Speidel Braumeister (brewmaster)

[tomatitotarifa]

Looking to hook up with BM users in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sorry, if this is not the place to post this, please let me know so I can move it.

Hello,
I am a new 50L BM owner in Spain. Haven't had much luck yet (2 bad brews out of three!). I will be in San Francisco visiting friends from next April 3 until April 30. I would love to meet some of you out there, so I can lean something from you (little will you learn from me) and give you a hand if you need it on a brewday. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Pedro

 

[tequilatom]

My BM50 arrived in perfect condition earlier this week. Was able to modify the plug and malt pipe as I wanted relatively easily (kudos to those who broke the ground for the rest of us!).
Not yet able to brew, had to have carpal tunnel surgery and am having neck problems again (had c3-c6 fusion). Looks like I should be able to brew mid to late April, or once it warms up here in Ohio. I don't have a vent set up in my basement yet to get rid of the water vapor, so that's out for now. Also have to watch what I lift, I am setting up an electric hoist to lift the malt tube, and dollies to move the BM and carboys around.
I also found a way to deal with the sharpness on the vertical edges of the legs as I heard someone mention, I used some computer case modding 'U' rubber molding I got on eBay, see attached pic:

Didn't use any glue, they have stayed on just with friction, though I may need to use contact cement or something else if need be.
Hope to break this bad boy in REAL soon!!!

 

[brian320fo]

Sorry to change the current topic, but DeGarre kind of got me thinking about volumes and software.

For the more experienced users of the BM; Who's using BeerSmith 2 and what's your equipment profile looking like? I've taken screenshots of those posted earlier in the thread and thought it may be worth asking again since you guys have most likely fine-tuned the numbers by now based on experience. If anyone does post their BeerSmith equipment profile, it'd be good to know what changes to the BM system you've made.

These are the numbers I've been using. I've very carefully measured all my volumes and gravities and with these number I'm consistently hitting them right on. My equipment is the 20L with a dip tube and a Therminator plate chiller. I mash with 23L, sparge to bring volume to 28.1L (right at the bottom of the malt pipe when it's resting on the rim) and use a 90 minute boil. Hope these work for you.

 

[goodgodilovebeer]

Thanks for the Beersmith help!

 

[DeGarre]

Very quiet here too. While we are waiting for an interesting new post, have a look at my dry hopped in a cask Timothy Taylor Landlord clone.

 

[goodgodilovebeer]

A bit long winded, but here's how brew #1 went;

I finally broke it in with an Oktoberfest Marzen. I figured I'd put it through it's paces with a bunch of steps (acid rest, protein rest, sac rest, and a mashout). Seriously, how much fun is it to open the lid after a pump break and watch the wort flow over the sides! My gravity expectations were hit within one point which was nice. The 90 minute boil was dead steady for the duration and all in all the brew day was 100% more enjoyable than my most previous (cooler mash tun, propane burner, 2 pots, etc).

I have to admit, I was pretty anxious considering pretty much every piece of equipment that I used in my last brew sat in storage except for two pieces of silicone hosing. I had purchased a plate chiller from Duda Diesel about a year ago and never got around to using it. That got the wort by gravity feed from 96C (boiling temp at my elevation according to the BM's temp sensor) to 10C taking roughly 10 minutes to fill the fermenter.

I was concerned about the break material getting into the chiller so I used one of those long SS spoons to whirlpool. Holding the top rigid about 20 cm above the centre post and using my other arm to consistently swirl the wort created a beautiful cone of break material around the centre post. After filling the fermenter, I still had 2 full litres of clear wort that I threw away as well as 1 litre of break material (the fluffy egg-drop soup type that pilsner malt tends to throw.

I opted to pass on any alterations to the BM on the first brew to set a baseline, and based on the efficiency of the brewday, I'll most likely leave it as is. Personally, I don't feel it necessary to make any modifications to this system if you use enough water up front to allow for the loss below the valve. Doing a whirlpool and letting it settle after the boil for about 10 minutes yields a 23L fermenters worth of crystal clear wort.

 

[dinnerstick]

congrats on your smooth brewday! the only thing i'm not that thrilled about on the BM is the valve. mine has recently shifted its open point; used to be that if the handle was sticking straight out it was fully open. then suddenly the highest flow was about 15 degrees past straight out, and the max flow rate was waay lower than normal. i had never disassembled it (a mistake, there was quite a bit of gunk in there, i will now do this regularly), and when i did open it i saw the plastic sleeve (in which the metal cylinder spins) had turned a few degrees inside the valve housing, see before and after pics. maybe this was because it had sticky wort in it that i didn't properly clean, don't know. i always just ran oxyclean through while soaking the kettle but this isn't quite enough. you can see the gunk on the valve in the pics. you can bet that's getting a good cleaning later. anyways it was easy enough to turn the sleeve back to normal with pliers (shredding the end a bit, oh well). so in the before pic you see a crescent of the plastic sleeve.
now back to the good part;
yesterday's brewday, 25 liters of 16.8P (1.069) maris otter based wort, 24 L into the fermenter!! kept a good eye on the mash and stirred a lot, no problems. my best overall extract yet, i usually only shoot for 19-20 L of higher gravity wort

 

[dinnerstick]

according to beersmith my brew yesterday hit 81% efficiency! highest i've ever got.

 

[mellowmonk]

Has anyone tried one of these stainless steel strainers with their 20L BM? http://www.stainlessbrewing.com/Hop-Strainer-with-SS-Mesh_p_123.html

Because of my chill plate I really need to reduce the amount of trub and love the idea of the reusable stainless. Do you think this will interfere with the heating element?

 

[goodgodilovebeer]

81% is great for efficiency! A couple $'s or €'s per batch saved in grain adds up to full batches over time.
I'd bet the plastic rotated like it did on yours because of small amounts of dried wort building up over time. You know, how it needs to be "cracked" to break the beer-shellac like on taps that sit unopened for a week.

 

[goodgodilovebeer]

Has anyone tried one of these stainless steel strainers with their 20L BM? http://www.stainlessbrewing.com/Hop-Strainer-with-SS-Mesh_p_123.html

Because of my chill plate I really need to reduce the amount of trub and love the idea of the reusable stainless. Do you think this will interfere with the heating element?

Are you noticing a lot of hop/break material being purged from your chiller when you rinse & clean it after a brew? I'm no authority on plate chillers (I've only used mine once) but after a good whirlpool and letting the wort come to a full stop (about 5 mins after stirring) the cone of break material was about 3-4 inches away from the outlet. I kept the plug in the utility sink while flushing the chiller to observe what came out...nothing but wort tinted water. Granted, the beer in question was a Marzen with very little hops. A IIPA may be another story.

...that really didn't answer your question at all did it?

 

[Alchemy]

Has anyone tried one of these stainless steel strainers with their 20L BM? http://www.stainlessbrewing.com/Hop-Strainer-with-SS-Mesh_p_123.html

Because of my chill plate I really need to reduce the amount of trub and love the idea of the reusable stainless. Do you think this will interfere with the heating element?

Wouldnt the malt tube pole get in the way?

 

[goodgodilovebeer]

He'd have to hack a hole right through the middle of that mesh...hope he's got band-aids

 

[flemming]

He'd have to hack a hole right through the middle of that mesh...hope he's got band-aids

Check out this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/new-way-control-pellet-hop-gunk-352293/

this guy has been doing a lot of custom work for people with really reasonable prices:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/members/chads454

You can find his site in his profile. I was thinking about getting one of his brew filters, but rather than having a hanger on top, having him weld a tube on the outside so the filter could be slid down the interior rod of the Braumeister.

Robert

 

[goodgodilovebeer]

I can picture what you're describing flemming, that's a good idea. Like I said in an earlier post, a IIPA worth of hops is something that no amount of whirlpooling is likely able to contain to the centre of the kettle. I'm just still giddy about dropping the wort temp from boiling to 10C in one pass.

 

[TheDecline]

Forgive my laziness but I dont want/have time to read through 200 pages of BM info. Hopefully I'm not repeating too much.

Iv done a few dozen brews on my 20L BM and I have figured out how to work with it to get good beer for the most part. Here are my two problems:

1) High gravity beers: The instructions say the max AG OG is 1.056. Iv managed something like 1.061 and that's a struggle when adding grain. Any clever mods/work arounds aside from just adding DME?

2) Whirlpool/trub: Im having a hard time keeping my brews clear. The higher outlet means I lose precious wort unless I lean it or use a dip tube in which case I get lots of trub. I haven't had great success with whirlpooling with a spoon as the centre post seems to interfere. Maybe im doing something wrong. I was planning on designing a whirlpool add-on kit that would work with a BM as well as most other kettle designs but if anyone can save me from buying a bunch of SS bits and a pump I would appreciate it.

 

[Alchemy]

Forgive my laziness but I dont want/have time to read through 200 pages of BM info. Hopefully I'm not repeating too much.

Iv done a few dozen brews on my 20L BM and I have figured out how to work with it to get good beer for the most part. Here are my two problems:

1) High gravity beers: The instructions say the max AG OG is 1.056. Iv managed something like 1.061 and that's a struggle when adding grain. Any clever mods/work arounds aside from just adding DME?

2) Whirlpool/trub: Im having a hard time keeping my brews clear. The higher outlet means I lose precious wort unless I lean it or use a dip tube in which case I get lots of trub. I haven't had great success with whirlpooling with a spoon as the centre post seems to interfere. Maybe im doing something wrong. I was planning on designing a whirlpool add-on kit that would work with a BM as well as most other kettle designs but if anyone can save me from buying a bunch of SS bits and a pump I would appreciate it.

The most grain I have packed in is almost 14 lbs and ended at around 1.072 I think with a bit over 5 gallons, this system isn't designed for big beers. About the only thing you can do is add Dme or double mash or boil down less than 5 gallons.

 

[mellowmonk]

Thanks guys for the responses...I am still waiting on Thorsten to see when my unit will be shipped. I don't have the BM yet which puts me at an obvious disadvantage when trying to "complete" my brew setup so thanks for the feedback. I really like the links Flemming provided and will be looking into those once I actually receive the unit. Thanks!

@TheDecline I wonder if Whirfloc during the last 5 minutes of the boil would help as well as adding a packet or two of unflavored gelatin in the secondary? With my humble 5 gallon extract brews I noticed a significant improvement in clarity.

 

[dinnerstick]

1) High gravity beers: The instructions say the max AG OG is 1.056. Iv managed something like 1.061 and that's a struggle when adding grain. Any clever mods/work arounds aside from just adding DME?

you can improve on this a lot. you must be getting 60-65% efficiency? how much grain are you using? i just posted a couple days ago (sorry to repeat) 81% efficiency to get 25L of 1.069 wort post 60 minute boil, using 6.86 kg grain total. for a 20L batch i can get into the high 1.070's easily. some things to consider trying perhaps: adjust your crush, maybe try the exact same mash with a finer or coarser crush and see how it changes your efficiency. stir the mash frequently, 3-4 times in a 60 minute mash is a minimum. for sure this helps a lot. i always do a small protein rest, i have no idea if this helps efficiency. mash with the lowest amount of water you can circulate and sparge as slowly as possible, get your volumes just right so the sparge gets you exactly to your pre-boil volume. i also like to add specialty grains that don't need mashing at the end (last 10 minutes) of the mash.
it's worth noting that the instructions in the manual are for no-sparge brewing.

 

[goodgodilovebeer]

Dinnerstick brings it strong! Thanks or that, it answered a question I was going to ask about stirring the mash.

 

[Alchemy]

Dinnerstick brings it strong! Thanks or that, it answered a question I was going to ask about stirring the mash.

Just be sure if you are stirring the mash and are in manual mode (or even in program) that the pump is OFF.

It may sound stupid but i made this mistake somehow and ended up with a ton of grain being pushed out and into the system. Had to turn everything off. Strain it, clean everything and put the wort back in and shovel soggy grain back into the malt pipe. A very time costly mistake.

 

[TheDecline]

you can improve on this a lot. you must be getting 60-65% efficiency? how much grain are you using? i just posted a couple days ago (sorry to repeat) 81% efficiency to get 25L of 1.069 wort post 60 minute boil, using 6.86 kg grain total. for a 20L batch i can get into the high 1.070's easily. some things to consider trying perhaps: adjust your crush, maybe try the exact same mash with a finer or coarser crush and see how it changes your efficiency. stir the mash frequently, 3-4 times in a 60 minute mash is a minimum. for sure this helps a lot. i always do a small protein rest, i have no idea if this helps efficiency. mash with the lowest amount of water you can circulate and sparge as slowly as possible, get your volumes just right so the sparge gets you exactly to your pre-boil volume. i also like to add specialty grains that don't need mashing at the end (last 10 minutes) of the mash.
it's worth noting that the instructions in the manual are for no-sparge brewing.

Thanks for the reply. I will definitely try stirring the mash more frequently to see what happens. As for milling, I have basically been using my barley crusher at fairly close to the default; around .040. I haven't changed it much since i'v been using my BM as it was what worked best on my old 3 vessel setup. What do you mill at?

Also, the numbers I mentioned were pre-boil not post boil. I think I should try starting with less water and maybe sparging more. I just figured the point of the BM is to not have another pot on the stove so my sparge has been limited to usually around 2L from my kettle which means starting my mash around 27L if im doing a 90min boil to achieve a full 20L batch. This is also partly because of how much I leave behind in the trub.

I have an idea for a whirlpool system but I'm not sure how well it would work. Ideally I would like to have a small inline pump attached to two SS lines, one which would draw from the middle of the pot near the top of the liquid level and the other end discharging on the side to create the whirlpool and and piece of steel to support it all resting horizontally across the top of the pot.


I just don't know if I can find a proper pump that will be small and light and self priming and food safe for a reasonable price and if it will prime totally dry. My other thought was putting in a drill pump. Otherwise, I could always change out the OE spigot and put in a 3/4 SS ball valve and attach a pump to that and then plumb it up over the top and back down to whirlpool.

Thoughts?

 

[goodgodilovebeer]

$80 CAD/USD is about as good a deal as you're likely going to find on a high temp pump IMO.

http://greatbreweh.com/Beer_Pump.html


...and you can always keep it familiar

http://www.ebay.de/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=vortex+bw152&_sacat=See-All-Categories

http://www.ebay.de/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_nkw=ecocirc&rt=nc

Keeping in mind that these are designed for residential hot water applications according to the manufacturer's site ( http://www.deutsche-vortex.de/index.php?id=103&L=1 ) Boiling, high SG liquid may not be ideal, but it may be worth sending an email to the company if you're thinking about one of these.

 

[goodgodilovebeer]

How about something like this?





(Forgive the crude sketch...it's early)

 

[DeGarre]

Speidel should use this in their marketing...

 

[goodgodilovebeer]

I brewed my second batch today, an APA for a friend and have never hit numbers that closely before! ...so in love with this machine.

 

[TheDecline]

How about something like this?



View attachment 113387

(Forgive the crude sketch...it's early)

Yeah thats basically what I was thinking. I tried to draw it with text but it didnt turn out right

A few feet of SS tubing, a pump and some fittings would be all you need. Im just not sure how these pumps handle solid particles. The magnetic drive one should be okay but maybe using some sort of hop strainer would be ideal. I think i'm going to build this

 

[goodgodilovebeer]

Yeah thats basically what I was thinking. I tried to draw it with text but it didnt turn out right

A few feet of SS tubing, a pump and some fittings would be all you need. Im just not sure how these pumps handle solid particles. The magnetic drive one should be okay but maybe using some sort of hop strainer would be ideal. I think i'm going to build this

Keep us updated

 

[pjk49202]

Pulled the trigger on a 50l tonight. No more moving half the garage to brew for me! Damn growing family takes up alot of space ya know?......

 

[goodgodilovebeer]

Pulled the trigger on a 50l tonight. No more moving half the garage to brew for me! Damn growing family takes up alot of space ya know?......

Not sure what system you brewed on before, but, it's great to see how little space your brewery takes up after getting the BM. I've gotta get going on a brewing garage sale (pots, cooler, burner, blah blah blah).