Brewing a Hefeweizen with my Speidel Braumeister

[swiggingpig]

My first attempt at posting a brew day so please be kind to me :)

The recipe is from Jamil's book, 50/50 Pils malt/wheat malt with Hallertau for 60 mins bittering and WPL300 for the yeasties.

This is a bit piccy heavy.

I used a 5 step mash with this as I wanted to try a ferulic acid rest as described on leedsbrew's blog.

Ferulic acid rest 44C for 30 mins
Protien rest 52C for 10 mins
1st Sacchrification 63C for 30 mins
2nd Sacchrification 72C for 30 mins
Mash out 78C for 5 mins

Stainless steel pickup/syphon tube with a fine mesh filter to protect my plate chiller

Trying to do a full volume no sparge today so 27.5 lt of water

Water's a little chilly this morning

Pump has ventilated itself and it's starting to heat to the mash-in temp.

Grains weighed out

Hops weighed out and ready

Up to mash-in temp so I've added the malt pipe and just putting in the bottom screen and filter.

In go the grains

Followed by the top screen and filter. I've added a seal around the edge to stop any escapees

All secured and off we go to the first mash stage

A bit murky to start with

Time for a brew and let it do it's thing

After a little lunch I hear bleeping to let me know the mash has finished

Lovely clear wort

Malt pipe lifted out and draining, I've also told the BM to start the boil

Connected to the extractor fan so that I don't suffer the wrath of SWMBO !!

Up to the boil so in go the hops

Plate chiller and hoses etc. in StarSan for 5 mins

Boil finished, now running through the plate chiller at a nice 20C output temp.

Getting the last bit

Slightly over, I aim for 20lt into the FV

Yeasties introduced to their new home :)

The obligatory 'filth' shot. As you can see theres not much dead space.

The mash efficiency of 80% is a little down on the past few brews, ho hum
My previous brews with my current batch of Pils malt and pale malt have been in the mid 80's mash eff.

I'm going to put down to either poor yield from the wheat malt or my being a bit mean with the sach rests. In hindsight perhaps I should have extended the 1st sach rest as the temp is quite low, oh well, you live and learn :)

All tucked away in my FV cabinet @ 22C

 

[The Goatreich]

I've been itching to see one of these in action. Looks like a tidy bit of kit, and I love the control you have over the mash temps.

 

[pittsy]

what i won't do to have that sort of ease and control , i make wheats often and it can be a lot of hassle . That looks great there , good luck with it , let us know what you think of the results :thumb:

 

[zgoda]

Lower extract yield could come from not enough fine mill of wheat. The crusher needs to be set to about 50% finer crush for wheat malt than for barley. Anyway 80% is already pretty high for Braumeister.

Thanks for piccies. :)

 

[swiggingpig]

Lower extract yield could come from not enough fine mill of wheat. The crusher needs to be set to about 50% finer crush for wheat malt than for barley. Anyway 80% is already pretty high for Braumeister.

Thanks for piccies. :)

Thanks for the wheat malt info, I buy it pre crushed, perhaps I can now justify buying a grain mill to fine tune the crush

I checked my brew log for the last 4 brews and I've found that I'm averaging 85% mash eff and 80% brewhouse eff. with 1.050 ish beers.

 

[Baldbrewer]

Nice job :thumb: , how long does a plate chiller take to cool wort and how much water does it use ?
Chrimbo pressie idea for me lol!

 

[swiggingpig]

I've been itching to see one of these in action. Looks like a tidy bit of kit, and I love the control you have over the mash temps.

The mash control is the real beauty of these and it's repeatable, the boil part is much the same as any other system.

 

[tazuk]

verry nice piece of kit where did you get that temp guage unit on your plate chiller i want one as i just got me self the 60 plate chiller from malt miller :thumb:

 

[swiggingpig]

what i won't do to have that sort of ease and control , i make wheats often and it can be a lot of hassle . That looks great there , good luck with it , let us know what you think of the results :thumb:

As I mentioned to 'The Goatreich', the mash control is the key thing with these. Normally a stepped mash can be a bit fraught with trying to nail your numbers but with the BM you simply set the mash schedule and leave to do it's thing.

I'm interested to see what difference the ferulic acid rest makes, I'll post my findings into this thread in a couple of weeks :thumb:

I've just come back from Munich and the excellent Scheinder Weisse brauhaus. I was sampling tap1, tap2 and tap7, tap1 was my favourite, so I'll probably be very critical of my brew.

 

[swiggingpig]

Nice job :thumb: , how long does a plate chiller take to cool wort and how much water does it use ?
Chrimbo pressie idea for me lol!

Not really monitored the amount of water it uses, nor the exact time it takes but it kind of feels about 10 - 15 mins I would say, I run it at about 1/2 bore from the BM.

I'll try and remember to time it on the next brew day :? :thumb:

 

[swiggingpig]

verry nice piece of kit where did you get that temp guage unit on your plate chiller i want one as i just got me self the 60 plate chiller from malt miller :thumb:

I got mine off Ebay, the listing states 1/2" but the threads are 3/4" BSPP.

Although they are in Berlin it arrived within 2 or 3 days IIRC.

 

[tazuk]

sweet cheers :thumb:

verry nice piece of kit where did you get that temp guage unit on your plate chiller i want one as i just got me self the 60 plate chiller from malt miller :thumb:

I got mine off Ebay, the listing states 1/2" but the threads are 3/4" BSPP.

Although they are in Berlin it arrived within 2 or 3 days IIRC.

 

[EskiBrew]

Very nice :thumb:

I wonder whether the reduced efficiency could be because you didn't sparge the grain - there must be a reasonable amount of sugary water which you cannot drain out of the grain when you lift the malt pipe out :hmm:

Whatever though, I'd be happy with that efficiency without doing a sparge, it would certainly shorten my brew day :clap:

 

[Svarrogh]

Very nice setup! Where did you buy that tiny thermometer on the output of the plate chiller?

 

[tazuk]

here :thumb:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/350255762620? ... 1438.l2649

Very nice setup! Where did you buy that tiny thermometer on the output of the plate chiller?

 

[rickthebrew]

Great set up - how much was the braumeister and where did you get it ?

 

[swiggingpig]

Very nice :thumb:

I wonder whether the reduced efficiency could be because you didn't sparge the grain - there must be a reasonable amount of sugary water which you cannot drain out of the grain when you lift the malt pipe out :hmm:

Whatever though, I'd be happy with that efficiency without doing a sparge, it would certainly shorten my brew day :clap:

I did a Kolsch on Saturday and according to Beersmith I got 88% mash eff. Nowthat I've got my boil off and dead space nailed I got 83% brewhouse eff. :clap: :drink:

I suspect that 'zgoda' suggestion of not a fine enough mill of the wheat malt was the issue. The results of the Kolsch which is Pils and a dash of Munich (coz I'd run out of Vienna ) is more in line with the eff. results I've been getting.

I've found that for 4kg of malt I need 27.5 lt of water, I can do a 'full volume' mash so no sparging required for a 60 min boil :party:

When I get round to doing a really strong beer like a barley wine I'll do a sparge then and extend the boil to try and get a bit more out of it.

 

[swiggingpig]

Great set up - how much was the braumeister and where did you get it ?

Check out my post in this thread http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=270651#p270651

 

[Svarrogh]

here :thumb:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/350255762620? ... 1438.l2649

Very nice setup! Where did you buy that tiny thermometer on the output of the plate chiller?

Thanks mate :

 

[rickthebrew]

Great set up - how much was the braumeister and where did you get it ?

Check out my post in this thread http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=270651#p270651

:thumb: cheers -
Missed that one