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Braumeister

biergarden

Brewer
Joined
Jan 30, 2013
Messages
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Location
Ketchikan, Alaska
I'm in a position to buy a major piece of brewing equipment. I've looked around then I found this company called Braumeister who has made a very clever system. But I was hoping to talk with some one who has experience using one before I buy it.
I have questions about sparging and re-circulation.

Thanks
 
I have tried the Braumeister 2 times, and it works great and is quite clever, but it is build to accomodate a certain range in the amount of malt and water, and as I see it, you will not be able to do brew high gravity beers. I could be wrong, though...
It was the 25L version i used.
 
Jens W said:
I have tried the Braumeister 2 times, and it works great and is quite clever, but it is build to accomodate a certain range in the amount of malt and water, and as I see it, you will not be able to do brew high gravity beers. I could be wrong, though...
It was the 25L version i used.

What about scaling down your recipe to 15L beer in stead off 20L?
 
I went online and watched the Speidel video on the system. I can't see where there would be any limitations. To be honest, Braumeister offers up some excellent eye candy! I've just begun to explore all-electric equipment as an alternative to propane. It's very clear to me that I need to win the lottery before I venture into that arena. It will also be a cold day in h... before my wife ever lets me back in the kitchen to brew.
 
MikeinRH said:
I've just begun to explore all-electric equipment as an alternative to propane. It's very clear to me that I need to win the lottery before I venture into that arena. It will also be a cold day in h... before my wife ever lets me back in the kitchen to brew.

- I am in the same process. Luckely my wife and others in the family are very flexible me using the kitchen for brewing purposes. However, after 45 min of boiling the kitchen fan looses capacity due to the motor collecting condensated water. In addition we have an electrical stove with "self thinking" plates pre-set by the manufacturer that suddenly and not consequently thinks totally different from what I would like to see. From time to time it is difficult to keep 25L of wort boiling due to that the system overrules and decides this is hot enough. By brewing with all-electric equipment I don't have to use the kitchen anymore (I still could) and I am much more flexible.
- Yes, Braumeister offers some excellent eye candy and what I heard, a very good quality. But I am afraid I also need to win the lottery before I even start considering this alternative :(

Regards,
Slurk
 
It isn't difficult or terribly expensive to build an electric brew kettle. Check http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/ for a complete parts list and sources. I run my kettle on 240 V for rapid heating or to maintain a ferocious boil then I switch to 120 V (controlled through a Johnson digital controller to maintain a low boil or to maintain temperature). I do not use Electric Brewery's expensive automated control system. The electric brew pot serves as the water bath heater for my HERMS initially, then I drain the water and use it to boil the wort.

Slurk, you might have a bit of an engineering challenge to get 120 V out of Norway's electrical system, but a rheostat should allow you to control your 240 V system manually.
 
I like that link, but I need something a little larger than a 20 gallon boil. That's really not much beer if you really think about it, but I do like the idea of all electric if you're brewing in an area that can't to vented in a way to remove the CO and whatever kinda toxic gas is creeping around. That  Braumeister looks awesome and takes up such a small footprint that it almost makes sense, but I don't see a sparging method. As though the grans just drip dry. I must be missing something there.
But I did find a cool alternative to that at Portland Kettles. I'm 90% certain I'll be working with these guys and buying this one: http://www.portlandkettleworks.com/index.cfm/nano-breweries1/




 
biergarden said:
I'm in a position to buy a major piece of brewing equipment. I've looked around then I found this company called Braumeister who has made a very clever system. But I was hoping to talk with some one who has experience using one before I buy it.
I have questions about sparging and re-circulation.

Thanks

Seems like you're still looking biergarden? I have owned the Braumeister 20 liter system (just a little more than 5 gallon batch size) for about 4 months now. There is a slightly more expensive 50 liter (13 gallon) system as well as a 200 & 500 liter system.

I've done 4 batches so far - love the system. If you are in the USA, you will need to deal with getting the proper electrical setup since it doesn't ship with a cord that is compatible with any common US 240V plugs. Here are a list of mods I have done to my system:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/speidel-braumeister-brewmaster-229225/index55.html#post5500544.
Note that the thread I've referenced is a very long and informative post about the Braumeister, including some nanobreweries and brewpubs who have the 200l system.

The limitation on starting gravity of your beers is based on the interplay between the minimum volume of water needed and the maximum amount of grain you can fit in the malt pipe. The system is sort of like a stainless steel brew in a bag system. You need a minimum amount of liquid in the system to have it run properly (not sure the actual amount, but it's probably around 20 liter min) and you can only fit about 6kg of grain in the malt pipe.

The same thread I references above also has some people's experience brewing high gravity beers. Many ways to do it... boil longer, add DME or LME, or do a double mash. I've done the first two and they both work fine. Had some issues with the LME route: I added the LME right to the kettle with about 15 minutes left in the boil and it gummed up the pump pretty good. Fortunately, it didn't cause any real issues and the pump is incredibly easy to clean. I'll be pre-mixing any extract with some wort before adding it to the kettle from now on ;-)

One of the really nice features is the programmable mashing capabilities of the system - you have a lot of flexibility to program in multi-step mashes. I haven't tried it yet, but I think decoction mashing will be fairly easy to do as well.

It's designed to be a non-sparge process, but you can still sparge if you want to (I have been so far). It's setup to constantly circulate the wort through the malt pipe (where the grain stays during the mash). So, in a way, the grains are constantly being "rinsed." Many users report quite good efficiency without any sparging at all. So far I still do a batch sparge by heating up sparge water on my stovetop and pouring into the mash pipe when it's draining.

Happy to answer any other questions you might have.

 
Hi, I've just brewed three batches with a hired Braumeister 50L for our Christmas party at work. The BM works well, but here are som limitations as said earlier. I believe 1060 is some what the max gravity. You can also not down scale the batch size to much without changing to a lower inner cylinder since the wort is beeing pump through the cylinder and above its edges. Lower cylinders are sold separately.

The BM work well and it keeps the mashing temperature without to much variation. It took quite some time though to heat up the water. It boiled OK but not very hard even though I had the extra insulation.

The brewhouse efficiency was also not that high.

/Tore
 
Thanks for all of your input guys. It's good to know your experiences with this guys. I was looking at the 200L brew house but wow is it expensive compared to traditional styles.
 
thassum said:
Hi, I've just brewed three batches with a hired Braumeister 50L for our Christmas party at work.

All same batches? All same results?
Any thoughts?
R, Slurk
 
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