We had a near catastrophe yesterday
When it came time to lift the malt pipe, I removed the wing nut and the top sieves and the grain under them suddenly rose, and before I could react, were 1/8" above the top of the malt pipe and grain was overflowing into the outer compartment.
In a 60 minute gentle rolling boil I gain 4 points.
If you're hitting your final volume it doesn't really make sense that your chiller is leaking. To have no change in gravity from pre to post boil means you'd have to leak the same amount you've evaporated in which case your final volume would equal your starting volume. For the sake of being thorough you could try checking your hydrometer in a known sugar solution. Dissolve 10g of sugar in 90g of distilled water and see if it reads 1.040. Don't forget to adjust for whatever temperature your hydrometer is calibrated at.
Robert
I hit 85-90 % efficiency with my typical 4.5-5.5 kg grain bill, using 26 litres water to mash and 6 litres to rinse, but I do need to work hard for that efficiency:
I'd rather throw in a couple hundred more grams of malt to make up for my efficiency, then to waste half an hour sparging, just to get those few extra percentages.
Damn this Nøgne ø imperial Stout is making me drunk.
+1.....I'd rather throw in a couple hundred more grams of malt to make up for my efficiency, then to waste half an hour sparging, just to get those few extra percentages....
I like thatEdit: Got this new wingnut that a friend made (he actually made me two) .
No more do I need to worry about the small Spiedel nut dropping into the wort when removing the screens to stir the mash.
@Refly
What was your efficiency for that last run?
How/what software are you calculating your efficiencies?
How/what size are you milling your grain?
With a grain bill of around 4 Kg (<9lb) and my BC set to 1.2mm (0.048") I typically get ~85% efficiency (using BeerSmith).
87% according to iBrewmaster. I have eeked out 80% plus with a longer mash, but this was just 60 minutes so I expected more in the 75% range which is what I normally get with a larger grain bill for that amount of time.
I'm still at the factory default on the mill as I've never had to change the crush. Unfortunately I'm not sure what the setting is. That being said it's the same crush I always use so it wasn't one of the variables.
Do you change your estimation of efficiency based on the size of the grain bill or has it remained constant for you? It could be I had some other variable change that I'm not accounting for so I'm trying to figure out if this was a one-off experience or if I should expect a better efficiency with less grain.
Well, I made the move and ordered a 50L Braumeister after deciding to move the brewery indoors. The good news: I ordered on 10/25 and FedEx delivered on 11/20 less than 4 weeks. The bad news: The box was in good shape, no visible damage to the box. When I unpacked it, the lower rear handle is pushed in, denting the tank at both welds and the handle weld is broke on one side. Talked to Thorsten, he was helpful and I am sending pictures. But a heads up- Thorsten said it's better to unpack in front of FedEx no matter if the box is in good shape in order to help him/Speidel to make a shipping claim. I'll follow up on how this is resolved.
I must admit that I am not interested in chasing abv's much higher than 6%. Someday I might try a barleywine. I suspect the best route being repeat mashings of the same wort - if I don't go the DME route.
I'm not necessarily a "purist".
.....last weekend i brewed my biggest beer, 1.100, on the speidel so far (well, not entirely on the speidel) ..... the tricentennial stout (russian imperial) from brewing classic styles.....
I must admit that I am not interested in chasing abv's much higher than 6%. Someday I might try a barleywine. I suspect the best route being repeat mashings of the same wort - if I don't go the DME route.
I'm not necessarily a "purist".
@ Batfink
What was the weight of each charge of grains? Did you mix all the grains and then divide it into 3 equal parts or did you leave the specialty grains to the last mash, mashing the pale grains first?
I did three 6kg mashes and put all the speciality grains in the last run. My efficiency was only about 35%, so I doubt I'll try this again. I'd rather just do a double mash and correct my pre boil gravity with DME if I want to brew a + 1.100 beer.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/speidel-braumeister-brewmaster-229225/index173.html#post4561147
You used Wyeast 1968 (London ESB) yeast, I have White Labs 013 (London) on hand as well as WLP004 (Irish).
If you're hitting your final volume it doesn't really make sense that your chiller is leaking. To have no change in gravity from pre to post boil means you'd have to leak the same amount you've evaporated in which case your final volume would equal your starting volume. For the sake of being thorough you could try checking your hydrometer in a known sugar solution. Dissolve 10g of sugar in 90g of distilled water and see if it reads 1.040. Don't forget to adjust for whatever temperature your hydrometer is calibrated at.
Robert
Finally putting up some BM brewing vids in youtube, linking them to my boring recipe log blog -
http://tavastlandbrewing.wordpress.com/2011/10/23/fumbling-my-way-through-a-brewday/
Boring stuff, nothing like Rob's. If nothing else, at least you'll see what the footprint is
Hello everyone!
Been brewing on the Braumeister for a little under a year now, only about 10 brews under my belt with it. Went through a pump and it sounds like the replacement is going but other than that i have been having fun.
Running into a slight issue with power at the moment however, i have been using a 5000w power converter for all of my brews and it has started to blow fuses within itself and smell a lot like melting solder recently...the last thing i want is a fire while i am brewing.
I have recently moved into a new house that has a brew room in the basement (the previous owner made wine and built an awesome room with a utility sink)
I have power in the basement area next to this room and a dryer vent and plan on using these.
The problem is that the power is not a 220 line...it is a 250v 30 amp line.
My plan was to order a power cable for the braumeister that would fit on this plug (when i thought it was 220) but seeing that it is 250v i do not want to blow up my awesome beer making machine.
The plug it the picture attached.
If i order a plug that has the braumeister end and then a 250v on the other end to fit this am i going to blow up my braumeister?
Your actual electricity voltage is probably somewhere between 220v and 250v. It should be the same as all other residential 240v systems in the U.S. The 250V on the receptacle is just its rating. It is not the voltage of your electricity. If you measure the voltage across the two hots of the receptacle you will see your actual voltage (under no load. - It might drop a bit under load). If measure from the ground of the receptacle to either hot you should see 1/2 of the voltage; i.e. ~120v.
Running your Braumeister on this will not damage it because of the type of plug (assuming everything is wired correctly). And as long as the voltage does not exceed the Braumeister voltage rating, everything should work just fine. In fact, you should be better off without the converter.
The Braumeister manual shows '230 V ~'. That means 'approx. 230 V'. I believe U.S. electricity is more properly called 240v (and 120v), but you will hear it referred to as 220, 230, 240, etc. Spiedel says that the Braumeister is designed to run properly with U.S. electricity.
Hello everyone!
After that I tossed in a hop bag filled with about 0,5kg of uncrushed pilsner malt and put the braumeister in manual mode set at 43 c with the pump off.
From what i read the Braumeister uses a c13 end
I´m planning a big barley wine for the 21st of December and was thinking about 1968 but was afraid that it may end up too sweet. please, let me know how it goes and how much attenuattes looks promising
after another week it's 1.031, i'm calling that final.
I have the 50L Braumeister
Fill to the prescribed mark.
Sparge to replace the water absorbed by the grain.
Boil as stated for the recipe. 60 or 90 min
Adding hops (pellet) directly to kettle.
And end up with much less than 5 g. in each carboy due to trub.
Finishing with about 4 1/4 g. or less in each Keg.
I know some people use sacks/screens to keep the loss of wart to a
minimum.
And some just add there hops to the kettle not worrying about the loss.
As stated by some whirpooling is difficult at best, and letting the hop gunk settle out before transferring to carboy helps.
I know it is expected to lose a bit of wart when racking but ....not happy
Are there any Braumeister's ending up with 5gallons of finished beer in there kegs?
If so, where am I going wrong?
What is the average amount of finished beer you guys and gals are getting out of your systems?
I wish Ya'll a safe and happy holliday season.
I have a 20L not a 50L, but perhaps the following will still be useful to you.
I fill wort up to the neck of my 5 gal carboy. That means about 20L (5 gal + 1L up to the neck.). In doing so I have had wort left that would not fit into the carboy that I threw away or used later for a starter. When filling the carboy to the neck it is necessary to use a blow-off hose, in which case there will be a more than a liter of loss into the blow-off reservoir, leaving a little less than 5 gal in the carboy. Additional loss will occur when racking from the carboy. Total loss in fermenting and racking about 2.4 liter. So starting with 19.5L in the carboy (the most it will hold) I end up with about 17.1 into my keg. I would need to use a larger carboy to do better.
I use BeerSmith and set the batch size to the amount I want to go into the carboy (19.5L) and set the trub loss in the kettle of .6L (best I can do by tilting the kettle when moving wort to the carboy) and adjust the ingredients to get the OG, SRM, and IBU I want.
EDIT: In addition to setting the kettle trub loss to .6L I also set the fermentation loss to 2.4L.
To leave the least amount of trub in the kettle I use one of the malt pipe fine screens in front of the kettle outlet (inside the kettle) to get as much wort out as possible and leave the trub in the kettle. The screen will get clogged quickly; so I rotate the screen to a new spot several times throughout the process to draining the wort from the kettle into the carboy.
I haven't tried it but I think I could get more more out of my 20L. Using BeerSmith it would just be a matter of increasing the batch size and the ingredients appropriately to maintain targets. At some point the amount of ingredients that would be required could exceed the Braumeister capability. How soon this occurs would depend on the OG you are shooting for. So far (5 batches) I have not brewed anything with an OG higher than 1.055; so I think I could increase the batch size (and carboy size) so as to end up with a full 5 gal in my keg. I have thought about doing this, but just have no sprung for another carboy.
Hope there is something here that helps you.
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