Klarstein Brauheld Pro Mash Kettle

[Tonymc22]

Hi I'm looking to get an allgrain machine and have a budget of about £400ish to make the 40 pint/23 litres recipe kits.

I've been looking at the Brauheld Pro Mash Kettle and wanted to know if anyone would recommend this or advise against, and possibly another recommendation for a machine?

Also they have a 35l and 45l version with both being able to brew the 40 pint recipe kits, its £50 between the sizes.

Would it be recommended to go for the bigger size?

Many Thanks

 

[AdeDunn]

I have the 30 litre version, and yes I'd recommend them. HOWEVER, I'd also recommend if you do go for one that you also invest in your own malt mill. The holes in the bottom of the malt basket are a tad large, and if you buy pre-crushed you get a LOT of particles going straight through and clogging your pipework up. A mill has other advantages anyway, fresh milled malt for one... lol

As to what size you want, how much do you want into FV at the end, and do you plan to brew full volume or sparge? The pro has an external pump, so can be hooked up to another boiler (so long as you fit a male quick disconnect to the tap on the other boiler) to make sparging easy. I brew full volume in my 30 litre, but only aim for max 14 -15 litres into FV, as there's only my wife and myself drinking the beer, and I like to brew regularly. Variety over volume. I don't use kits, I draw up my own recipes, or adjust recipes from books/the internet, then order accordingly. Kits will mess you up if you are new to AG, or new to a machine, as they are usually designed for a brewhouse efficiency of 75%, which you will not get whilst new to AG, or new to a machine. Heck I am only just hovering around 60% with my Brauheld now, and I had hit 80% with my old setup.... lol You'll find yourself coming in under OG a lot, unless you reduce target volume, and maybe adjust the hops used appropriately also. Less wasteful to just order custom kits, or separate ingredients.

If you don't already own a brewing book, buy one before you get a machine is my honest advice too. Especially if you just read my post and found yourself wondering wtf I am on about (like I did when I first joined this forum, until I bought a book and read it.. lol).

 

[Tonymc22]

I have the 30 litre version, and yes I'd recommend them. HOWEVER, I'd also recommend if you do go for one that you also invest in your own malt mill. The holes in the bottom of the malt basket are a tad large, and if you buy pre-crushed you get a LOT of particles going straight through and clogging your pipework up. A mill has other advantages anyway, fresh milled malt for one... lol

As to what size you want, how much do you want into FV at the end, and do you plan to brew full volume or sparge? The pro has an external pump, so can be hooked up to another boiler (so long as you fit a male quick disconnect to the tap on the other boiler) to make sparging easy. I brew full volume in my 30 litre, but only aim for max 14 -15 litres into FV, as there's only my wife and myself drinking the beer, and I like to brew regularly. Variety over volume. I don't use kits, I draw up my own recipes, or adjust recipes from books/the internet, then order accordingly. Kits will mess you up if you are new to AG, or new to a machine, as they are usually designed for a brewhouse efficiency of 75%, which you will not get whilst new to AG, or new to a machine. Heck I am only just hovering around 60% with my Brauheld now, and I had hit 80% with my old setup.... lol You'll find yourself coming in under OG a lot, unless you reduce target volume, and maybe adjust the hops used appropriately also. Less wasteful to just order custom kits, or separate ingredients.

If you don't already own a brewing book, buy one before you get a machine is my honest advice too. Especially if you just read my post and found yourself wondering wtf I am on about (like I did when I first joined this forum, until I bought a book and read it.. lol).

Incredible, thanks for your reply!!

It's actually been your previous posts and pictures that made me look into the Brauheld Pro, I appreciate the reply.

The FV I'm looking for is about 23 litres and planning on sparging by linking a modified berco boiler onto the pump.

I think the 35l and 45l would achieve this, but was wondering if there was other benefits of having the extra capacity.

Being a newbie, I've allready bought a few allgrain kits I'm needing to use, in the meantime is there anything I could do to stop the clogging of the pipes?

And to be honest I did Google search half of what you've just said...

Any books you could recommend haha?

 

[AdeDunn]

A larger capacity one usually allows you to brew with a larger grain bill, allowing you to brew higher ABV beers without reducing the volume you brew so much, where a smaller machine just won't handle it.

If you want to save modifying, have a look at the standard Klarstein Beerfest, or Fullhorn, then slap a 1/2" BSP fitting on the tap. By the time you've modified a Berco with a tap etc, probably easier. lol Bit more expensive, but only a bit by the time you've bought a tap kit etc.

As to stopping the clogging of the pipes, don't start recirculating for the first 10-15 minutes, it might help. Give the grain chance to settle and the husks time to form a filter bed before the pump starts pulling down. Thing is, if you stir at 30 mins, that another 10-15 minutes you have to let it settle again with only the anti scorch running, so I'd recommend mashing a bit longer. I plan to start doing longer mashes myself to be honest. Oh, and you could look up vorlaufing, or, to put it simply, running from the tap for a good few litres to begin with until no bits are coming out any more, and pouring it back in at the top. Kinda always defeated the object of using a machine with a pump to my mind though that...

Regarding books, Greg Hughes Home Brew Beer is always popular, but one of my faves is Brewing Britain by Andy Hamilton as I found it a really entertaining book. Covers getting started, styles, examples of the styles, a brief history of brewing.... A good primer sort of thing. Oh, and a nice glossary in there.

 

[stripeyjoe]

Hi @AdeDunn !
I’m looking to replace my PID/BIAB setup with an AIO and am drawn to the Klarstein for its side mounted controller (or the Bulldog one, though that is more money and the controller doesn’t look to be as good). I see you have the 30l version, would you mind answering a few questions?
Is the capacity actually 30l to the brim or does that leave space for boiling?
Does it control the mash temp well compared to your old PID setup? Does it have a PID or just a thermostat?
When you set the boiling step does it set the timer off correctly and maintain the boil? On the Bulldog one you have to do a fiddle with the calibration.
Does it store the hop alarms with the recipe? I was thinking of setting a ‘standard’ one with additions at 60, 30, 15 & 10.
Also, how are you finding it after the year or so you’ve had it, has it been reliable? Did you do anything about the malt pipe bottom plate? I’ve seen some people stick a finer mesh over the top.
The 30l one is on eBay for £320 currently, so very tempting, it’s £100 more for the 35l one direct from their website so hoping it’s easy to get 25l or so into the FV from the 30l model…
Many thanks!
Joe

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

invest in your own malt mill. The holes in the bottom of the malt basket are a tad large, and if you buy pre-crushed you get a LOT of particles going straight through and clogging your pipework up

If you'll forgive me for saying so, I think if I were getting one I might invest in a bit of mesh to go in the bottom rather than getting a grain mill...

 

[AdeDunn]

Hi @AdeDunn !
I’m looking to replace my PID/BIAB setup with an AIO and am drawn to the Klarstein for its side mounted controller (or the Bulldog one, though that is more money and the controller doesn’t look to be as good). I see you have the 30l version, would you mind answering a few questions?
Is the capacity actually 30l to the brim or does that leave space for boiling?
Does it control the mash temp well compared to your old PID setup? Does it have a PID or just a thermostat?
When you set the boiling step does it set the timer off correctly and maintain the boil? On the Bulldog one you have to do a fiddle with the calibration.
Does it store the hop alarms with the recipe? I was thinking of setting a ‘standard’ one with additions at 60, 30, 15 & 10.
Also, how are you finding it after the year or so you’ve had it, has it been reliable? Did you do anything about the malt pipe bottom plate? I’ve seen some people stick a finer mesh over the top.
The 30l one is on eBay for £320 currently, so very tempting, it’s £100 more for the 35l one direct from their website so hoping it’s easy to get 25l or so into the FV from the 30l model…
Many thanks!
Joe

30 litres, with a bit to spare for the boil (I just checked for you as it's been a while since I last brewed, been super busy working on the gardens here).



Temps are on a par with my old PID setup I'd say, not had any problems with that side at all.
Not had to calibrate boil temp either, boils just fine, good rolling boil. Not volcanic, but rolling, and trips the timer etc as it should when it hits boil temp. It doesn't do the on, off, on, off we've both read about....

As to the hop alarms, yeah you have me there, I still haven't manage to get that feature to actually work to be honest. Kinda gave up faffing with it and just use the alarm on the app version of Beersmith for my hop timings.

One thing I've changed, well I won't be using it for BIAB any more. It just isn't designed for it. The sparge plate is fixed on the 2 part overflow pipe, and if you try to do too large a volume you get all sorts of problems with it. I mean, I've done it, but it just isn't built for it. I went and bought a tea urn to use as a sparge water heater.

I haven't bothered with a finer mesh for the bottom plate no, as then you have to start adjusting flow too in order to compensate for reduced flow through the plate. Also, my DIY skills these days are much lower than they were when I built my eBIAB, my hands aren't up to it. I get less flour milling my own grain anyway, so for me it's win/win.

With sparging, you should hit 23/25 litres into FV I reckon with the 30 litre model I'd say, so long as you aren't trying a huge grain bill/high ABV. Planning the same myself.

If you'll forgive me for saying so, I think if I were getting one I might invest in a bit of mesh to go in the bottom rather than getting a grain mill...

Vive le difference. lol I honestly just wanted to avoid too much DIY with this, was kinda the whole point, otherwise I could have carried on tinkering with my eBIAB rig (which gave me higher efficiency, but was a pain to use). There are other pros to having a grain mill though, in addition to been able to mill the exact size you want, like the one I mentioned about less flour.... I always hated how much flour I'd get in even a 10 kilo bag of malt, it was even worst in a 25 kilo sack.... The con is, more time, but you can turn that into a pro too if you chill whilst you grind. lol

 

[stripeyjoe]

30 litres, with a bit to spare for the boil

Thanks for the comprehensive reply @AdeDunn! I’m still umming and ahhring, as ever… There’s a whole load of slightly different combos of AIO systems and none seem to tick all of my boxes!

Have a few more mods to try on my DIY Burco BIAB set up first… Main issue is set up and breakdown time, I like the idea of just plugging it in and starting to warm up the water with minimum effort.

 

[AdeDunn]

Thanks for the comprehensive reply @AdeDunn! I’m still umming and ahhring, as ever… There’s a whole load of slightly different combos of AIO systems and none seem to tick all of my boxes!

Have a few more mods to try on my DIY Burco BIAB set up first… Main issue is set up and breakdown time, I like the idea of just plugging it in and starting to warm up the water with minimum effort.

I had the same problem with selecting one to be honest, which was then made much simpler when I came to buy and discovered that the Klarstein systems were the only ones actually in stock, and of those the Brauheld Pro was the only one that peaked my interest. I mean, there are probably better AIOs out there (to be honest, that's not really what they are anyway, as from what I see they are all built to be used with sparging, not full volume, methods, so you still kinda need a 2nd vessel). For it's cons though, the external pump and controller swung it, hence going for it over the alternative Klarstein systems. No bending down to reach the controls (it comes off by the way, and can be placed wherever the cable will reach), plus you can use the pump to sparge with if you fit a QD connector to your second vessel (HLT or whatever) and make yourself a hose with QDs on each end (I already had one), without having to mod the system.

What it doesn't have is a QD or camlock fitting on the recirc pipe (most other brands have one, heck their own Mundsheck system has one), a sight glass (the internal markings are a tiny bit out, I figured out how much though using a 5 litre jug, so now can fill it pretty accurately), an adjustable sparge plate or a telescopic overflow pipe (it comes in 2 pieces, it will telescope to a degree, but not like the ones with more parts). You kind of have to decide what you want from your system most, then select one accordingly. Heck, I COULD have continued to use my external pump with it, for sparging etc, but then that's 1 more thing to have to power, set up, take down, clean etc.... The perfect system doesn't exist, anybody who claims that it does is just a fan boy IMHO, or has been very very lucky maybe... The perfect system FOR YOU however is likely out there somewhere.

Oh and yup, same thing with the eBIAB I built with a stainless stockpot, and a separate control box. Took ages to set up, even longer to take down and clean. Then there were all the trailing wires, things that could go wrong (when I say wrong, I mean really really wrong, not just like the time one of the little cables inside my control box came out mid brew... lmao).... Even with milling grain, my brew days have been shorter. My overall efficiency has been lower too, but meh, more grain into my recipes offsets that, along with tweaks to my process to gradually bring it back up again... I've gone from only doing 13 litres into FV, to planning full 23 litre brews once again, from little and often, to higher volume every now and then of recipes that my wife and I really enjoy (TLDR; they tend to have cascade in them... lol).

 

[starseeker]

My advice would be to go for the 35L model ,you can always do a smaller brew in it ,but you can't do a bigger brew in the smaller one :) I have the 35L maishfest and find that i often have 32 to 33 L of liquor on a brew day ,and then of course you need room for the boil .

 

[AdeDunn]

My advice would be to go for the 35L model ,you can always do a smaller brew in it ,but you can't do a bigger brew in the smaller one :) I have the 35L maishfest and find that i often have 32 to 33 L of liquor on a brew day ,and then of course you need room for the boil .

IF you can afford to, then this, totally. I would have gone bigger if I had had the money to. Those 5 litres can make a big difference. I've never had more liquor into the boil than planned though, Beersmith 3 is pretty accurate with it's calculations once you get boil off etc right, but it's still nice having spare capacity. Buy the biggest you can afford and have room for I'd say.

 

[Andrew Booth]

I have A Brewster Beacon 40 from Geterbrewed £350 fairly impressed with it to be fair I replaced the bottom filter with one from a brewdevil from AHB I find the 40l capacity useful as I get 19l litres into corny sand bottle a few each time as well (always useful for the friends who are constantly demanding better beer than they can buy)

 

[stripeyjoe]

I have A Brewster Beacon 40 from Geterbrewed £350 fairly impressed with it

I was looking at those, did you get it when they were giving away the chiller?

 

[stripeyjoe]

@Tonymc22 what did you end up getting?

 

[Andrew Booth]

No I got a chill inn20 from the Malt miller

 

[AdeDunn]

Just a note, I just did my first brew with fly sparging with the Brauheld Pro machine. I actually milled a little bit finer too. I didn't have any problems with grain passing through the bottom plate, blockages etc, like I did using it full volume, and got super clear wort. Also my BH efficiency jumped from the predicted 60% I've been hitting with it whilst doing full volume, to 70.2%, with 23 litres into my FV. I will say though, it was a LOT of work doing it using a jug, I definitely need to modify my tea urn to allow me to use the pump, it will only work to a point though, as I had to raise the basket all the way to the top to reach 28 litres into the boil with it, thanks to the volume displaced by the basket when only partly raised.... The recirc arm won't reach that high just so you know. Right, back to the clean up.

 

[stripeyjoe]

You could probably just attach a longer length of silicon hose to the recirc arm so it reaches up to the top, I was thinking one of those £20 rotating sparge arms would be ideal.
Just seen that Keg Land are coming out with a V4 Brewzilla with a WiFi controller, might wait to see ho that is, they've also got an 'extender' that you can clip onto the top of the unit to make it a bit taller for the boil. also lusting after the Brewtools system but that is mega bucks, need to sell my electronic drum kit first if I was to get that!

 

[AdeDunn]

You could probably just attach a longer length of silicon hose to the recirc arm so it reaches up to the top, I was thinking one of those £20 rotating sparge arms would be ideal.
Just seen that Keg Land are coming out with a V4 Brewzilla with a WiFi controller, might wait to see ho that is, they've also got an 'extender' that you can clip onto the top of the unit to make it a bit taller for the boil. also lusting after the Brewtools system but that is mega bucks, need to sell my electronic drum kit first if I was to get that!

I did that when I bought it, it kinks though if you try to bend it up that far as it's the narrow sort. As I mentioned before, The Brauheld Pro doesn't have a camlock or anything on the recirc either, and the pipework isn't standard 1/2" bsp as if it was I'd fit one myself, then just set up a hose a larger diameter.

I don't doubt that there are better machines out there than the Brauheld Pro. It's on the cheaper end of the market and it shows for sure (even the more expensive Klarstein machines have camlock connectors on the recirc pipes.. lol). It works though at the end of the day, and well. Just a matter of finding a way around things. I mean, I will probably find a way to extend that recirc for sparging eventually, but it won't be as simple as just adding an even longer length of hose (that particular diameter is just too thin walled). I will find a way though, as doing it using a jug is back breaking, and defeats a large part of the point in using a pumped machine in the first place. Again though, it did the job, and fairly well. 23 litres of lovely clear wort into my FV, with an OG of 1.044 (my target was 1.042, as mentioned though my BH efficiency was 70.2% however, not the expected 60%). I've attached a pic of me transferring the wort at the end after cooling (plate chiller, makes for super fast cooling with a bit less water used compared to my old immersion chiller from my eBIAB days, I use it to cool the entire lot rather than as I transfer though, keeping more trub in the boiler on transfer). It didn't help that after some lovely weather, yesterday when I finally brewed it rained, heavily.... I brew in the back garden under a gazebo. lol



I also had a moment of panic when it first came to the boil.... First time I've done such a large volume in there, and yeah, 2500 watts is kinda volcanic once you put a hop spider in there... I had to drop the wattage down to 2300 watts. The boil was absolutely insane at full power. Not so much a rolling boil as a similar effect to what you get if you shake a bottle of pop very thoroughly and then open it... lol An effect of the tall and narrow footprint, combined with adding the hop spider, on the surface area to volume ratio etc....

 

[frankieboy]

Hi, hoping someone can help with a question re the controller on the Brauheld... I have the more basic Maischfest and am thinking of upgrading, but I find I have to set the temp control to 102 degs to get a rolling boil, which is fine, but I see the product page for the Brauheld says it goes 30-100c.

Can someone tell me if it can be set beyond 100? Cheers!

 

[AdeDunn]

I've never needed to set the control higher to get a rolling boil. However, if you find you can't get an adequate rolling boil with it set to 100 degrees C, you can actually recalibrate the controller to think that 100 degrees is a lower temperature (folks with the Bulldog Master Brewer have to do this I believe), and this is how you get it to do what you wish it too. Instructions on how to calibrate are in the manual that comes with the machine.