Speidel Braumeister?

[caerleon]

I use a mesh bag, from a Thorn Electrim Boiler, to hold the main quota of hops and a hop sock for the late addition hops. After the boil I remove the mesh bag and perch the hop sock on the top of the central spindle. When the level of wort is just above the tap hole I wedge the hop sock between it and the heating element and the tilt the BM. The hops in the sock act as a filter and you can drain of all of the wort leaving the trub behind. I have now done this twice and it works a treat. No more lost volume.

I used pellets in the BM before - first time - never again! been trying to find a stainless alternative that will fit between the malt pipe and the body of the BM - i might get designing one and sell em on ebay.

 

[brewtim]

I used pellets in the BM before - first time - never again! been trying to find a stainless alternative that will fit between the malt pipe and the body of the BM - i might get designing one and sell em on ebay.

Spiedel are now selling a hop filter, I can't see it listed on the Vigo website yet:

http://speidels-braumeister.de/shop...p-sieve-for-20-litre-and-50-litre-Braumeister

 

[MashBag]

Spiedel are now selling a hop filter

IMO I don't have much faith in the design I'm afraid - the holes are too big and the unit is too small.
A couple of years ago I spent a lot of time trialling different hop filters..
-mash bags float
-Rice balls are not big enough
-fine mesh tap traps on the okay but bung up. and you can't do a two-day brew easily.
The hops need to get in there and frolic to get good extraction. By far the best I found was a mesh bucket. I sit it in my burco boiler after the first 15 minutes. Into it I then added the hops. At the end of the boil I just lifted it out. bonza.

...the problem I now have in the centre spindle in the BM.

 

[IPA]

Great thread.

Been brewing manually for a a few years - just got a BM so I reading everything.

It is so nice to see contributors so positive - I think it is a fantastic piece of kit and has reignited my all grain brewing.
I have to say it seems more common to find folks knocking the BM as Satan's work either because of the price or because 'that's not brewing'. For me it is all about recipe & consistency.

thanks guys I have learnt a lot just by reading this thread.

Congratulations on your purchase. I am in contact from time to time with Ralf Leukart at Speidel and they have recently released a hop filter which fits in front of the tap outlet and works in a similar way to a hop back. Also if you want to brew a special strong beer he has suggested to me how to do this with a Braumeister. Also he told me yesterday that they have now changed the pumps for a more powerful model in order to eliminate a former weakness. This weakness is easy to avoid and I can give advice to anyone who needs it. As regards the knockers this bears out the old saying. "Wine is made by artists Beer is made by engineers" Some brewers prefer to spend more time making their kit than drinking the results. I am like you I like consistently good beer and the Braumeister certainly delivers this.

 

[MashBag]

...they have recently released a hop filter which fits in front of the tap outlet ..

Is that the long thin strainer that is in the accessories section of the braumeister website, that hangs over the side?

( sorry for the long winded explanation I am a newbie so I cannot post links yet :-) )


Could you PM me the details about pumps please?

 

[IPA]

...they have recently released a hop filter which fits in front of the tap outlet ..

Is that the long thin strainer that is in the accessories section of the braumeister website, that hangs over the side?

Yes that's the one and I ordered one yesterday. I am hoping that this will make transfering the wort to the FV much easier. It has always been a problem getting all of the wort out of the BM and up till now I have placed the hop sock containing the late addition hops in front of the outlet to act as a filter for the trub when I tilt the BM in order to completely empty it. Now I am going put the hops directly in both at the start of the boil and the late addition ones and when I tilt it at the end the hops will collect in front of the outlet and prevent the trub going into the FV just like a hopback does. One more thing I can pass on is some help given to me by DeGarre on Jim's Beer Kit forum. He was claiming some amazing efficiencies using the BM on his Blog in excess of 90%. I asked him how he achieved this as I was only getting 80% on a good day. His answer was it is all down to the sparging and he sparged, in his 20 Litre BM, with six litres of water very slowly. I tried this in my 50 Litre BM with twelve litres and my efficiency lept up to over 90%. In order to do this you my have to drain out some of the wort into a large saucepan so that the level is below the malt tube when it is sitting on the stirrup and add it back in when you remove the malt tube. Anyone wanting help with recipes requiring more malt than will fit in the malt tube of a BM please send a PM.
Hope this is of some help. PM to follow regarding pump care

 

[MashBag]

90% efficiency: if I've got that right then .....
1.halfway through the mash you take out 6 L.
2.You add 6 L of fresh water.
3 When you get to the boil programme you add the removed 6 L back in.

That makes perfect sense to me. Mainly because water can only hold so much sugar. simple & brilliant.

You could almost call it an "in mash sparge"

BM filter plate:
I would be really interested to hear how you get on with this. I have a bucket seive for all my hops - once the boil is done, this is lifted out & I come back the next day after everything has cooled down. This results in a clear wort with an amount of settled trub. I run the wort off clean, and then when I get to the trub I tilt the boiler and run in through a very fine ( microns) filter bag.

 

[IPA]

90% efficiency: if I've got that right then .....
1.halfway through the mash you take out 6 L.
2.You add 6 L of fresh water.
3 When you get to the boil programme you add the removed 6 L back in.

No thats not what I meant. When the mash is finished put the malt tube on its support and allow the tube to drain. Leave the top filters in place and very slowly pour by means of a jug six litres of water at 76°c on to the top filter in a circular motion in order to rinse out any residual sugars contained in the grain. If the liquid level in the BM starts to reach the bottom of the malt tube drain out some into a large saucepan and once you have finished rinsing ( sparging ) the grains add back the liquid you removed and then start the boil. The six litres of sparging and perhaps more will evaporate during the boil if it's more add water to reach your intended brew length before transferring to your fermenting vessel

 

[brewtim]

No thats not what I meant. When the mash is finished put the malt tube on its support and allow the tube to drain. Leave the top filters in place and very slowly pour by means of a jug six litres of water at 76°c on to the top filter in a circular motion in order to rinse out any residual sugars contained in the grain. If the liquid level in the BM starts to reach the bottom of the malt tube drain out some into a large saucepan and once you have finished rinsing ( sparging ) the grains add back the liquid you removed and then start the boil. The six litres of sparging and perhaps more will evaporate during the boil if it's more add water to reach your intended brew length before transferring to your fermenting vessel

This is the method described in the manual and is normal sparging practice for mash tun sparging in 3 vessel brewing, it's interesting to hear someone getting 90% efficiency on a BM.

I was listening to a podcast regarding efficiency the other day and they were saying that the goal of increased efficiency may come at the cost of more 'rounded' or 'smoother' beers, i.e. lower efficiencies allow for 'nicer' ales. I have no anecdotal evidence to say what is best, but it might be worth experimenting with.

 

[IPA]

This is the method described in the manual and is normal sparging practice for mash tun sparging in 3 vessel brewing, it's interesting to hear someone getting 90% efficiency on a BM.

I was listening to a podcast regarding efficiency the other day and they were saying that the goal of increased efficiency may come at the cost of more 'rounded' or 'smoother' beers, i.e. lower efficiencies allow for 'nicer' ales. I have no anecdotal evidence to say what is best, but it might be worth experimenting with.

In the BM handbook it says that sparging is "not absolutely necessary" but thanks to De Garre on JBK I found that it makes tremendous difference to efficiency. I have been using a BM for over five years and mistakenly thought that because the grains had in effect been sparged for around two hours by the pumped wort that all of the sugars where already in suspension but no there was an awful lot still trapped in the grist and sparging as described released these and upped the efficiency. With regard to the podcast you talked about I cannot see how a lower OG would improve the finished beer.

 

[EskiBrew]

I cannot see how a lower OG would improve the finished beer.

There have been discussions on this and indeed there were experiments (not on the Speidel) in the past on THBF with people deliberately using more grain so that they could achieve the desired gravity with less or no sparging - the opinion seemed to be that a better beer was achieved at the expense of using more grain. Not something a commercial brewery would consider feasible but certainly something that could be done on a hobby level where absolute efficiency is not paramount and the cost of the extra grain can be considered insignificant.

This is of course a subjective matter and what seems better to one, may not seem worth the extra cost to another. You pays your money etc...

 

[IPA]

I cannot see how a lower OG would improve the finished beer.

There have been discussions on this and indeed there were experiments (not on the Speidel) in the past on THBF with people deliberately using more grain so that they could achieve the desired gravity with less or no sparging - the opinion seemed to be that a better beer was achieved at the expense of using more grain. Not something a commercial brewery would consider feasible but certainly something that could be done on a hobby level where absolute efficiency is not paramount and the cost of the extra grain can be considered insignificant.

This is of course a subjective matter and what seems better to one, may not seem worth the extra cost to another. You pays your money etc...

I appreciate your comment and perhaps there is an element of truth here. Graham Wheeler who I have a lot of respect for has this to say on the subject.

" Stop sparging when the gravity falls to below about 1008 or when sufficient wort has been collected. With experience you will not need to measure the gravity- you can determine when to stop by tasting the wort. If it is sweet, goodness is still being extracted, so continue. If it tastes like water,it probably is, so it's about the right time to stop. If it tastes bitter, astringent or tannic( like stewed tea ) then definitely stop."

I personally have not found any difference in my beer using the amount of sparge water I mentioned.

 

[Vossy1]

I think GW's recommendation is good for most quick drinking beers but I have to question the logic for bigger beers, though without evidence it's always going to be subjective. Traditionally big beers were usually made by parti gyle and thus sparging naturally stopped way above the possibility of extraction of 'undesirables' which may cause problems with long periods of maturation (assumes good brewing technique). There may even be evidence out there to support the theory based on analysis of wort samples as they approach certain gravities, but I don't have that info.
It's very easy to apply good advice and simplicity for one context, but that may be at the detriment of others when looking at the bigger brewing picture....food for thought.

 

[junglie69]

Still on the braumeister theme, I completed my first brew on the BM 20l a couple of days ago which was mostly successful, overall it is a joy to use. The only difficulty was draining the cooled wort, I ended up with a lot of break material in the fermentor. Having done some research on here and other sites it seems the break material itself is not a problem however it would be nice to leave it in the boiler.

My question for any braumeister users is have you had any break issues and have you managed to get round them.

Just to note I have fitted a larger tap as the one supplied has a tiny orifice!

Thanks.

 

[IPA]

Still on the braumeister theme, I completed my first brew on the BM 20l a couple of days ago which was mostly successful, overall it is a joy to use. The only difficulty was draining the cooled wort, I ended up with a lot of break material in the fermentor. Having done some research on here and other sites it seems the break material itself is not a problem however it would be nice to leave it in the boiler.

My question for any braumeister users is have you had any break issues and have you managed to get round them.

Just to note I have fitted a larger tap as the one supplied has a tiny orifice!

Thanks.

I have just purchased a hop filter which fits in front of tap outlet for my BM and hopefully it will arrive tomorrow. With this you can put the hops directly in the wort for the boil and when you drain the wort the hops collect in front of the filter and prevent any break material exiting. Much the same as a hop back does. When I have tried it out I will post the results. In the meantime you can use this method. If you use hop socks for containing your hops, when the wort has reached a level just above the tap hole wedge the hop sock in front of the outlet and this will prevent any break material from going into the FV. This way you can tilt the BM and drain all of the wort into the FV although the last couple of litres take a while to pass through the hop sock
Hope this is of some help

 

[brewtim]

I'll be testing my homemade dip tube and hop strainer this weekend, so will post back with the results with some pics hopefully.

 

[IPA]

I'll be testing my homemade dip tube and hop strainer this weekend, so will post back with the results with some pics hopefully.

This is the one I purchased from Speidel.

http://speidels-braumeister.de/shop/en/product?info=281

 

[MashBag]

I'll be testing my homemade dip tube and hop strainer this weekend, so will post back with the results with some pics hopefully.

This is the one I purchased from Speidel.

http://speidels-braumeister.de/shop/en/product?info=281

I will be interested to hear how you get on with this. I made a copper strainer from 15mm tube, which works well.

[ hmm can't find the image upload button... So here goes with the description]

Along the same lines as the Australian mesh bag. It sits under the element, curving gracefully to fit the side of the kettle. It then rises slightly and plugs into the tap. 1 x end cap, 2x15mm elbows and about 30 cm of copper pipe.

 

[MashBag]

Just to note I have fitted a larger tap as the one supplied has a tiny orifice! Thanks.

First thing I did.
.. followed by a 20 quid steam hood & extractor
.. & then a copper hop tube.

I do a two-day brew and I find that helps with hop clearing to. At the end of boil, remove the hop bag/strainer put lid on walk away. Overnight the wort will cool & settle. Day two, open tap, add yeast adjust water to final volume. Job done.

 

[brewtim]

Here's my homemade dip tube and hop strainer in the 50BM, it works effectively leaving around 500ml liquid amongst the trub.

15mm, t-piece, solder ring, formed gauze with 15mm tubing to try and reduce folding.

Dip tube - 90 degree solder ring with small copper insert that just slides into t-piece and 22mm silicone tube that fits into tap recess inside the pot.

Will replace the stainless hose clips with smaller neater ones.

Gauze fits under outside elements.

Only a couple of mm under the t-piece.

15mm silicone tube completes the siphon, still need to tip the BM to get the last of the wort, but not as far as without this setup.

Not much left after brewday :clap:

: :drink: