Brewing a Hefeweizen with my Speidel Braumeister

[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:

I did an IPA on Sunday and it took 10 mins to cool 20L to 20C with a ground water temp of 10C :thumb:

 

[caerleon]

I'm interested in the mods that you have made - where did you obtain the hop filter from and what is the black stuff around your top malt tube filter?

 

[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:

Finally 'tapped' this one at the weekend, I'd aimed for an OG of 1.048 ended up with 1.043

WLP300 had a right appetite !!! I ended up with a FG of 1.007

When I was transferring this to the keg I got a wonderful banana aroma from it which seems to have faded a bit in the glass, but not much in the way of clove. Some banana in the taste but because it's so 'dry' I think the lack of residual sweetness has reduced the perceived banana-er-i-ness.

This has turned out to be nice weizen but has it's flaws, although I've reached my target 4.7% it has been at the expense of body, it's a little light/thin compared to the excellent Scheinder Weisse Brauhaus Tap 1 style that I was aiming for.

Plus side is that this would make a really good hot summers day thirst quencher :thumb:

Moving forward, I'll do this again but make the 1st Sacc. rest a little higher perhaps 65C and ferment at the bottom end of WLP300's recommended range at about 20C to encourage a bit more clove.

 

[swiggingpig]

I'm interested in the mods that you have made - where did you obtain the hop filter from and what is the black stuff around your top malt tube filter?

I got the pickup/dip tube and the seal from here.

The hop filter was made from a flat sheet of mesh that I got from here.

I cut off a section of the sheet, formed it round a 15mm copper pipe to make a straight tube, removed the copper pipe replacing it with some PVC tubing so that I could bend a curve in it without kinking it, removed PVC tube, folded over the ends and made a hole in the side of it just big enough to insert the end of the pickup/dip tube.

 

[swiggingpig]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but it seemed the best place to put this comment.

Brewed this again with the same grains and mash schedule and very similar numbers but this time I used WLP380 for the yeast.

I was very pleased with the final beer, WLP380 has the flavour profile that I prefer, more clove and a little less banana.

WPL380 will be my Hefeweizen yeast for future brews :thumb:

 

[pittsy]

with wlp380 try fermenting at 18c ( a touch of vanilla with clove) then again but at 22c (clove with a touch of banana) , you get very different flavours coming through , and maybe try the wlp351 Bavarian yeast similar to 380 but more crisp if fermented at 18c . I don't know of any other style of beer than can change so much with temp and a few strains of yeast . :thumb:

 

[swiggingpig]

with wlp380 try fermenting at 18c ( a touch of vanilla with clove) then again but at 22c (clove with a touch of banana) , you get very different flavours coming through , and maybe try the wlp351 Bavarian yeast similar to 380 but more crisp if fermented at 18c . I don't know of any other style of beer than can change so much with temp and a few strains of yeast . :thumb:

Thanks for the info, not tried changing the ferm temp, I set the temp to be the mid range of White Labs recommeneded temp range.

I think I'll try the WLP351 next time and then WLP380 at 18C, cheers :thumb:

 

[martinh]

This is a general question for those that have Braumeister and follow this thread. I have sourced a rubber merchant who can make a seal for the top filter and mesh. Unfortunately, they do not stock the exact size in their catelogue, so there will be an initial 'tooling' cost of £76. after which here are the prices per meter:

Ref silicone FDA extrusion
Please see attached drg.
20 mtrs £8.50 per mtr
50mtrs £3.72 per mtr
100 mtrs £2.16 per mtr
one off part cost tooling £76

I would like to gage how many people would be interested in this? and could we spread the word amongst BM users? obviously the more there are the cheaper it will be per unit.

i have emailed Matthias at Speidel to see if they would contribrute

 

[pittsy]

i think there are only a few who have this great bit of kit so you may be struggling to get a group order

 

[Bacchus76]

I would like to gage how many people would be interested in this? and could we spread the word amongst BM users? obviously the more there are the cheaper it will be per unit.

i have emailed Matthias at Speidel to see if they would contribrute

I doubt you'll get any help from Speidel. Anyway, your initiative sounds great Martinh. So, count me in mate!
I'm finding it really difficult to find a retailer that sells both the seal for the top filter and the pickup tube for building some sort of filtering device like the one Swiggingpig has built, but nobody seems to stock them. I tried to get in touch with the Ozzy homebrew shop Swiggingpig mentioned, through their website, but no reply.
Anyway, has anybody had any information on when Speidel is releasing their plate-filter system? Last time I contacted Ralf Leukart from Speidel was on the 18th of Feb. and he said then that the filter was going to be produced in series and hopefully released in 4 weeks' time. He asked me to look on their website every now and again for signs of it, but still nothing in sight.

 

[martinh]

Bacchus76

you were right about Speidel, not too much help but to be fair it would have been a little out of their scope of business. They do not see value of this seal and believe the set up/pump should cope ok with escapees. However, I would prefer to have the rubber seal as I know one day one of those little buggers will clog my pump and ruin a batch of beer.

Im going to call Mark at the Oz home brew site as he doesnt reply to emails. I had a chat with him before and he was up for posting one/some out. If I order 2 we could split the postage fee? He also has the dip tubes - but Im not too bothered about that as the 20L BM can be propped forward to get the last drips outs.

Ralf at Speidel predicts a release date around May for the hop filter.. I think we should all just start calling Vigo and apply some polite pressure for an ETA.

To SwiggingPig - thank you for all your help with the plate chiller/thermometer set-up.. Ive carbon copied your designed and did a SNPA clone the other day. Brewday was a joy and the plate chiller was incredible.. from boiler to fermenter in 10 mins at 23C. Boom. Next questions will be around tips for cleaning the plate chiller :-)

 

[Bacchus76]

That would be great Martinh! Should you get in touch with this guy Downunder, please order 2x seals for me too. More than happy to share expenses, etc. Send me a private message through the forum and I am sure we can get this sorted ASAP.

PS according to latest rumours, Speidel has tested the plate filter they designed and it is now going into production. It should be available to users in the next 4/6 weeks. As you rightly remarked Marinh, it will be (hopefully) available sometime in May.