Looking for feedback in first 20l Braumeister Recipe Design

Hey all

I'm new to the Brau, haven't brewed on it yet and trying to work out the differences in brewing with it vs my old systems.

I have designed this recipe to be a really simple first attempt for this weekend and was wondering if you could please offer me any advice around the water additions to make sure I dont calculate them incorrectly. I am a bit confused with how to correctly show the strike water and "top-up" method that Brau uses.

Cheers

Chris

Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 20.10 L
Boil Size: 25.60 L
Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Vol: 23.00 L
Final Bottling Vol: 18.30 L
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage
Equipment: Braumeister - 20 Litre
Efficiency: 68.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 77.8 %

Ingredients

4.00 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) US (3.9 EBC)
0.30 kg Munich Malt (17.7 EBC) 
0.20 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine 3.9 EBC
0.20 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 120.0 EBC
0.20 kg Melanoiden Malt 39.4 EBC

30.00 g Citra [13.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min
25.00 g Citra [13.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min 
25.00 g Citra [13.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min 
20.00 g Citra [13.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 10.0 min, 70.0 C 

1.0 pkg SafAle English Ale


Est Original Gravity: 1.050 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.008 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.5 %
Bitterness: 43.3 IBUs
Est Color: 14.2 EBC

Mash Steps
Mash In Add 21 L of water at 70.0 C 63.0 C 30 min
Mash Step Heat to 70.0 C over 5 min 70.0 C 30 min
Mash Step Heat to 77.0 C over 2 min 77.0 C 10 min

Fill up Braumeister with 7L water

Hi Chris,

I do not have a Braumeister, so I will just give you some generic advice.

The water balance is really set in your equipment profile for parameters such as top off water and your process losses.  While there are profiles available for the Braumeister, I highly recommend going through the set up and measuring the parameters yourself so that you have a good feel for how they work and how to adjust the profile to match your system.  There are several good videos and descriptions around on YouTube which will show you how to measure and set up a profile for similar type all-in-one brewing systems like the Braumeister.

Next, you mash parameters are set in your mash profile.  While there are basic templates available for most types of brewing which come with the software, customizing one to how you want to brew will benefit you in the long run.  You seem to have most of the volumes calculated out, so setting up the software to produce those values is a good starting place.  You can adjust as needed once you have brewed and have in mind ways to make it more efficient.

While you have plans for top-off water, I would strongly recommend you use that water to do a pour through or sprinkle through sparge to improve you extraction efficiency.  The Braumeister is well suited for this with the malt pipe so you can raise it and set it above the kettle, allow most of the wort to drain out and then slowly add sparge water until you reach your target pre-boil volume.  Depending upon your water source, you may need to watch the pH of your runnings from the malt pipe when sparging to ensure you do not bring it above 6.0 as this will have the potential to extract tannins from the grain husks.  Some people will sparge with cooler water to prevent this from happening as it takes high temperature and pH to extract the tannins.

Thanks for your detailed reply...I have a bit to learn, but I am very keen!!!

Cheers

As far as adding anything else, if its your first brew on the system AND you're new to beersmith i would definitely advocate for doing a water run to get your numbers first, and then i would advocate for a very simple SMaSH style pale ale for a first brew. I'd hate to have all those ingredients and expense wrapped up in a potential mess.

My first "Brew" on every system or major change is always a yeast starter batch. I make X amount of yeast starter material and put it in Canning jars, pressure can them at 15psi for 15 minutes and I've got nice quart jars of ready to use yeast starter

This is just 2-row, and a VERY light hop charge, along with my particular blend of yeast nutrients.