brewing, but it's not in my immediate plans, but thinking about it.

Good luck with your brew!

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Florida is the no-basement state, for the most part. When you drive around my county, you see all sorts of detached shops. It's obvious a lot of old retired coots are doing the puttering around they always dreamed of when they were young.

My kind of basement is the kind that has a garage door and a driveway. I admire the guys who wrestle heavy things up and down stairs.

 

[DuncB]

Worldwide I'd think that basements are the exception rather than the norm.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

In case anyone cares, here are the items I used to make a cord to attach the Braumeister to my 4-prong dryer outlet. The Braumeister lights up and has not exploded yet.

DISCLAIMER: I am not an electrician, and you will probably die if you do what I did. Your house will burn down, and your neighbors will hate you. Hire an electrician. Some people would recommend a 12-gauge cord instead of 14.

The Braumeister came with a 6-15P plug on the end, so I bought a 14-gauge 50-foot Husky extension cord, cut the ends off, and put a 6-15R receptacle on it. My particular dryer takes a 14-30R receptacle, so I got a plug to match. There are also 50-amp 4-prong receptacles. If you are afraid of making a mistake, you can get the plug I used, which can be set up either way.

I bought the 6-15R at Lowe's and the 14-30P at Home Depot. The reason for this is that Lowe's didn't have everything I wanted, and from experience, I know better than to leave a store that has one thing I need and go to another store, assuming it will have it, too.

Legrand 15-Amp 250-Volt NEMA 6-15r Industrial Straight Connector Model #PS5669XCCV4

30/50 Amp 3-Pole Angle Plug NEMA 14-30P/14-50P, Black

 

[DuncB]

@Clint Yeastwood
So much easier in the 220 volt world!

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

It's too bad there are different conventions everywhere. It's not just 120 v. 220.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

I wonder if there's any home brewers out there using 3 phase 480vac. I couldn't imagine buying wire for a project like that. Bad enough trying to source 12 or 14 gauge. 15' of 10/2 was a little less than a fifty dollar bill. Needed that for a generator plug.

 

[DuncB]

I wonder if there's any home brewers out there using 3 phase 480vac.

Very serious home brewers I'd say.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Very serious home brewers I'd say.

Just imagine how quick a boil you'd get! Just thought I'd throw that out since we were discussing electrical, here, there and other parts of the world.

 

[DuncB]

Voltage is only a small part of the heat supply equation and rate to boil.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Voltage is only a small part of the heat supply equation and rate to boil.

Indeed, totally agree. Mine is rated in BTU's. Other than an electric HLT (120vac) the boil is done with gas.

We all approach our brewing hobby a little different depending on a lot of factors. The one thing we all have in common though is trying the brew the best beer we can with what we have. All good conversations!

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

If you have 480V 3-phase power in the US, you can bet on having enough current to run a pretty crazy system. No one is going to wire a building that way to run a night light.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I'm starting to see why people like AIO's. I am going to try to brew tomorrow, so I started making a to-do list. Here are the first 6 items:

1. Set yeast and malt out to warm.
2. Figure refractometer out.
3. Enter schedule into Braumeister.
4. Fill.
5. Add malt.
6. Turn on.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I have really been trying to brew today.

I read up on the Braumeister's recipe programming. I saw "wifi" somewhere in this process, and I thought there had to be an app for programming the machine. Alas, this appears to be untrue. You have to scroll through a billion characters to fill every line.

With that done, I decided to clean the crud off the inside of the kettle. For the most part, the machine arrived clean, and I did an all-water run the other day as a sea trial, so that should have helped as well. Today, I noticed a ring of what looked like lime around the inside. I dumped a great deal of citric acid in the machine and ran it at 156 degrees for a while. After that, I added fresh water and ran the pump to make sure there was no acid in it. All clean now. I also ordered a tub of PBW.

I was disappointed to see that I had to tilt the Braumeister in order to empty it.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

My verdict on the Braumeister is positive, except for the ridiculous way they expect you to update the firmware, along with the fact that they expect you to tip it to empty it, while placing the expensive control stuff right where the machine will rest on it as you tip.

When I was done brewing, I was surprised at how little I had left to do. I put the strainers in the dishwasher, which doesn't count as work. I washed the mashing pipe in the kitchen sink, and after that the BM itself, which fit just fine. I ran the pump with new water to make sure nothing was left in it, and I lifted the BM and turned it to get everything out.

I think I should use hop bags next time.

The only real problem I had was self-inflicted. I put way too little mash water in it. No big deal for a first run.

It has been many years since I brewed with old-fashioned tools, so my recollections are not perfect, but I believe it was a lot more work, and I had to stand by the kettle a lot of the time.

I'm glad I got this thing. Brewing the old way would have been a big mistake.

It would have been more work had I used a chiller, but I put the fermenter in the pool, where the temperature is 65 degrees. The wort was down to about 71 a couple of hours later, so I suppose I could have taken it out after an hour.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

My verdict on the Braumeister is positive, except for the ridiculous way they expect you to update the firmware, along with the fact that they expect you to tip it to empty it, while placing the expensive control stuff right where the machine will rest on it as you tip.

When I was done brewing, I was surprised at how little I had left to do. I put the strainers in the dishwasher, which doesn't count as work. I washed the mashing pipe in the kitchen sink, and after that the BM itself, which fit just fine. I ran the pump with new water to make sure nothing was left in it, and I lifted the BM and turned it to get everything out.

I think I should use hop bags next time.

The only real problem I had was self-inflicted. I put way too little mash water in it. No big deal for a first run.

It has been many years since I brewed with old-fashioned tools, so my recollections are not perfect, but I believe it was a lot more work, and I had to stand by the kettle a lot of the time.

I'm glad I got this thing. Brewing the old way would have been a big mistake.

It would have been more work had I used a chiller, but I put the fermenter in the pool, where the temperature is 65 degrees. The wort was down to about 71 a couple of hours later, so I suppose I could have taken it out after an hour.

Congratulations!

For your first with this new piece of equipment, it doesn't sound too bad. As you use it more, you'll find ways to shave some time off or just make the process easier. I say it all the time; learn as you go, take good notes and enjoy your hobby!