Brewing a Hefeweizen with my Speidel Braumeister

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swiggingpig
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Brewing a Hefeweizen with my Speidel Braumeister

Post by swiggingpig » Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:39 pm

My first attempt at posting a brew day so please be kind to me :)

The recipe is from Jamil's book, 50/50 Pils malt/wheat malt with Hallertau for 60 mins bittering and WPL300 for the yeasties.

This is a bit piccy heavy.

I used a 5 step mash with this as I wanted to try a ferulic acid rest as described on leedsbrew's blog.

Ferulic acid rest 44C for 30 mins
Protien rest 52C for 10 mins
1st Sacchrification 63C for 30 mins
2nd Sacchrification 72C for 30 mins
Mash out 78C for 5 mins

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Stainless steel pickup/syphon tube with a fine mesh filter to protect my plate chiller

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Trying to do a full volume no sparge today so 27.5 lt of water

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Water's a little chilly this morning

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Pump has ventilated itself and it's starting to heat to the mash-in temp.

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Grains weighed out

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Hops weighed out and ready

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Up to mash-in temp so I've added the malt pipe and just putting in the bottom screen and filter.

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In go the grains

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Followed by the top screen and filter. I've added a seal around the edge to stop any escapees

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All secured and off we go to the first mash stage

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A bit murky to start with

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Time for a brew and let it do it's thing

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After a little lunch I hear bleeping to let me know the mash has finished

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Lovely clear wort :D

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Malt pipe lifted out and draining, I've also told the BM to start the boil

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Connected to the extractor fan so that I don't suffer the wrath of SWMBO !!

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Up to the boil so in go the hops

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Plate chiller and hoses etc. in StarSan for 5 mins

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Boil finished, now running through the plate chiller at a nice 20C output temp.

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Getting the last bit

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Slightly over, I aim for 20lt into the FV

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Yeasties introduced to their new home :)

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The obligatory 'filth' shot. As you can see theres not much dead space.

The mash efficiency of 80% is a little down on the past few brews, ho hum :(
My previous brews with my current batch of Pils malt and pale malt have been in the mid 80's mash eff.

I'm going to put down to either poor yield from the wheat malt or my being a bit mean with the sach rests. In hindsight perhaps I should have extended the 1st sach rest as the temp is quite low, oh well, you live and learn :)

All tucked away in my FV cabinet @ 22C :D

barney

Re: Brewing a Hefeweizen with my Speidel Braumeister

Post by barney » Mon Oct 29, 2012 10:31 pm

Thats hardly brewing that mate, you dont have to do nowt. :)

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swiggingpig
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Re: Brewing a Hefeweizen with my Speidel Braumeister

Post by swiggingpig » Tue Oct 30, 2012 11:00 am

barney wrote:Thats hardly brewing that mate, you dont have to do nowt. :)
It certainly makes the mashing process at lot less stressful, especially stepped mash's, but there's still plenty of room to cock up a brew day :D

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DeGarre
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Re: Brewing a Hefeweizen with my Speidel Braumeister

Post by DeGarre » Tue Oct 30, 2012 5:32 pm

Very interesting for another BM brewer =D>

As you're tilting the BM off the table edge be careful that the control unit does not take the weight.

I use a hop spider and a hop bag but really like your solution - can you give some details on your dip tube set up please? Sizes, where to get one, etc.

Cheers!

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swiggingpig
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Re: Brewing a Hefeweizen with my Speidel Braumeister

Post by swiggingpig » Tue Oct 30, 2012 6:18 pm

DeGarre wrote:Very interesting for another BM brewer =D>

As you're tilting the BM off the table edge be careful that the control unit does not take the weight.

I use a hop spider and a hop bag but really like your solution - can you give some details on your dip tube set up please? Sizes, where to get one, etc.

Cheers!
I got the dip tube from here, I found out about it on the Aussie homebrew forum, there is some good stuff on there for the BM.

I got the mesh from here as a flat sheet.

I cut off a section, formed it round a 15mm copper pipe to make a straight tube, removed the copper pipe replacing some PVC tubing so that I could bend a curve in it without kinking it, removed PVC tube, folded over the ends and made a hole in the side of it just big enough to insert the end of the dip tube.

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Kev888
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Re: Brewing a Hefeweizen with my Speidel Braumeister

Post by Kev888 » Tue Oct 30, 2012 6:30 pm

Nice post!!

All looking very smooth. The BM really does seem to stop a lot of piddling about and inconsistency too; really must get my build under way!

BTW, I'm a little worried about the starsan pic, which makes it look quite milky - I can't recall if you're one of those that can get it going milky without the PH being wrong?

Cheers
Kev
Kev

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swiggingpig
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Re: Brewing a Hefeweizen with my Speidel Braumeister

Post by swiggingpig » Tue Oct 30, 2012 9:01 pm

Kev888 wrote:Nice post!!

All looking very smooth. The BM really does seem to stop a lot of piddling about and inconsistency too; really must get my build under way!

BTW, I'm a little worried about the starsan pic, which makes it look quite milky - I can't recall if you're one of those that can get it going milky without the PH being wrong?

Cheers
Kev
Exit stage left with a pH strip :shock: [-o<

It has gone slightly milky but th pH is fine :)
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Kev888
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Re: Brewing a Hefeweizen with my Speidel Braumeister

Post by Kev888 » Tue Oct 30, 2012 9:25 pm

Whew - good news :-)

Cheers
Kev
Kev

Epilasek

Re: Brewing a Hefeweizen with my Speidel Braumeister

Post by Epilasek » Thu Nov 22, 2012 1:09 pm

Hi

I just wondered where you got the rubber seal for the filters? Many thanks
Martin

Epilasek

Re: Brewing a Hefeweizen with my Speidel Braumeister

Post by Epilasek » Thu Nov 22, 2012 1:13 pm

Also, is it easy to replace the tap with a ball value? The tap that comes with the BM doesnt flow too well if there is a lot of hops/trub at the bottom. Cheers.

I love your set up and will try and convince the mrs to buy me a plate chiller for xmas. M

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swiggingpig
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Re: Brewing a Hefeweizen with my Speidel Braumeister

Post by swiggingpig » Thu Nov 22, 2012 1:18 pm

Epilasek wrote:Hi

I just wondered where you got the rubber seal for the filters? Many thanks
Martin
I got the pickup/dip tube and the seal from here.

I found out about it on the Aussie homebrew forum, a lot of good info on there about the BM.

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swiggingpig
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Re: Brewing a Hefeweizen with my Speidel Braumeister

Post by swiggingpig » Thu Nov 22, 2012 1:27 pm

Epilasek wrote:Also, is it easy to replace the tap with a ball value? The tap that comes with the BM doesnt flow too well if there is a lot of hops/trub at the bottom. Cheers.

I love your set up and will try and convince the mrs to buy me a plate chiller for xmas. M
It was very easy to replace, I used a 3/4" to 1/2" bush and a 1/2" full bore lever valve with a bit of ptfe tape just to be safe.

The plate chiller was one of the best things I ever bought, they really are the dogs, 20L into the FV at 20C in around 10mins :=P

Wezzel

Re: Brewing a Hefeweizen with my Speidel Braumeister

Post by Wezzel » Thu Nov 22, 2012 2:10 pm

I'm sure that some people think using a BM is cheating but I would personally love one.

I think I would be more inclined to brew smaller, more complicated batches more often and experiment more.

With the time and effort (and cleaning) it takes to make a brew using standard 3V equipment I am worried about wasting my time making something I find that is not to my taste. I therefore tend to play it safe with the same old tried and trusted recipes.

One day, perhaps [-o<

P.S. Nice writeup!

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oz11
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Re: Brewing a Hefeweizen with my Speidel Braumeister

Post by oz11 » Thu Nov 22, 2012 3:15 pm

I, too, covet one.

Cheating? Hardly. Enabling accurate and repeatable mash temperatures can only be a good thing I'd have thought.

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swiggingpig
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Re: Brewing a Hefeweizen with my Speidel Braumeister

Post by swiggingpig » Thu Nov 22, 2012 3:52 pm

Wezzel wrote:I'm sure that some people think using a BM is cheating but I would personally love one.

I think I would be more inclined to brew smaller, more complicated batches more often and experiment more.

With the time and effort (and cleaning) it takes to make a brew using standard 3V equipment I am worried about wasting my time making something I find that is not to my taste. I therefore tend to play it safe with the same old tried and trusted recipes.

One day, perhaps [-o<

P.S. Nice writeup!
Hi Wezzel, I'm very pleased you enjoyed the writeup :D

Changes here at home mean that I now have to brew in my cellar but I didn't really have the room to work safely and comfortably with my 3V PID RIMS system. The BM allows me to continue with this great hobby without it being a chore to set-up, clean-up and pack-away each time in a cramped and confined area. Although they appear expensive, to me it was a worthwhile investment and worth every penny to me.

The system is a joy to use and so easy to clean !!! =D>

I bought the 20L BM as I brew to fill 1 cornie keg, I like to try different recipes and styles so that I have a selection of beers on tap, I try to keep 6 different beers on the bar at any one time.

As far as using a BM is cheating I strongly disagree [-X . Compared to my previous 3V PID RIMS system, which is the type of system that many brewers aspire to, the only thing extra that the BM does compared to my old 3V system is to manage the timing of mash steps and then automatically set the temp for the next step. Everything thing else is the same, you still choose the recipe, the grains, the hops and the mash schedule times and temps. Once it starts boiling it's like any other boiler you still have to time the boil for adding the hops etc.

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