Calling all Klarstein Owners.

[-Bezza-]

Only thing I can see different is that this wont re-circulate the wort, so is basically a controlled kettle.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KETTLE-B...-STEEL-TANK-/232647568761?_trksid=p5731.m3795

The cheapest one I've found with the recirculating pump is the Brewmonk at €395, so £350. UK sellers seem to be adding quite a mark-up to that price though. Not sure if that comes with a chiller.

You might also be able to pick up the original Bulldog Brewer for under £400.

I suspect you could take a Klarstein and add in a pump and some pipework to make your own recirculating arm for significantly less than £100 though.

 

[billmcc]

Chrislane Looking forward to hear your results as info is hard to find on this brewer nothing on the tube so maybe you could post your results.
Cheers Bill McC

 

[billmcc]

Ordered mine today delivery is expected next Tuesday or Wednesday.

 

[billmcc]

I got one of the above in December.

I sing its praise to be honest. I have compete 3 brew with it and its great for the money brilliant. Build quality is good and no issues I have came across. Heats up quickly and holds a mash temp well.

I have added a hop buzzaka which has helped.
Baught a cheep pump from ebay and connected this up todo fly sparing again verry easy and has worked very well for me.

I think there was a 10% discount code floating about somewhere.

Mines on it’s way .did you get just a standard bazooka and which pump did you choose
Many Thanks Cheers

 

[Jonniepeek]

Mines on it’s way .did you get just a standard bazooka and which pump did you choose
Many Thanks Cheers

Yes standard bazooka what u will need is a 1/2"bsp female to 1/2"bsp female

Standard 12v pump from fleabay again this is 1/2" bsp connection. I ues two (new) felxi shower hoses to connect kettle to pump and pump to fly sparge.

I will take some photo tommorow to hopefully help you out.

It honestly is a great bit of kit

 

[billmcc]

It looks like the brewers edge system uses the same control panel but with a lower power option. Might be worth a watch on the tube for people looking how to use the maischfest
Ps don’t forget the brewers edge is 110 v system

 

[Chrislane]

My replacement unit arrived today. Anxiously filled it with 20l of water - no leaks! :thumb1:

I then decided to do a test run so heated it to mash temp. It took exactly 30 mins to heat from 7 deg to 70 deg. I then left it (switched off) for an hour and it dropped by an indicated 3 deg. So hopefully with grain in it should do significantly better than that. It then took 15 mins to reach a boil and was very vigorous on the 3000w setting. It just about seemed to maintain a rolling boil when I switched it back to 1500w.

All temps were as indicated on the control panel. I will need to test how accurate that is next time as I didn't have my thermometer to hand this evening. And I haven't quite worked out how the timer on the controller works, but may do a bit of you tube watching to work that out - the instructions that come with it don't give a lot away!

All in all very happy with it so far, and I must say that Klarstein have been first class in dealing with my first faulty unit. I'm just waiting for my next batch of ingredients to be delivered (dispatched by GEB today) and I can get my first brew on with the new kit. Can't wait. :fart:

 

[Dads_Ale]

Mine also arrived today.
One minus point in that it had a EU plug. A bit of DIY and that was quickly sorted.

Initial impression is that the quality is good. A quick cleaning run showed that the 3000W setting gave an over vigorous boil with the 1500W setting looking about right.

I did add a bit of extra insulation and the water temp dropped about 1c in 15 mins.

Ready for a full mash and boil test tomorrow.

 

[billmcc]

Just out of interest is there a hole in the lid for an air lock so you could ferment in it as well or for circulation
Cheers

 

[Chrislane]

@billmcc - There is a very small hole in the lid (approx 5mm). Too small for an airlock i'd have thought.

@Jonniepeek - do you just rest the grain basket on top of the bazooka? I have a bazooka and fitting which will fit from the stockpot i have been using for stove top biab. I was just a bit worried about the weight of the grain basket and grain sat on top of it

I have been out and bought some pipe today to fix to the cooling coil. Cant wait for ingredients to arrive.

 

[Dads_Ale]

So it was brew day yesterday. The day must be counted as a success as I have 24ltres of beer sat behind me just stating to ferment.:thumb:

So how was the day?

Used my normal HLT to heat sparge water.

First issue was mash temp. I used the control panel to set water temp at 71c (which is my normal strike temp) and added the grains. Double check with another thermometer showed mash temp was 60c, so upped the temp controller to kick the heater in and stirred until temp got to 65c. Switched off and left for 90 mins. Temp at end was still 65c. I do have some extra insulation on the outside which would help maintain the temperature.

Drain and sparge. There is no automatic rest for the grain basket but rather a lid with a hole that has to be put on to hold the basket to let it drain. This means you have to lift with one hand so as you can insert the lid, or get an assistant. Draining worked fine apart from not being able to see the water level. Had to remove the grain basket to check level to see how much sparge water to add. Unfortunately there are no volume markings, so how much to add was a bit of a guess. Sparging went well using my normal rotating sparge arm although the wort was murky, probably due to the stirring at the beginning of the mash. I probably could have recirculated it through the grain bed but didn't bother.
The grain basket was easy to empty, just put a 25l green recycling bag (I used two for extra strength) over the top and tip it up, job done. Cleaning was bit of a fath as the perforated plate is fixed and you end up chasing the last few grains around the inside.

Boiling. I planned to fit my short bazooka hop filter but hit snag. It you fit it at the beginning it fouls the grain basket and if you try to fit it after sparging the boiler is full of hot liquid. In this instance I drained the boiler so as I could fit it. Could have also use one of my hop spiders but in this instance because the wort was a bit turbid I wanted to use the hops as an extra filter. I set the temp controller to 107c and left it to reach a good boil. I only used the 1500W element and this worked well.

Cooling. It comes with an immersion chiller. Rather than connect to a tap I used a cool box with cold water in and a small submersible Aquarius pump to circulate. Half way through I changed to a single pass from the cool box to a spare FV, with this I could turn the pump off and let the siphon effect pull the water through. This uses much less water as the flow is slower. I used my inkbird to check on the temperature of the wort as the Klarstien was switched off at this point and I didn't want to rely on the controller temp display. I forgot to time the cooling as I was busy doing other things but reckon it was about 45mins to get down to 23c.

Overall it was a successful brew day which used a lot less equipment and room than my normal kit. There are some things I need to look at for next time:

• Double check the controller temp display against another thermometer.
• Look at re-circulating the mash back through the grain bed (will depend if it is murky next time as hopefully I won't be doing the extra stirring).
• Try the one pass cooling from the start to see if it shortens cooling time.

Fingers crossed with this one as I am also using a Brett/saison liquid yeast (first time with a Brett and liquid yeast) and planning to add some cherry puree (again another first) :cheers9:

 

[billmcc]

Sounds like you had a good day, how much grain did you use and what did you make.it might be a good idea to make a dip stick to measure the amount in the boiler
Cheers

 

[Dads_Ale]

Sounds like you had a good day, how much grain did you use and what did you make.it might be a good idea to make a dip stick to measure the amount in the boiler
Cheers

Ah Yes forgot to add dipstick to my to do list.

This is my first venture into sour/fruit beers. The idea of getting the Klarstein was to do some kettle souring although I have used a Brett yeast this time as it was out of date and needed using up.

Grain bill was:

Pale malt - 4kg
Wheat malt - 200g
Cara amber malt - 100g
Flaked oats - 200g

Northern Brewer leaf hops - 15g 60mins
Northern Brewer leaf hops - 10g 15mins
Irish moss - 3g 15mins

Yeast - Yeast Bay Saison/Brett. (4 days past best before date)

I will be adding 2 kg of cherry puree in the next day or so

OG was about 1060 which was a bit higher than expected so added a couple of litres of water to bring it down to about 1048.
I was worried about the yeast as it was past its date and I have never used liquid yeast before. But all is well and it fermenting full bore.

 

[Dads_Ale]

Bit of an update and something owners need to be aware of.

During the brew day I did notice a slight weep from the tap. I put it down to the tap not being fully tightened.

On further investigation the leak was due to the tap sealing O rings being damaged during assembly. Both O rings had been pinched with the inner one sticking out the side of the locking nut. The outer one was also damage. I'm surprised the leak was as little as it was. I am wondering if they were the wrong way round as the inner one was much thicker than the outer one which seemed too thin for the cut out. This would explain how the inner one was forced out during tightening.

Anyway luckily I have loads of spare kit so was able to replace the outer O ring and fit a Dowty washer to the inside. The only down side is I now have very little thread to attach my bazooka filter. If it is a problem then I will replace the dowty washer with an O ring.

 

[billmcc]

My Klarstien Maischfest arrived today,i made a dip stick as i was adding the water to test it.then fitted a UK plug so i could test the control board which all worked perfect,i then put some pipe on the cooling coil and added a tap connector so i am now ready for my first All Grain brew day can't wait
Many Thanks Cheers

 

[Jonniepeek]

@billmcc - There is a very small hole in the lid (approx 5mm). Too small for an airlock i'd have thought.

@Jonniepeek - do you just rest the grain basket on top of the bazooka? I have a bazooka and fitting which will fit from the stockpot i have been using for stove top biab. I was just a bit worried about the weight of the grain basket and grain sat on top of it

I have been out and bought some pipe today to fix to the cooling coil. Cant wait for ingredients to arrive.

Yes just rest on top ,it does not quite sit straight flat but does that really matter while it is mashing, cant see that been an issue really, it did get a tad blocked up while I was draining after boil just had to use my SS paddle to scrape off the residue , just tasted my second brew a lovely amber hybrid and its wonderful Called Dax'S day to celebrate my sons birth a few weeks back

 

[sdt7618]

might have missed the cheap ones

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mash-Ket...519168?hash=item3626670300:g:UbQAAOSw7z1aON1z

 

[Chrislane]

First brew day with the Klarstein for me today. Overall I'm really happy with the kit. A couple of learnings that i can make for next time but no disasters so I'm pleased with how the day went. I ended up with less in the FV than intended (approx 19l), but i think i can make some tweaks to my water quantities next time to improve that. I brewed a Gamma Ray clone and came out at about 1.054 SG at pitching, which was a bit above target, so feels like my efficiency was about right given the slightly lower volume (I'll do some proper efficiency calcs at some point).

The main thing that i noticed over my previous stove top BIAB method is the control i had over the mash. It felt a much better process, and i was able to add in a mash out, (manual) recirculation and fly sparge - all of which are new to me. We'll see how the beer turns out but I've never had such clear wort into the FV as I have today.

All in all, a good brewday!

 

[Jonny Ford]

Could someone help me out with finding the correct tubing and connectors for the cooler?

I’m struggling a bit finding the right thing to buy here.

Ideally it’d be outdoor hose connector -> tubing > some other connector > cooler

 

[Horners]

Could someone help me out with finding the correct tubing and connectors for the cooler?

I’m struggling a bit finding the right thing to buy here.

Ideally it’d be outdoor hose connector -> tubing > some other connector > cooler

Mate im sure i can - spent a bunch of unnecessary cash on different gauges of hose etc that didnt quite work. After various incidences of having water piss all over the kitchen i got something working ewithout the merest drop of leakage. Unfortunately im in a pub in town and so this is only half a tale - for the outlet just a long piece of syphon tube heated in a mug of boiling water and stretched over metal outlet. For connecting to garden hose I will need to inspect - Ive not bothered whilst the hot weather was making life difficult but planning on getting back on the horse in the morrow - definitely involves a very tight jubilee clip