Braumeister Brew 2 - Blond Biere de Garde

[serum]

My other half has taken my daughter to visit relatives for the weekend so it's brew time again!

This is my second with the Braumeister plus and I'm going for a similar brew but with a different mash schedule and different amounts of water to see how it goes.

I used 26L of water last time with an 8L top up and ended up with 2 litres more than I was after and slightly lower gravity. I'm going for 24 this time with an 8L top up. The manual recommends 23L but I'm using bottled water that comes in 2L bottles so rounded it up. It fits fine.

Mash:

5kg Weyermann Floor Malted Bohemian Pilsner
1kg Weyermann Munich 1

40C - Mash in
58C - 15 mins
62C - 15 mins
66C - 30 mins
70C - 15 mins
78C - 10 mins

The mash schedule is loosely based around one I read that's used for La Chouffe, which is one of my favourite beers. I'm hoping I'll get that nice slightly corny flavour from the high amount of pilsner malt.

Boil: 90 mins
40g Brewer's Gold (6.2% AA) - 60 mins
20 Hallertauer Hersbrucker (2.8%AA) - 20 mins
Protofloc - 15 mins

Fermenting with WLP072 - French Ale
Planned OG: 1.070
IBU: 26.8
FG: 1.010 ish

Beersmith doesn't seem to have this yeast but I think it should get to somewhere near 1.010 based on past performance which will get me around 7%.

 

[Crystal_Ball]

Always look forward to hear how others get on with their brews and experiments with the Braumeister.
I've never managed an OG that high. Not quite worked out why that is yet as I think there a few possible reasons.
I have that yeast in Beersmith. Maybe it appeared after an add-on I downloaded?

 

[serum]

Always look forward to hear how others get on with their brews and experiments with the Braumeister.
I've never managed an OG that high. Not quite worked out why that is yet as I think there a few possible reasons.
I have that yeast in Beersmith. Maybe it appeared after an add-on I downloaded?

Well I'm not 100% sure I will either. Last time I was out by a fair bit but ended up with more beer. I'm trying setting the boil to 103C so it stays as vigorous as possible. With 2L less water it should hopefully get there.

My pre boil is a fair way out so far. 1.054 against 1.060 but I used to make that back in the boil on my old setup. Let's see what happens!

 

[serum]

Well this was interesting but not for the right reasons.

It was all going great until I had to drain the thing and managed to block both taps with hops, then ended up taking the wort out with a jug and pouring through a sterilised sieve to get all the crap out.

I ended up with 21 Litres which is still a little too much but then ended up diluting it down a bit because my yeast starter hadn't crashed so I chucked the whole 2 litres in. What I ended up with was 23L of 1.060 wort in the end but I imagine it would have been a fair bit higher than that were it not for the starter.

Hopefully it won't get an infection after all that messing around.

I must have been lucky on the last brew which had more hops. Going to pick up a hop filter before my next attempt.

 

[Crystal_Ball]

Well this was interesting but not for the right reasons.

It was all going great until I had to drain the thing and managed to block both taps with hops, then ended up taking the wort out with a jug and pouring through a sterilised sieve to get all the crap out.

I ended up with 21 Litres which is still a little too much but then ended up diluting it down a bit because my yeast starter hadn't crashed so I chucked the whole 2 litres in. What I ended up with was 23L of 1.060 wort in the end but I imagine it would have been a fair bit higher than that were it not for the starter.

Hopefully it won't get an infection after all that messing around.

I must have been lucky on the last brew which had more hops. Going to pick up a hop filter before my next attempt.

On the issue of hops blocking the tap I too have been there!
I have a hop spider, but I do wonder how the utilisation is affected especially with large amounts of leaf lops, which is why I try to go for pellets. If I decide not to use the hop spider as it is another thing to clean and if I use large amounts of pellets a couple of times the thermometer probe on the bottom has been covered which affects the read out temperature. (Maybe a whirlpool would fix this?) Only an issue when cooling as the wort is cooler than the temp probe says so.
If I have loose leaf hops in the wort then I have put a stir paddle between the element and tap hole to stop a single hop leaf blocking the tap and raising the stress levels!

On the positive side it sounds as if the efficiency was good?!

 

[serum]

On the issue of hops blocking the tap I too have been there!
I have a hop spider, but I do wonder how the utilisation is affected especially with large amounts of leaf lops, which is why I try to go for pellets. If I decide not to use the hop spider as it is another thing to clean and if I use large amounts of pellets a couple of times the thermometer probe on the bottom has been covered which affects the read out temperature. (Maybe a whirlpool would fix this?) Only an issue when cooling as the wort is cooler than the temp probe says so.
If I have loose leaf hops in the wort then I have put a stir paddle between the element and tap hole to stop a single hop leaf blocking the tap and raising the stress levels!

On the positive side it sounds as if the efficiency was good?!

Yeah was decent on the efficiency front and the beer will still be good. It's in range for the style.

I'm leaning towards getting a hop spider as I think it'll save me some messing around. I seem to only be able to get the hops I want in leaf form most of the time so I can see this happening again and again.

 

[Slid]

I have managed to **** up a fair number of brew days with my Grainfather.

Today I started the counter-chiller by turning on the hot tap instead of the cold.

Not a good move. :lol:

 

[serum]

I have managed to **** up a fair number of brew days with my Grainfather.

Today I started the counter-chiller by turning on the hot tap instead of the cold.

Not a good move. :lol:

I know, it's making me feel like a bit of a pillock when this is meant to make things easier for me!

All part of learning which accessories you actually need and which you don't I guess!

 

[serum]

Down to 1.012 now and has plenty of malt flavour. Interested to see how it gets on when I bottle it.

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[serum]

Bottled a few days back. I always do two crates of small bottles and the remainder in corked champagne bottles so the extra wort meant I've plenty of extras!

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[serum]

After just over two weeks in the bottle this is killing all my other blond beers hands down. It has that nice slightly corny pilsner malt aroma and flavour I've been trying to get with a real delicate honeyed sweetness.

After trying these first few brews I think I might actually marry the braumeister.

 

[sven945]

A biere de garde is definitely on my list to brew. I'm tempted to get hold of that WLP072 when it comes out. Though I'm slightly more tempted by using Kolsch yeast, as it seems like it'd be more versatile for reuse in other brews.

What temperature did you ferment at? Apologies if you've already said that and I missed it.

Glad it's all turned out well for you!

 

[serum]

I just picked up WLP072 from Malt Miller although I might have got the last one. BBE date is in a few weeks but if you get a starter going it should be alright. I'm sure it comes out around this time in the year anyway.

I don't have temp control but I try to keep it around 18C if I can for the first three days but after that around room temp seems alright. If I had temp control I'd probably keep it about 17 the whole time. I've not used Kolsch yeast but WLP072 has a bit of a wider temp range which suits me given the lack of temp control.

It's a malty beer and step mashing really seems to bring the flavour out. If you want to go for the most typical colour then mostly munich is the way to go.

 

[Slid]

I just picked up WLP072 from Malt Miller although I might have got the last one. BBE date is in a few weeks but if you get a starter going it should be alright. I'm sure it comes out around this time in the year anyway.

I don't have temp control but I try to keep it around 18C if I can for the first three days but after that around room temp seems alright. If I had temp control I'd probably keep it about 17 the whole time. I've not used Kolsch yeast but WLP072 has a bit of a wider temp range which suits me given the lack of temp control.

It's a malty beer and step mashing really seems to bring the flavour out. If you want to go for the most typical colour then mostly munich is the way to go.

No offense meant here, my friend, but it does seem as if you and the Braumeister may well be at least engaged. Well at least for a short while.

Seems to be the way with brewing systems. They are used more often in the first six months than in the whole of the rest of the time of ownership. :whistle:

 

[serum]

Oh no I hope it won't be one of those short lived Hollywood marriages.

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[Slid]

And of course, it was only a joke, well, of a sort. I am still using the GF at the same frequency after 14 months. :thumb:

I would describe a GF Brewday thus:

One hour of preparation, and mashing in then:
One Hour Mash - do the ironing
One Hour for mash-out and sparge, then the semi-infinite wait for getting it up to boil.
One Hour Boil - do racking, bottling etc then the great excitement of adding hops at the end.
Tedious filling of FV and carting of it upstairs.
An hour clearing up all the rest of the mess not already dealt with, plus having something to eat.

So 5-6hrs in all.