Speidel Braumeister (brewmaster)

[Yambor44]

I'm hoping it is just a bad part and not worn as I have only used it 4 times now. To the untrained eye (mine) all the insides look nice and clean and new (not worn).

It started as an intermittent noise on the first brew session (I think I mentioned it in one of the videos) and yesterday it was pretty bad and constant. Either way, I will be getting a new pump. I just hope I pick the "right" one to replace when the new one arrives!!

 

[hfk2]

Hi Yambor44, My pump runs while the temperature is ramping up to boil temperature. When it is reachrd and the boil countdown begins the pump shuts off. I get a similar sound but not nearly as loud every time the pump rests, then turns back on. I know it is from air cavitating in the pump. It didn't do it at all the first two brews, but now does it every time the pump comes back on. I find I have to pause the system and when it starts up again the sound is gone. Do you get that sound when first starting out when the controller cycles the pump on and off to purge the air out of it?

 

[Yambor44]

I know the sound you speak of and this isn't the same. I can actually hear it make both sounds at the same time. I hear the purging sound the pump makes plus this sound which is constant now as you can hear on the video.

Ralf from Speidel sent me the following email after hearing from Thorsten:


Dear Rob,

Thorsten Stein has informed me that you have problems with your pumps.

I’m sure that it is the impeller inside.

I will send you two new impellers.

Please tell me to which address we should send it.

I don’t think that you will have the possibility to visit the homebrew conference in San Diego.

I’m sorry for the troubles.

Thanks

Ralf


I really appreciate their efforts in the area of service after the sale.

 

[hfk2]

You might want to remove the pump and run it without the impeller and housing just to make sure it isn't a pump bearing or bent shaft.

 

[Drachental_Des]

Hi,

These pumps don't have bearings or shafts, they use a magnetic induction system to drive the impeller which is the only moving part.

If the central "spike" on which the impeller spins is even fractionally out of true you will hear the impeller striking the casing wall.

What you can do is to remove the pump body from the BM and run it with the impeller in place. You should see it spinning fast and true.

Good luck!

 

[wreals]

Haven't heard that noise. Doesn't sound right so I'd pull it to see if something was trapped in it.

I don't think the pump is supposed to run during the boil.

Yesterday was the first try with the new stainless screens. They worked great. Sank right to the bottom and stayed there without letting through any grains.

Are these new screens standard equipment or aftermarket? I was never able to pull them up on that Norwegian website.

 

[clasley]

My 20l unit was delivered three weeks ago with the stainless screens. I've brewed three times now and they work great. Just kegged the first batch should have a tasting in a week or so.

On the motors - mine does the same thing intermittently. I wonder if our 60Hz power is playing into any of this. I would assume since the motors are designed for 50Hz that they're running faster at 60Hz?

-Chris

 

[wreals]

Looks like MoreBeer is dealer for the Braumeister now.

Now they have the 20 and 50 liter models in addition to the 200L which they been carrying.

http://morebeer.com/search/104230/b...raumeister_Electric_All-Grain_Brewing_Systems

Also, if you're attending the NHC, they are raffling a 20l Braumeister.

 

[Yambor44]

Looks like MoreBeer is dealer for the Braumeister now.

Now they have the 20 and 50 liter models in addition to the 200L which they been carrying.

http://morebeer.com/search/104230/b...raumeister_Electric_All-Grain_Brewing_Systems

Also, if you're attending the NHC, they are raffling a 20l Braumeister.

Yeah, I got like 4 emails today with links to that.

 

[gustavf]

@wreals As I understand from one of the Norwegian forums, one method to overcome the inherent capacity limits of the braumeister is to mash twice. The first mash uses half the grain bill and proceeds as normal. After the first mash is complete, remove the malt pipe and empty the spent grain, refill the malt pipe with the remainder of your grain add some top off water and mash in the wort already produced. Finally you can increase the efficiency with a sparge if needed. (Remember I'm getting these directions off of a translated Norwegian site, I have not tried this method myself, YMMV.)

You have probably read my posts at bryggeri.net.

It is certainly possible to mash several times. I mashed and sparged as normal on the Braumeister, then moved the malt tube to a fermentation bucket and continued the sparging. After sparging, you have enough wort in the Braumeister to do another mash and I heated the wort from the fermentation bucket and used as sparge water.

If doing this, be careful not to get any grains in the wort, as this is likely get stuck in the pump. Clean the malt pipe after each mash, remove any visible grain from the wort and try to find a way to flush the pump between each mash. If the pump stops working while you have the Braumeister full og 1.080 wort and the malt pipe inserted, things are getting messy quiet quickly. (Yes, I have tried.)

I am very happy with my Braumeister, but it is not a very good system for brewing the really big beers. Adding some malt extract to ramp up the OG a bit works fine, and for the occasional barley wine or imperial stout a double or trippel mash is possible. If you normally stay below 1.065, or somewhat higher for the 50 liter version, I can fully recommend this system.

 

[roomfullofmirrors]

I new here, but have enjoyed reading this discussion on the mighty Braumeister. I have a 50L and so far only two brews ...but I love the simplicity and ease of use (worst part is lifting the malt pipe - I'll eventually rig an electric winch for this).
What I am wondering is if anyone here has set up a Beersmith equipment profile for their Braumeister? I'd be grateful if someone would post theirs.

Thanks!

Great forum. good to be onboard ;-)

 

[Yambor44]

Welcome roomfullofmirrors!

I use BeerTools Pro and until you posted, hadn't even thought of trying to add the Braumeister into the equipment profile. I will have to check into that.

Hopefully someone else who has Beersmith can chime in. Just wanted to say welcome!

 

[roomfullofmirrors]

Thanks Yambor44. I'm from the BIAB school of brewing originally, and have been playing around with a few different profiles based on the BIAB experience ...I was just interested to see if anyone has actually got a profile nailed down for the Braumeister.
Thanks again for the welcome ;-)

 

[diegobonatto]

Hello folks,

I programmed my BeerSmith with the following parameters for BM50:
-------

Equipment Profile: BM50
Batch Size: 35.00 l

Mash Tun Volume: 55.00 l
Mash Tun Weight: 24.00 kg
Mash Tun Specific Heat: 0.12
Lauter Tun Deadspace: 0.00 l

Boil Size: 38.50 l
Boil Time: 90 min
Evaporation Rate: 10.0 %
Calculate Boil Size: FALSE
Kettle Top Up Water: 0.00 l
Hop Utilization Adjustment: 100.00 %

Trub/Chiller Loss: 0.00 l
Cooling Loss: 1.00
Top Up Water into Fermenter: 0.00 l
------------------------

Please look that my batch size was set for 35 L, but I think that the parameters will not change so much for 50 L.

 

[roomfullofmirrors]

Hello folks,

I programmed my BeerSmith with the following parameters for BM50:
-------

Equipment Profile: BM50
Batch Size: 35.00 l

Mash Tun Volume: 55.00 l
Mash Tun Weight: 24.00 kg
Mash Tun Specific Heat: 0.12
Lauter Tun Deadspace: 0.00 l

Boil Size: 38.50 l
Boil Time: 90 min
Evaporation Rate: 10.0 %
Calculate Boil Size: FALSE
Kettle Top Up Water: 0.00 l
Hop Utilization Adjustment: 100.00 %

Trub/Chiller Loss: 0.00 l
Cooling Loss: 1.00
Top Up Water into Fermenter: 0.00 l
------------------------

Please look that my batch size was set for 35 L, but I think that the parameters will not change so much for 50 L.

What is your actual output volume? Do you sparge (after removing malt pipe) or just drain?

Thanks for your post

 

[diegobonatto]

What is your actual output volume? Do you sparge (after removing malt pipe) or just drain?

Thanks for your post

Is 30 L and I just drain the malt pipe.....I'm performing a non sparging mashing. It's work very well!

 

[roomfullofmirrors]

Is 30 L and I just drain the malt pipe.....I'm performing a non sparging mashing. It's work very well!

My first batch output volume was 40L and a higher OG than my expected target. The second batch was 50L and right on target OG after a "sparge" at mash out.

Basically, after lifting the malt pipe out I ran about 1 litre per Kg of 80°C water through the malt pipe while the temperature is rising to boil.

Only my first two beers, but either method seems to give favourable results.

 

[roomfullofmirrors]

Here's my Beersmith equipment profile for my 50L, so far...

Equipment Profile: BM50L
Batch Size: 50.00 l

Mash Tun Volume: 60.00 l
Mash Tun Weight: 24.00 kg
Mash Tun Specific Heat: 0.20
Lauter Tun Deadspace: 0.50 l

Boil Size: 54.00 l
Boil Time: 90 min
Evaporation Rate: 6.5 %
Calculate Boil Size: FALSE
Kettle Top Up Water: 0.00 l
Hop Utilization Adjustment: 100.00 %

Trub/Chiller Loss: 3.00 l
Cooling Loss: 4.00
Top Up Water into Fermenter: 0.00 l

___________________________________

How does that compare with you other brewers using the 50L ?

 

[davewaldo]

Hi everyone,

I was finally able to brew on my new Braumeister so I thought I'd write a report for you here and show off the little modifications supplied by my store here in Australia. I've also posted a report here on the Aussie Site

This 50L Braumeister is a graduation gift from my wife. When it arrived I was impressed by its compact size and quality build.

Firstly I should mention that I took my time during my first brew. It was quite a long brew day. I actually don't think the BM will save me much time, but it is much easier and I can leave it to mash / boil unattended while I do other things (like bottle a previous batch), and clean up is quite simple. But time saving wasn't why I purchased this system. My main reasons were consistency batch to batch, full electric brewing, and size.

Also, I'd like to disagree with those that think the BM is an automated system and therefore the brewer is hands off / less involved. I still mixed the mash at dough in, did a small manual sparge and added hops to the boil. Compared to a my old 3v system, the only things I didn't do was to calculate strike temp, manually recirculate and clean 3 vessels and extra hoses and taps (also I didn't have to constantly tweak gas output for the boil or worry about boil overs). I still had all the joy of being the brewer, I just used a machine to recirculate and hit temps. Essentially it allows me to do the fun parts of brewing without some of the annoying parts. I think its basically the same as any herms or rims system, just it all happens in the one vessel (ie, mash in then set temps and allow to recirculate and ramp up).

Anyways... on to the brew!

In with the malt!

Here is a photo showing the size of the unit (I'm about 5 foot 10). Its compact, but not small. Also, you can see the nice draw string upgrade MHB adds to the filters. These make life SO much easier than the standard filters and the workmanship is equal to the quality of the BM.

An idiot with his new toy. Again you can see how much easier the draw string makes handling the filters and keeping them correctly located. This image is just after stirring in the mash.

Here is the wort shortly after recirculating begins. This is a Dr Smurto's Golden Ale.

The computer showing that we're warming up from mash in at 50 degrees to the first rest at 66. The BM seems to ramp at about 1 degree per minute. This was with no insulation, on a breezy day of about 15 degrees. I'm happy with that, but I'll experiment with insulation too

About half way through the mash, crystal clear wort... nice!

Lifting the malt pipe was a bitch. Even with two blokes it was awkward. The suction was the killer. I plan to make a little bench for my BM with an overhead manual winch. This means I'll be able to brew solo if needed too.

After the mash had drained for 5 mins or so I sparged (a rinse really) the grains with 1L per kg of malt at 80 degrees. This didn't make the wort cloudy like I feared it might (rinsing in the opposite direction to the recirculation flow).

The boil went well. Its not a raging boil, quite gentle really. But it is constant and did give me at least 10% boil off. I whirlpooled then cooled using a plate chiller via gravity into a 60L fermenter. I only extracted 43L rather than the 50L I planned, but my efficiency was still over 85% (mash efficiency). I'm very pleased with that! Also the whirlpool worked very well despite all the elements at the bottom of the BM. I ended up with 43L of clear 1.057 wort.

Cleaning was a breeze apart from the elements inside the BM. These had a light coating of break material the needed to be wiped off, a fiddly job as there are so many element coils. I think in the future I might recirculate some warm PBW after a quick hose out while I clean up the rest of the brew gear and aerate / pitch yeast etc. I think this would clean the elements and pumps well. Tipping the unit upside down and quickly dismantling the pumps for a rinse was a breeze.

All in all a very successful brew day. I can see the BM will add a great level of control to my brewing and I'll be able to learn a lot by having predictable gear and repeatable processes. This should allow me to tweak recipes and actually track the differences.

Anyways, this has been long enough, thanks for reading. Any comments or questions welcome!

Cheers,

Dave.

 

[roomfullofmirrors]

Sensational Dave!!!

:rockin:

 

[gustavf]

Recirculating some PBW or caustic works very well. You should probably make sure to flush the pump as well, a plastic garden house fitting fits pretty well in the opening.

I know some people use a toilet brush to clean the elements. They are cheap enough to give it a try, even if you find it does not work. (You might want to buy a new one just for brewing use )

 

[Yambor44]

Nice write up Dave! Thanks for taking the time.

 

[wreals]

At the National Homebrewers Conference last week, I ran into the Speidel rep and he said that all new 20L and 50L Braumeisters are coming with stainless mesh instead of the cloth filters.

 

[DeGarre]

Hi, I just joined because here seems to be the best BM conversation, and I have the 20L version and 2 brews behind me, both in FV at the moment. I also found Yambor44's video series very useful (and entertaining)

Hopefully I can contribute in due course.

1st brew: ESB-style ale, 5kg grain bill. Started with 23L and ended up 16.5L in FV. I did not strictly sparge but circulated couple of scoopfuls of wort onto grain bed, also as wort was dripping I was poking with a spoon to make wort run down better.

2nd brew: IPA-style ale, 5kg grain bill again. Started with 24L and ended up with 21-22L after mash and 18L after boil (vapour, hop bags, on the bottom under tap level). Did not touch the grain bed nor did I sparge, nada. Grain was afterwards very dry, only about 0.3L wort in it Wort clear as sky after mashing, cloudy when boiling (60 mins for both brews).

Seems to me I am a bit low with efficiency compared to others. Also when I emptied into the FV, I had to start tilting the BM quite early on, even when the level was still above the tap line, in order for beer to come out.

Other than these minor points which I'm sure I'll crack with experience, solid experience for a novice home brewer who is slightly lost with the whole process. Mr Leukert from BM has been very helpful and the overall technical quality seems impeccable.

Does anyone replace vapourised contents when boiling, as the manual says?

Thanks, and I'll be following the advice here on this thread with great interest.

 

[gustavf]

Seems to me I am a bit low with efficiency compared to others. Also when I emptied into the FV, I had to start tilting the BM quite early on, even when the level was still above the tap line, in order for beer to come out.interest.

Efficiency will improve if you sparge (dump some water on top of the malt tube when in the top position). About a gallon should be a good start.

 

[DeGarre]

Thanks gustavf, will try that on my next (3rd) brew.

Since my 1st BM brew was also my 1st ever, I followed the manual quite strictly, I saved 1.5L of wort before pitching the yeast and 2 hours before bottling carefully poured it into the FV.

Now I am worried the beer will not carbonate and will be flat. Will the 1.5L of wort spread into the whole contents and thus into the bottles? Should I have carefully mixed it into the FV? I just poured it in into the middle and left it.

Would it be better to just make a sugar priming solution by myself?

 

[wyzazz]

Thanks gustavf, will try that on my next (3rd) brew.

Since my 1st BM brew was also my 1st ever, I followed the manual quite strictly, I saved 1.5L of wort before pitching the yeast and 2 hours before bottling carefully poured it into the FV.

Now I am worried the beer will not carbonate and will be flat. Will the 1.5L of wort spread into the whole contents and thus into the bottles? Should I have carefully mixed it into the FV? I just poured it in into the middle and left it.

Would it be better to just make a sugar priming solution by myself?

Check out this thread for some useful bottling tips. What I do is to make up a priming solution using this calculator as my reference. I put around 2 cups of water in a pot on the stove and drop the required amount of sugar in to the solution. I boil this for 5 minutes or so and then dump it in to the bottom of my bottling bucket. I then siphon my beer from the fermenter to the bottling bucket creating a gentle whirlpool, this allows the priming solution to mix completely. Then I bottle my beer and begin the waiting game. Hope this helps!

 

[makomachine]

I'm a long time lurker and new member who is VERY interested in this system. My dilemma is 50L with additional 20L malt pipe -or- just the 20L version. I brew 5 gallon batches 95% of the time on my current 10 gallon setup. I like having the capability of doing a large batch size but not sure it's worth $1000 more to me. What's the +/- to the shorter malt pipe in the 50L vs the 20L unit - beyond batch size?

And thank you for such a helpful thread on this issue! I'll be sure and contribute when I get my unit.

 

[clasley]

I can't speak to the 50l but I'm loving my 20l. The only issue I've run into is haze. Not sure where's it's coming from but I'm working through the variables one-by-one. Short of that the results and ease of use are awesome.

One thing I would ask of someone with a 50l is how tough it is to lift the malt pipe out for a 10 gallon batch. It's nothing to sneeze at on the 20l. The suction and weight make for a decent lift. I see where several folks with 50l units use pulleys and winches. Pretty sure my SWMBO won't go for that in the kitchen.

-Chris

 

[Yambor44]

Chris, check my vid out. It's real easy until it gets to the top and the suction begins. Then I had to use one hand/arm to grab the rail of my garage door overhead and the other on the malt pipe. It's a tight pull but you can get it probably just ad easy as the 20.

As long as the wattage on your 20l element is sufficient, I would think Jason would be best suited for the 20.

Rob