Speidel Braumeister- is this true BIAB or what?

[badmajon]

Although my wife would kill me if I were to buy a Speidel Braumeister (SBM) immediately, I am really keen on getting one for myself because the SBM seems to be a great system at a decent price considering the competition. I do have one major question that so far I have not been able to answer:

Is this BIAB or something else? I heard it was BIAB, but then I saw a youtube video where the guy had to heat water in another vessel and add it to the SBM for a sparge step. The video comments seemed to be ambiguous as to whether this step was necessary or not. I would assume that if you buy a large enough one, you can skip a sparging step and just do a full volume BIAB mash?

If I buy the SBM, I do not want to have to heat water in another vessel, or do anything with anything else. I am looking for a true all in one system.

 

[bionut]

The malt pipe capcity is one of the factors you should have in mind. For bigger beers it may be too small to fit all the grains and do a full volume mash. That's why they sparge. You can go around this step and make a full volume batch but i am not sure if you can do a 5 gallon batch in the 20L Braumeister this way. If you have the money get the 50L versions.

 

[badmajon]

The malt pipe capcity is one of the factors you should have in mind. For bigger beers it may be too small to fit all the grains and do a full volume mash. That's why they sparge. You can go around this step and make a full volume batch but i am not sure if you can do a 5 gallon batch in the 20L Braumeister this way. If you have the money get the 50L versions.

I looked at the website for the 50L and it says 13 KG maximum grain bill, which would be okay if that meant 13 kilos of grain and a full volume mash.

The question is, if I load it with 13 kilos of grain, can I add the 15-16 gallons of water required for a full mash, or would I need to sparge?

 

[bionut]

I am not sure, you may want to look this up also, but i think that the real volume of the pot is bigger than 50 liter, so probably you can do full volume mash. 50L is amount of wort you can get in the fermenter with that equipment. I think i read this somewhere.

 

[pretzelb]

You don't have to sparge with hot water. There was a recent test done to show it didn't make much difference for biab. I think other tests show reserving some water to pour over the grains can bump the efficiency.

 

[bionut]

here they talk about volumes. It seems big enough for full volume https://forum.braumeisters.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1036
You can always sparge with some cold water just to be sure the volume is ok. It won't take much water, maybe 2-3 liters.

 

[badmajon]

here they talk about volumes. It seems big enough for full volume https://forum.braumeisters.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1036
You can always sparge with some cold water just to be sure the volume is ok. It won't take much water, maybe 2-3 liters.

Yeah that is true thanks for the link I will look into it, but if I am spending $2500 on a rig, I want it to be just right as I could build one hell of a rig with that if I DIYd it.

Update: I checked the link you sent, much appreciated, the real capacity seems to be about 70L. Which is a lot! I think I have a winner now I just need to start saving my pennies and convince SWMBO.

 

[bosster01]

What would make you want the braumeister compared to the grainfather?

 

[badmajon]

What would make you want the braumeister compared to the grainfather?

Apparently, you need to externally heat the sparge water with the grainfather (i.e., you need another pot, burner, etc), and most importantly to me, I read that the parts are not super well made.

 

[bionut]

By making the equipment yourself you can save a lot of money. You need a Open ArdBir controller, two pots and a heating element and pump. I plan to do just that, probably i would invest in a Braumeister if i had the money though.

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

BMs have a rod with fill marks on it that makes all this pretty thought free. Fill up to the line then after the mash sparge a little to bring you back up to the line again.

 

[dude1]

A bit of an old thread, but just to give you my impressions after 2 years of brewing with a 20L BM (about 15 batches) and also some BIAB batches.

The malt pipe capacity is definitely the biggest downside of the BM. You can fit up to 6kg in there (6.8kg if you press down a little bit), which will be OK for your typical 6% IPA and even for a 7% beer if you put 6.5kg of grain and mill thin.
In case you want to brew bigger beers, you just need to do a double mash where you get rid of the grain after 1h and fill the pipe again with the other half of the grain bill for a second mash in the same wort; you just waste 1h, but you can brew 1.100 gravity beers without any problem.

I would say the biggest perk of the BM is the reproductibility and the fact that you can do your things from early mash to end of mash-out without worrying about anything as it's all automatic; that's about 1.5h.

It's also a more "homogeneous" system than similar electric kettles as explained here
http://www.speidelbraumeister.com/braumeister-alternatives

Beers turn out great, but generally slightly on the watery side, so I would recommend mashing 1°C higher or reducing the recommended 23L mash water down to 22 or 21L.


This said, I recently started brewing more and more using the BIAB method, mostly because I wanted to experiment with bigger grain bills and, surprisingly, I find the process even simpler.

BIAB is a very pleasant brewing method with little cleaning and, surprisingly again, I get the same brewhouse efficiency as with the BM, about 70%, by sparging and squeezing well and using a pretty thin water to grain ratio.

I don't bother adding some heat during the mash or conducting a mash-out, because I'm afraid to burn the bag, but you don't need to worry about the fact that the temperature drops of some degrees during the mash; as long as you start with the correct temperature and wrap your kettle into a blanket/quilt, you'll be fine.
Reproductibility can be the same as with the BM if your strike temp is the same every time.

It also gives you more control on water to grain ratio.

You can stir your mash if you want the temperature to be more homogeneous in the kettle.

For a fraction of the price of the BM, you get the same quality of beer and it's basically the same principle, save for the pump.
It also gives you more of a feeling of being an actual brewer.

Hope that helps.