Speidel Braumeister (brewmaster)

[rnarzisi]

well... that would be a problem then. Thanks

 

[DeGarre]

Yambor, I'm missing your cool videos. Any news at the BM front?

 

[Yambor44]

Yambor, I'm missing your cool videos. Any news at the BM front?

HA HA! Been out of town for a week and had a lense replaced in one of my eyes and yada yada yada....

Just kegged 10 gallons of a SNPA clone, have 10 gallons of Bobby from NJ's Blonde Ale to keg but I'm in the middle of grilling/smoking 2 whole spatch cocked chickens and 8 bone in chicken breasts. Will probably keg that tomorrow. Then I can brew as I will have space in my fermentation freezer!!

I have to say tho I have been really enjoying the beer that I have brewed with my BM. Getting dialed in! Just blew 2 kegs; a Hopburst and a Centennial Pale Ale. Enjoying a Stump-knocker Pale Ale clone from Gainesville's Swamphead brewery at the moment.

 

[makomachine]

Here's a couple picts of my install of the 70200X45 from International Configurations. The components are actually made by Legrand. There's a green led that lights up when the receptacle has power. I keep it switched off unless I'm brewing.

-Chris

Chris- got the exact same setup but a bit confused on the wiring on this. Do you have any pics of how it's wired?

 

[BllShter]

I really have to say this is the first thread for any forum that I have read "cover to cover" you guys are awesome. My homebrewing PIC and I are saving and speculating on our first AG setup and I am pretty much sold on the BM. Yambor your vids and notes have been invaluable. HFK, your pretty close to us so I'll probably be reaching out once we're up and running, everyone else has been great too, so many contributions, I don't think I've ever seen a thread this long with such a low percentage of negging hijackers (even though I'm kind of hijacking now...), I can't even think of one! So much cooperation and info, this thread has my vote for best thread ever, can't wait to get my BM stripes and be admitted into the fraternal brotherhood of BM brewers. You guys are the shiznizzle.

 

[makomachine]

Chris - never mind as I figured it out. Nothing worse than over thinking the issue- have a little bit of electrical knowledge but no experience with GFCI and higher voltage. Red and black wires off of my 4 prong drier cord, running into the unit housed in it's own box results in this!

Now I have to figure out a stand (sitting on the box currently!), create my dip tube, clean the unit, and brew! I've got either a Citra Pale Ale or American Wheat up first, ingredients in hand. Will post something up on the first brew.

I read in the thread where people are accounting for ~3 liters boil off in their process. I'm going for a 90 minute boil and need to nail down my initial volume required if I sparge with 3.5 liters. Any suggestions from the 20L crew?

I'm also planning on using the default mash schedule the first few rounds so I have a baseline, unless others have a better schedule they would recommend.

Appreciate ALL of the input - this thread rocks and happy to be a member of the SB club! Video after the brew!

 

[rnarzisi]

I'm using a metro rack stand from Storables. Just a small 18x24 stand that's maybe 14 inches off the ground. The stand allows me to hang the lifting hook off the side, the support bar fits perfectly into the shelf grating pointing downward, and the bottom shelf is perfect for storing the copper hood. Best of all, no welding needed and takes less that ten minutes to set up.

Picture coming soon.

 

[hfk2]

Hello Makomachine, I'll give some of my observations. For stands go back to page 8 and after, you'll see several different approaches to stands. I used an unused night stand. I added casters, mounted my pump and electrical switch box. I can store everything inside it and roll it away when done. Yambor44 has a nice stainless steel table he cut the legs down on it seems very stable and gives a lot of table top space. I boil for 90 minutes but add a 1500 watt heatstick so I get a very vigorous boil. I boil off just under 1.5 gals. Chris has the copper hood and says he gets a good rolling boil, so he might add in his boil off numbers. I sparge with 2 gals of 168F water to fill the boiler to just over the top mark (25liters (6.6gals)). If you use the default mash schedule, write it down. Once you change it you lose it. The BM defaults to the last schedule used. The BM default schedule is typical of what most Germans brew - wheat beers. It would probably work very well for your American wheat beer. I brew mainly lagers and I used it for a German lager which came out very well with a strong malt flavor which is typical of German lagers. When I use well modified malts (which is most of the time) I change the protein rest to 55C (131F) for 15 minutes to help with head retention. I keep the maltose rest at 63C (145F), but lower the first sach rest to 70C (158F), and mash out at 76C (168F). The BM mashes out at 78C (172F) which I think starts to leach the tannins out of the husks and gives a little astringent taste, but i'm doing light colored lagers mostly. Don't forget to do a batch with a short protein rest and a single temp rest of between 148F to 156F. I've had very good beer come out with a simple mash. Also if you have a yard stick with centimeters on it, one centimeter equals one liter in the 20l BM. Hope this makes some sense. Let us know how you make out.

 

[roomfullofmirrors]

I stand my BM50L on top of a sanke keg that I cover with a circular piece of marine grade ply. Perfect height for lifting malt pipe (I use a small step-stool to stand on) and good height for positioning carboys, kegs etc under tap.
I also like that I can move around the BM freely and access it from any angle.

 

[makomachine]

Thanks for the input guys. I've been out running errands today and will be brewing tomorrow. I picked up a cheap stand at Target to get me buy in the near term as we are planning on moving and I'll have a more permanent brew room in the new house. Got everything I needed but my LHBS didn't have any silicone tubing, so no dip tube for now. They gave me a stub of vinyl tubing for free, but I told them it wasn't temp rated to boiling. They argued, so I kept it but it's clearly not going to work. (They were trying to be helpful so didn't press the point with them) thanks for the input on the mash schedules as I've decided to start with the wheat and their default schedule tomorrow. Will post when the dust settles with pics and or video.

 

[makomachine]

Should the pump always be running when the pump light is on? I went to clean the unit with PBW and started the default mash schedule with the unit full of water and it quit running the pump prior to the first mash schedule. It seems to have never restarted after the initial pump break. Understand it will stop periodically but I let it sit with the temperature rising and it never kicked back on.

I took the pump off and insured there were no blockages - clean as expected. Plugged it back in and turned it on and it appears to be working again. Any words of wisdom for me or should I be worried? Last thing I want is to be mid mash tomorrow and have a problem!

 

[makomachine]

I believe I have a problem. The pump problem continues and I captured a video of what it's 'not' doing. Excuse the roughness of this but wanted to get it out there quickly to gather the expert advice from the SB crew.

Any thoughts on what's going on here and am I missing something obvious here? Really hoping you can help me solve this as I REALLY want to brew with this thing tomorrow!

 

[roomfullofmirrors]

Mako, have you checked your leads and cables are all secure? Particularly from controller to pump. Looks like the computer is working okay ...just not getting signals to your pump.
Did you prime (or "ventilate") the pump before running the schedule?
...just thinking out loud really. I hope you work it out. Good luck!

 

[makomachine]

Mako, have you checked your leads and cables are all secure? Particularly from controller to pump. Looks like the computer is working okay ...just not getting signals to your pump.
Did you prime (or "ventilate") the pump before running the schedule?
...just thinking out loud really. I hope you work it out. Good luck!

Yes. Both times I've started the cycle the pump initially starts but has stopped sometime either prior to or during the first phase. That was part of the reason I felt the pump in the video (then realizing that wouldn't tell me anything) as I thought it might be overheating.

 

[makomachine]

Tired this morning with a bad case of SB worry driven insomnia it seems.

Could it be possible that this is normal response when there is no grain 'back pressure'?

Can someone post there voltage they are reading to their units? Might be able to baseline on that.

Not sure what to do from here - don't want to waste the ingredients on something that doest appear to be working correctly. I'll try and capture the moment it shuts off on camera today if nobody has any other suggestions. Not sure that will help but can use it for my discussion with Morebeer if needed.

 

[Yambor44]

Tired this morning with a bad case of SB worry driven insomnia it seems.

Could it be possible that this is normal response when there is no grain 'back pressure'?

Can someone post there voltage they are reading to their units? Might be able to baseline on that.

Not sure what to do from here - don't want to waste the ingredients on something that doest appear to be working correctly. I'll try and capture the moment it shuts off on camera today if nobody has any other suggestions. Not sure that will help but can use it for my discussion with Morebeer if needed.

I wish I could help with your pump issue but I have no idea. Your thoughts on the back pressure and grain seem logical. Have you tried it in manual mode? If not, see if it will run indefinitely in manual mode. If that doesn't work, PM me and I will give you the cell number to my guy in south Florida.

 

[makomachine]

I wish I could help with your pump issue but I have no idea. Your thoughts on the back pressure and grain seem logical. Have you tried it in manual mode? If not, see if it will run indefinitely in manual mode. If that doesn't work, PM me and I will give you the cell number to my guy in south Florida.

What's the manual mode to just turn on the pump? I dug through the manual and couldn't find it anywhere, but remember where others had said that previously. Just got back to the house and will be working on the problem to try and figure this out.

 

[Yambor44]

What's the manual mode to just turn on the pump?.....

Yes. I think you need to push manual first (arrow down).

 

[clasley]

Good to see you figured the wiring out. Unfortunately I don't have any shots showing how I did it. I should have thought of that before I buttoned it up.

Your pump issue definitely doesn't look right. I have noticed the pump cuts out around 85C and the display shows a (P). I looked and couldn't find anything in the documentation on that. But then there's much to be desired in the documentation. Makes me think we need to start a BM wiki to properly document all this stuff.

I would give MoreBeer a shout and work it out. Sounds like a bad connection or a bunk pump.

-Chris

 

[makomachine]

Chris - definitely something wrong and seems to have to do with temperature. I can run the pump in manual mode for 45 min without issue as long as I don't ramp my temp up above 40c. Once I get in that range it eventually shuts off, even though the light is lit and won't restart until the unit is cooled.

How do I know this? Well, I tried my wheat after running it manual mode and thinking the issue was resolved. Shut off when I hit ~53c and resulted in one of the longest and most disastrous brew days I've had. Just now got the now crowned 'Macgyver Wheat' in the carboy. Ended up semi batch sparging this batch without a pump. Temperature was running high most of the time and spiked up to 85c at the end of the mash out, even though it was set to 76c - no idea how that happened. With the pump not running, maybe the heating was out of whack from the temp probe. I didn't give up on it though and wrangled that sucker through the broken process. Refractometer didn't even come out during this brew as it will be what it will be - definitely not anything I will be able to duplicate through process. End result will be 'beer' and that's always better than trash and drain pour. I started video recording my brew and when it went south i quit as i had too much going on at that point. Morebeer will be getting a call tomorrow and hopefully they can make this right pronto as I need a feel good moment with the SB at this point...

 

[Yambor44]

Just watched the first part of your video. I would say to start with replacing the pump.

 

[Redstag]

Makomachine,
The 250v seems high, but I have not encountered any problems.
Hope this helps.

 

[makomachine]

Thanks Redstag - appreciate your input as that at least rules out one factor.

I'm going a head and posting a video of the first brew session, prior to things going south once I realize the pump isn't working. Hopefully it's helpful to someone and if anything at least documents where I ran into the problem. Morebeer is getting a phone call in the next 30 minutes and will let you know what I find out.

 

[Yambor44]

Jason, I'm thinking it may be more than just the pump as you mentioned. However, that being said, the heat rising issue is probably due to the wort not circulating. So it could be as simple as a pump replacement. I'm sure your distributor will want to start there. Sorry you had such a problem.

 

[makomachine]

Rob- I got in touch with Morebeer and they are going to work it back with Speidel. I expect a solid response as I've had nothing but excellent experience with Morebeer over all my purchases. Will post back once I get word on next steps.

All that said, I love the concept of this unit. We'll see how support is before I make judgements as I know that even with the tightest QC these things just happen sometimes. Taking a deep breath and we'll see where we end up.

 

[hfk2]

Sorry for your predicament. I haven't read anywhere of this problem. The 250V is most likely not the issue. Most homes especially those that are close to a substation can easily get readings of 250V. If you put most of your major appliances on you would most likely see that reading drop to 240V. I'm thinking based on what you showed us that there is a temperature controller that controls the pump. As Chris said at 85C when you're in the boil phase, the pump shuts off and doesn't come on again. I don't think having grain in the pipe makes any difference. I have run the pump with no grain and with PBW to clean the system with just enough water to cover the spigot opening and also with a full pot and have had no problems. Your pump seems to shut down whether it's in auto mode or manual mode when the temperature rises. Also when the pump is stuck with grain it tends to make a pretty good clackety noise that you can't miss. Since the pump does run at low temperatures I would think the connections are O'K and the voltage is good but you could use your meter to check the voltage at the pump. Just my thoughts. Hope it helps with your troubleshooting with Speidel (Morebeer).

 

[makomachine]

OK. I've done some more monitoring of the issue to try and narrow down the root cause to assist Morebeer / Speidel. It would appear that Rob is right and it's likely pump related given what I'm seeing in variation of cutoff/on time & temps. More importantly, there is a rattle I'm starting to notice in the pump that I don't believe was there previously. This could be me just noticing more - and it's definitely not as loud as Rob's was in his posting, but there is a 'ticking' that's noticeable. I've captured my findings and the sound in the below video. Kevin at Morebeer is working my issue but given the time difference, I'm not likely to hear anything back until tomorrow.

 

[rlhvegas]

Sorry for being off topic, but I placed an order for a 20l two weeks ago with morebeer. I've called morebeer and they told me that because the item is drop shipped from Speidel, they have no way to track the package and give me any updates. Literally I'm in the dark about my order! It's an expensive item, not to have any clue what's going on with it. I've even contacted Speidel using the email links from theie website but have gotton no responses. Can anyone give me a suggestion or words of encouragment? I'm trying to be as patient as possible!

 

[makomachine]

Sorry for your predicament. I haven't read anywhere of this problem. The 250V is most likely not the issue. Most homes especially those that are close to a substation can easily get readings of 250V. If you put most of your major appliances on you would most likely see that reading drop to 240V. I'm thinking based on what you showed us that there is a temperature controller that controls the pump. As Chris said at 85C when you're in the boil phase, the pump shuts off and doesn't come on again. I don't think having grain in the pipe makes any difference. I have run the pump with no grain and with PBW to clean the system with just enough water to cover the spigot opening and also with a full pot and have had no problems. Your pump seems to shut down whether it's in auto mode or manual mode when the temperature rises. Also when the pump is stuck with grain it tends to make a pretty good clackety noise that you can't miss. Since the pump does run at low temperatures I would think the connections are O'K and the voltage is good but you could use your meter to check the voltage at the pump. Just my thoughts. Hope it helps with your troubleshooting with Speidel (Morebeer).

Thanks for the input on the voltage. Ive done some base level outlet wiring but have never worked with 220 before. Makes complete sense to me though as i know standard home outlets can run a few volts high and when you double tha, the math makes sense.

Haven't tried measuring voltage as I didn't want to mess with the connections in any way prior to getting some feedback from the vendors. I'm keeping my hopes up that it's something simple that won't drive a multi-week wait on a part replacement. We'll see what they say tomorrow.

 

[makomachine]

Sorry for being off topic, but I placed an order for a 20l two weeks ago with morebeer. I've called morebeer and they told me that because the item is drop shipped from Speidel, they have no way to track the package and give me any updates. Literally I'm in the dark about my order! It's an expensive item, not to have any clue what's going on with it. I've even contacted Speidel using the email links from theie website but have gotton no responses. Can anyone give me a suggestion or words of encouragment? I'm trying to be as patient as possible!

I heard the exact same thing from Morebeer myself when my 20L shipped. It took right at 3 weeks to arrive as they predicted. I find it odd as well on such an expensive item, but the delivery worked out. They charged me about a week later as I believe they don't hear back from Speidel right away on invoicing / shipment confirmation. When did you order?