Speidel Braumeister (brewmaster)

[wyzazz]

Need to get some FermCap, but the stuff isn't for sale in this country. Anyone know some online shop who will send small items as a letter or small flat-rate box? International shipping fromMoreBeer is insane.

Pick up some Baby Gas Drops (unflavored) at your local pharmacy, it's the same active ingredient and works just as well.

 

[rico567]

Did a brew today with the copper hat, gasket and flexible hose to vent off steam. It worked great! No steam in the kitchen.

Bent the hose down first, then up under the middle of the ventilator over my stove. Made a hole in the hose at the lowest point to drain condensed water into a box.

Boiled without the thermocollar and set the temperature to 102 degC.
Had some boilover in the beginning. It oozed up into the hose and into the box. Some oozed out between the hose and the hat because I didn't fasten it with a hose clamp. But the stuff kept inside the unit, hose and box so no mess in the kitchen.

Need to get some FermCap, but the stuff isn't for sale in this country. Anyone know some online shop who will send small items as a letter or small flat-rate box? International shipping fromMoreBeer is insane.

Boiloff went down from 10 to 8.6% pr hour. Still enough!

To secure something that may be approximately as efficacious as Fermcap-S, you might try any "anti-gas" patent medication containing "simethicone" or other ingredient. That's what those things do- suppress the bubbles, and I have read on several threads that people have used it successfully. I'd just be sure you don't get any of the flavored kinds....

 

[Getafix]

Had a great brewday yesterday, brewed this Weissbier I posted earlier:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/speidel-braumeister-brewmaster-229225/index113.html#post3555997

It was the shortest brewday for me on the Braumeister, clocking in at 7 1/2 hours. I was a couple points shy on my numbers, but nothing to loose sleep over. A few things I would change for next time:

Crush coarser, I'm still crushing a bit too fine.
Add more rice hulls, for this type of grainbill perhaps add 8-10% of the weight of the hulless grain.
Take Speise after final cooling, rather than pre-boil. Taking it pre-boil messes with the numbers too much, until I get a better handle on it.

 

[Sudz]

Crush coarser, I'm still crushing a bit too fine.

What are you guys using for your crush setting on these? I've seen the question asked but haven't seen any input from anyone.

 

[beefeater]

What are you guys using for your crush setting on these? I've seen the question asked but haven't seen any input from anyone.

I have only two brews with my new mill and I haven't measured the gap but I think I've found a good setting on the Crankandstein. It's the simplest model with eccentric bushings for adjustment.

First brew was too fine. That was on the factory setting, "1/2"
Last brew felt just right. That was 1/8 turn from the widest setting.
Quite coarse.

 

[apratsunrthd]

What are you guys using for your crush setting on these? I've seen the question asked but haven't seen any input from anyone.

I hit 68% on a Barley Crusher with a .036 gap.

 

[apratsunrthd]

Just a quick update. I'm still sitting right at 68%. I'm trying to only change one thing at a time. This time, I used 5.2 pH stabilizer. Next time, I'm going to add either gypsum or calcium chloride as my water is a bit calcium deficient. Depending on those results, I may crank down my crush and add rice hulls next time.

 

[apratsunrthd]

I have only two brews with my new mill and I haven't measured the gap but I think I've found a good setting on the Crankandstein. It's the simplest model with eccentric bushings for adjustment.

First brew was too fine. That was on the factory setting, "1/2"
Last brew felt just right. That was 1/8 turn from the widest setting.
Quite coarse.

Do you have some feeler gauges you could measure the gap with? What efficiency are you hitting?

 

[beefeater]

Do you have some feeler gauges you could measure the gap with? What efficiency are you hitting?

I don't have any feeling gauges but it looks more than one, less than two mm. So 1.5mm or 0.06 inches.

I get about 85% "Efficiency Into Boiler" as per Beersmith.
This is quite high. I think allways doing a mashout and allways sparging with 9 liters of 78 DegC water for a 22 liter batch helps in achieving this. Also allways boiling for 90 minutes which lets me sparge some more than if doing 60mins.

 

[Sudz]

You really need to invest in a set of feeler gauges. They are the only way to know what you're doing when you play with the gap. Just a few thousandths of an inch can make a big difference in your crush and efficiency.

 

[beefeater]

Naah..
I used to use a Corona mill. Played with the gap till the grains looked right, and that worked great. Got consistent efficiency.
Now with the new Crankandstein I'll play with the gap a couple times until it's perfect and then forget about it. The numeric value of the gap doesn't matter. If it's right it's right.

 

[apratsunrthd]

Naah..
I used to use a Corona mill. Played with the gap till the grains looked right, and that worked great. Got consistent efficiency.
Now with the new Crankandstein I'll play with the gap a couple times until it's perfect and then forget about it. The numeric value of the gap doesn't matter. If it's right it's right.

I tend to agree. Once it's set and you know your efficiency, the gap really doesn't matter. I was asking for my own benefit

 

[Sudz]

I'll agree the gap number isn't of any value... unless you want to discuss it.

 

[beefeater]

I'll agree the gap number isn't of any value... unless you want to discuss it.

Of course!
And I have asked about the same myself so I should find out. I'll see if I can find some measuring device at work and put a number to "about right"

 

[Sudz]

I'll see if I can find some measuring device at work and put a number to "about right"

Thanks. I'm interested in seeing what gap systems like the Braumeister seem to work best with.

I've used .035 forever on my conventional systems with good results. I gather the "brew-in-a-bucket" crowd benefits from a coarser grind to reduce the tendency of "fountaining" and "channeling". I'm beginning to brew with a similar technology and I'm just trying to save some experiemental time working this piece out. No need to plow ground others have done before...

Cheers...

 

[bcryan]

doing my first brew on the braumeister. phase 3!!! i would like to pause the program and give it a quick stir. how the heck do i pause and restart everything? ive read the instructions but they don't help much. thanks

 

[BeerMbob]

It's easy just press the start/stop buttons together and it pauses the program. It ask the question continue after that and just press the relevant key continue is displayed.
I load mine upto 12kg of grain on the 50litre unit but the grain needs stirring 2 or 3 times.

 

[bcryan]

thank you sir. appreciate it

 

[BeerMbob]

Your Welcome! Oh I also give the malt pipe a 90 degree turn I haven't taken any measurements with or without doing this but my thinking is the pumps will be directing the flow in another part of the grain bed. So far I haven't had any problems with the rubber ring coming of as this was an initial concern.

 

[beefeater]

Measured my mills gap today by stacking paper and inserting the stack until it was tight. Then used calipers to measure the stack.

1.4mm or 0.055"

I think I'll tighten it a liiitle bit before the next brew.

 

[apratsunrthd]

Measured my mills gap today by stacking paper and inserting the stack until it was tight. Then used calipers to measure the stack.

1.4mm or 0.055"

I think I'll tighten it a liiitle bit before the next brew.

That's quite a bit bigger than the gap I'm using. What kind of efficiency are you getting?

 

[beefeater]

That's quite a bit bigger than the gap I'm using. What kind of efficiency are you getting?

Got 86% "efficiency into boiler" on the last brew, the only with that setting.
Got 92% on the brew before with a significantly tighter setting. Also got some fountaining on that one, that's why I opened the gap a bit.

Both these brews were low gravity. 4.5 and 4.7 kg malt and 29 liters preboil.

 

[DeGarre]

Bump!

 

[BierFest]

So Christmas came early today - My new 50l braumeister arrived.
After a lot of thought i finally decided to go with the 50l and the 20l malt pipe accessory as an extra. I hope that I wont need to make an investment like this for a very long time again - So I went with the 50L model in the end so that I would have no regrets in the future.


It was very well packaged and not damaged in any way.





It came with the new mesh filters. Although these will help a lot i think it wont be a perfect solution either. There is still a slight gap around the edges and the mesh tends to curve depending on the way you put it down. I would think after a few years of using them they would need to be replaced - maybe not. However they are certainly a great improvement on the original type supplied.

The unit came with the newer black pumps installed (this change was mentioned in a previous thread). I forgot to grab a picture of them.


my newly adopted German family

I ordered directly from Speidel as I live in Ireland. It took about 2.5 weeks from receipt of payment to when the order was finally shipped.
I found the guys at Speidel very helpful.

So I am hoping to have a brew day tomorrow. Like a lot of others I will start with the Wheat beer listed in the Speidel manual. Just to break me in. I will let you know how it went.

 

[bcryan]

nice set up!!! i've done two brews on my 50 now. you're gonna have fun!!!

 

[Getafix]

@ BierFest

Congrats on your new equipment, thats an ideal setup. I would have bought the 50L if space wasn't a concern.

Like a lot of others I will start with the Wheat beer listed in the Speidel manual. Just to break me in. I will let you know how it went.

The 2 versions (different mash schedules) of that I made have been bottled for a month and are ready. I think they turned out very well for the first couple of brews on the Braumeister.

Milling the grain coarse is a requirement when that much wheat is being used, there should be very little flour or small bits. I find that with the barley grains I can grind finer and still maintain a decent flow. My overall effeciency has dropped to around 65% on the mostly wheat beers and around 72% for the 2 Row or pale beers.

Happy brewing, let us know how it goes.

 

[BierFest]

So I had my first brewday with the braumeister on Christmas eve. It was definitely the most stress free brew day I have had. It removes all the harder work from a brewday but still leaves the enjoyable parts.
The only part of the brewday that involved a lot of work is the cleanup. The 50l unit is large so you need a lot of space to lift it, turn it upside down etc.

With the new mesh filters I did not experience any grain escaping from the malt pipe.
I crushed my grain with the default settings on the Barley crusher. I was using 49% pilsner malt, 49% wheat malt and I did not experience any of the wort fountains reported by others.

The pumps are really easy to clean. You simply unscrew the pump housing clean and replace. It is very simple to do and I will be doing this every time I brew.

I use leaf hops when brewing - however I think in future I will use some sort of hop bag (or something similar) to hold the hops. This should make clean up even faster.

As I was brewing 20L (using the 20l maltpipe) in the 50l unit i did not experience the outlet tap getting blocked when poring to the fermenter. Also I was able to remove nearly all of the liquid from the unit into the fermenter with getting lots of hops etc in the fermenter.

I think you need to do a few brews with the machine to fine tune your understanding of it and to get all of your calculations etc correct. However it is a really powerful tool and I know Im going to have lots of great brews with it.

I learned two valuable lessons from what otherwise might have been a very successful brew day:

• 
  I bought the 50l unit. I am currently brewing with the 20l malt pipe.
  
  
  

  • 
    The instruction manual recommends filling the braumeister with 23l of water

  • 
    All went fine until the pumps turned on. There was not then enough water in the unit to cover the outer heating elements.

  • 
    The residue from the grain water combination which had covered the heating elements before the boil then started to heat on the elements and created a burning smell

  • 
    I had to bring the total mashing water volume to 26/27l of water to completely cover the elements.

  • 
    does anybody else brew with the 20l malt pipe in the 50 unit and if so do you find this a problem - or was it something I did wrong?

• 
  I did my boil with the lid completely removed from the unit. I also turned the boil temperature up to 101 degrees celcius. However this resulted in a huge boil-off rate which only left me with 15l of wort in my fermenter. Next time I think I will keep the temperature at 100 degrees and keep the lid partially over the unit. The reason I turned to 101 degrees was that I read that many people had problems getting a proper boil going at 100 degrees. However after thinking about it afterwards i realised that most people reported this problem on the 20l unit - the 50l unit contains a lot more heating elements and so should not struggle to get a boil going - pity i didn't think of this before my boil.

I intend to do another brew over the next few days (a Nogne porter clone). I will take on board the lessons learned from brew no.1 and let you know how brew no.2 goes.

 

[rlhvegas]

Happy New Year! What better way to bring in the New Year then to brew a New Belgian La Folie Clone on the Braumiester?! With a 12-18 month fermentation schedule, I thought it was fitting to make this an end of year tradition. I have posted the recipe and pics of the brew day to my blog: http://nolimitbrewing.wordpress.com

I will update this thread regularly with updates. Cheers!

 

[DeGarre]

That hop spider looks sweet!

 

[rlhvegas]

That hop spider looks sweet!

Thanks, it's inexpensive to make and very convenient!