Speidel Braumeister (brewmaster)

[Yambor44]

Overall, as far as this unit is concerned I am very satisfied and pleased with the initial performance. So much so that I am concerned it was a fluke! BUT....with Speidels reputation for quality products and the outstanding customer service I have received from Thorsten here in Florida at MoreBeer4u.com , I am so excited and full of energy about my future brew sessions!!

I am so thankful for my journey to get to this point as I have learned a ton about the brewing process. With that being said, I am even more excited about my future hobby with this unit and do not have one reservation about the money spent!

 

[wyzazz]

The pump is from Deutsche Vortex "BW 152 o/t"
http://www.en.deutsche-vortex.de/en/
It is intended to distribute heated water in households.

Here you can buy one for 93 Euros or approx. 130 US dollars.
http://www.haustechnik-express.de/product_info.php?products_id=783
(edit: this pump in the link has 1/2" plumbing on the housing. The Speidel is bigger, looks like about 20mm. The part # of the Speidel pump-housing is 101.101.350. The motor and rotor will be the same.

Thanks for the pump info beefeater! Unfortunately I don't think that they make one large enough for me to do 20gal batches, I'd have to run 4 pumps to get enough power. I'll have to just stick with my LG 3-MD-HC. Would have been nice to be able to pull a pump apart like that using no tools.

 

[FiveKaiBrewing]

I am also very happy with the performance of this unit. I just got my new crankandstein 3D mill today so tomorrow will be a brew day and i will try and document as well as yambor did. I have a matco tool chest that works fine to store everything but... when it comes to brewing its to high . i find myself having to use a step stool to look at the wort and to remove the grain tube damn its not easy. see pics I have alot of grain to gind!

 

[hfk2]

Nice set up, I especially like the alternate use of that nice felt covered table. Are you using any type of dip tube or tilting the pot as Speidel instructs. Did you get much debris in the fermenter. My efficiencies was 78%, that was recirculating and a single sparge of about 2 3/4 gallons. I see others are getting high efficiencies without the sparge. Are you adding water before you boil. Just curious because it takes so long to sample the finished product.

 

[Yambor44]

I wonder if the default "rest" phases have anything to with it?

 

[wyzazz]

I wonder if the default "rest" phases have anything to with it?

How long is the total mash with the rests? Or what is the mash schedule? A longer mash will certainly give you higher efficiencies and extract more sugar from the grain.

 

[hfk2]

I didn't use the default mash schedule. I used what I had done in the past, but now I'm wondering if you are right about the Speidel mash schedule being more efficient. I think I'll try their schedule next time I brew. My total mash time was 100 minutes not including the time to get to temperature. I'd guess there was another 20 to 30 minutes total time getting temperatures to the next rest level.

 

[clasley]

What sort of boil-off rate are you guys seeing?

-Chris

 

[FiveKaiBrewing]

i brewed my batch of biermunchers centennial.

i have to check my notes but i think i started with 5.5 gallons of water and ended up with 5.2 gallons of wort. I kept the lid on during the whole process except hop additions and it does a great job at keeping the steam in only letting out a bit through the vents in the lid.

I also just whirlpooled at the final minute of the boil, then tilted the braumeister to get the last of the wort out. what was left was maybe a 1/8-1/4 gallon of trub and gunk at the bottom so more than likely my final wort collection was around 5 gallons.

 

[hfk2]

Good question. I'm estimating I boil off about 3 liters. That's about half of what I would get with the propane burners. The center post has three marks. One at 15 liters, one at 20 liters and the top one is at 25 liters. The instructions say to put 23 liters in the pot to mash. Mathematically if I start with 23 liters and sparge with 9.5 liters (2.5 gals) and the grains absorb roughly 3.8 liters (1 gal) that leaves me with 28.7 liters before the boil. I end up a little above the top mark on the center post which is 25 liters (6.6 gals). That would be a little over 3 liters. I've brewed twice with this, so hopefully 3's the charm. I'll try sparging with 1.5 gallons and that should get me closer to my target of 5.5 gals finished. It will be interesting to see what happens to efficiencies. Let me know if I'm missing something.

 

[Yambor44]

How long is the total mash with the rests? Or what is the mash schedule? A longer mash will certainly give you higher efficiencies and extract more sugar from the grain.

1 Phase/Rest 5 mins at 65 c
2 Phase/Rest 30 mins at 65 c again
3 Phase/Rest 30 mins at 73 c
4 Phase/Rest 15 mins at 78 c

I thought jumping to 73c (163.4F) after only 35 minutes 65c (149F) was too hot too soon but probably took another 5 or so minutes to get there. I didn't notice how long it took just guessing.

Still, doesn't that seem too soon to go that hot?

 

[clasley]

hfk2 according to ProMash your numbers look solid. Granted your numbers are based on a 90 minute boil it looks to be around 8% per hour.

-Chris

 

[wyzazz]

1 Phase/Rest 5 mins at 65 c
2 Phase/Rest 30 mins at 65 c again
3 Phase/Rest 30 mins at 73 c
4 Phase/Rest 15 mins at 78 c

I thought jumping to 73c (163.4F) after only 35 minutes 65c (149F) was too hot too soon but probably took another 5 or so minutes to get there. I didn't notice how long it took just guessing.

Still, doesn't that seem too soon to go that hot?

The 65C (149F) looks to be a Beta Glucan Rest to break down the cell walls of the starches, making them more accessible to be extracted. The Beta Amylase will also work at this temp.

Going to 73C (163F) so quickly seems odd to me, but the Alpha Amylase might still be working at this temp, I'm not sure.

Then again, another thought is that most starch conversion is complete in around 30mins, after that you're really just extracting sugars in the mash and a higher temperature would certainly help that.

Is the "complicated" mash stepping that's pre-programmed in to the Braumeister necessary? Probably not. Is it hurting anything? Again, probably not.

 

[Yambor44]

Good points Danny.

 

[hfk2]

Thanks Clasley, I'll make the % adjustment in my Beer Smith program and see if the numbers all fit. I think I was using 11%. With propane I was at 13%.

 

[hfk2]

Yambor44 this was my last mash schedule. At the end I tested for starch conversion and had full conversion. Our numbers are really close. My protein rest was longer at a lower temperature, but otherwise really close everywhere else.

Protein rest 15 min @52C
Beta amylase rest 35 min @ 63C
Alpha amylase rest 35 min @ 70C
Mash out 15 min @ 78C

 

[clasley]

Basic Brewing Radio released their weekly podcast today with an interview of Jan Halvor Fjeld, this past year's Norwegian home brewer of the year and Braumeister user. Good interview with lots of talk on Jan's experience using his 20L Braumesiter.

http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page=radio

-Chris

 

[Yambor44]

Basic Brewing Radio released their weekly podcast today with an interview of Jan Halvor Fjeld, this past year's Norwegian home brewer of the year and Braumeister user. Good interview with lots of talk on Jan's experience using his 20L Braumesiter.

http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page=radio

-Chris

You know Chris, you're already done on buying one of these....the question is, 20l or 50l?

 

[rico567]

Basic Brewing Radio released their weekly podcast today with an interview of Jan Halvor Fjeld, this past year's Norwegian home brewer of the year and Braumeister user. Good interview with lots of talk on Jan's experience using his 20L Braumesiter.

http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page=radio

-Chris

This was a good interview. Not only has he produced award-winning beer, but he mentions several other Norwegian brewers who won contests using the Speidel system. He's obviously got quite a bit of experience with it, because he mentions having to dismantle the pump for cleaning after 50 batches.

 

[clasley]

You know Chris, your already done on buying one of these....the question is, 20l or 50l?

Yeap, I'm full in. 20l ordered. Delivery in 3-4 weeks.

-Chris

 

[Yambor44]

Yeap, I'm full in. 20l ordered. Delivery in 3-4 weeks.

-Chris

Congrats!!

 

[rico567]

Yeap, I'm full in. 20l ordered. Delivery in 3-4 weeks.

-Chris

This is outstanding! Another Braumeister owner on board. I'm still in the stage of juggling a number of considerations, made necessary by the discovery that my basement ceiling just isn't going to be high enough to work with this thing....but I'll get it thought out eventually. Then will come the decision of whether to go with the 20l or 50l. Right now, I just think I'll have to have the big boy.

The race is on: who will be the one to publish Homebrewing with Speidel's Braumeister?

 

[Yambor44]

Rico,

How high is your ceiling?

 

[wyzazz]

Not to go too far but...

...all this discussion surrounding this machine makes me antsy to start my Speidel Braumeister inspired build. Since I try and live by the 7P's (Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance), is there anything you guys would change about your Braumeisters if you could?

Bigger pumps? Different output options? Anything at all?

 

[rico567]

Rico,

How high is your ceiling?

7 ft 1 1/2 in (85.5") from floor joists to concrete

 

[Navin]

Hi to fellow Braumeister users.

I'm new to this forum but I've been following this thread with interest. I'm based in the UK and I've been using my 20L Braumiester for a while now, and have brewed five batches including Kolsch, ALtbier, Wheat beer and a couple of english ales.

I've picked up a couple of good tips from this thread;
Dip tube - I'll definitely be making one up, until now i"ve been tipping the unit to drain the wort

Rolling boil - setting the temp to 102 degrees genius, and it works great.

Regarding the filters I had the same trouble with keeping the lower one in place. I contacted the company and got a reply from Stefan Speidel who said that the lower one wasn't that important and could be omitted.

That said I made stainless steel mesh filters from splatter screens and they work great, I took pictures and will upload them when I work out how



cheers

Navin

 

[Yambor44]

Welcome to the site Navin! Good to hear about the bottom filter but I was thinking I will fabricate 2 (like you have made) so that when I varlauf and pour the runnings back thru the top, it will help keep the grain out of the wort.

Do you use the screen on the bottom also anyway? If so, does it stay put just by sliding it on, or do you attach it some way?

 

[Yambor44]

Not to go too far but...

...all this discussion surrounding this machine makes me antsy to start my Speidel Braumeister inspired build. Since I try and live by the 7P's (Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance), is there anything you guys would change about your Braumeisters if you could?

Bigger pumps? Different output options? Anything at all?

I have only brewed once on mine so far but I would make the computer swap from Celsius to Farenheit. It only reads Celsius right now.

Other than that, nothing on mine. I have the 50l version with the larger wattage elements.

 

[Navin]

Hi Yambor44,

I made two screens and use one at the top and one at the bottom. I cut them to equal the diameter of the malt pipe and punched a 5/8 hole in the middle, they just slip over the spindle like the cloth filters (and the bottom one sinks).

They worked fine and were easy to clean after the brew with a hose.

I think your videos are great viewing, I videod my last session but haven't edited it yet - theres lots of footage of the controller, which is pretty dull.

My only regret is not getting the 50 Litre version.

Cheers

 

[hfk2]

Welcome to the club clasley. The more we get using this the better we will all get. Wyazz, I have the 20l and would also like to see the Farenheit option. Also it would be good to be able to program hop addition notifications. The 20 needs another 500+ watts of power. A dip tube with trub filter. A reverse circulation ability of the pump. The spigot should be ringed so a hose can be clamped over it easily. By the way on my last batch I had compaction problems but you can push the up and down arrow buttons together to stop the machine. I then loosened the compacted bed and pushed the down arrow and it resumes where you left off. Oh yes, a better instruction manual. Even though a U.S. plug would be great, there are too many options (3-wire 30amp, 4-wire 30 amp, 3-wire 20amp etc.) so the end should be plain with instructions (diagrams) to wire the different types of plugs more common here. The compaction was probably my fault. I used 10 lbs of grain and only 20l of water instead of the 23l as recommended. The mash was very thick and the pump seemed to have a tough time pushing the wort through the malt bed. I'm sure I'll think of some other items.