Efficiency

[Pagibson]

Can anyone tell me what the efficiency is like on the 20, 50 or 200l version

[DeGarre]

I am getting 90+% with 20L. I mash loooonnnnng and rinse/sparge long and steady until almost 100°C in the kettle. Mash with 26L and rinse with further 8L lately.

[HLA91]

I am drooling over a Braumeister right now. Just trying to raise the funds to purchase one. Are they reliable and hard wearing?

[Wezzel]

Me too!

[DeGarre]

I... Are they reliable and hard wearing?

In exactly 3 years I got 68 brews without any problems, and on 69th and 70th brews I had some electrical problems which anyway sorted themselves out. Found out the capacitor had blown out and I am getting it fixed now with diagnostics+latest software. Great customer care.

About the SS build quality, very neat and sturdy.

As an added bonus, if one is into cooking then especially 20L unit is handy for sous vide...

[HLA91]

How easy is it to replace parts that do break, especially electrical ones like your capacitor?
Would you recommend buying the hop filter as well?

[DeGarre]

If something goes wrong Speidel seems to put it right, if I knew how to solder small electrical boards or whatever they are called I could've changed the standard capacitor myself, and parts can be swopped or serviced with spare parts, tap, pump, control unit...and that's about it because I can't see much else could go wrong, unless there is damage in the delivery.

What I'd recommend is spending as little as poss any extra money on modifications or gizmos and brew the first few times with a basic set up. In my case, I am happy with the factory tap and am using a cheap ghetto hop spider, I haven't needed a thermo jacket but made one myself from a cheapo camping mat.

[Waffty]

I do like the idea of a one vessel automated brewing system, as time is one thing I don't have too much of (kids). I've done some reading but I still can't work out if this is fully automated i.e throw all the ingrediants into the pot, mash in, drain and boil or do I need to sparge and if I do need to sparge, then I'm going to need another vessel (HLT, Kettle?) to provide the sparge water. Suspect the answer is brew style specific, so for reference, I usually brew a cornys worth, so say 20l and I don't usually brew greater than 4.5% ales.

Thanks in advance.
Darren.

[HLA91]

The general consensus I have come across is that you don't NEED to sparge but doing so take so little time and effort that if you do sparge you can increase your efficiency for not much work. From what I've read "sparging" with the BM can simply be pouring 1L (Per Kilo of grain) of 75 Degree water gently over the top of the raised malt pipe.

[Waffty]

Excellent, I'l bear that in mind, as I'm looking to build a single vessle system

[barneey]

From my experiments so far I normally sparge with 6 lt (5Kg grain bed). Thing you need to be most careful with is the water volumes, ie if your trying to max the brew length out, by the time you have lifted the pot to the 2nd position (highest) there must be enough clearance under the malt tube for it to drain freely + allowance for the sparge water.

[HLA91]

Care to share your normal mash volumes with us barneey?

[barneey]

To max out the thing based on a 23l batch size, 25 / 26l in the mash (easy to measure ) approx. 6l sparge, 5.5Kg grain bill.

You should therefore avoid a wet bottom.

[Waffty]

Sorry to be slightly off topic but what is the actual volume of water the Braumeister 20 can hold? And how much is this reduced when the malt tube is in drain mode, as these are the two physical limited you'll need to work from

Thanks again.

[barneey]

Sorry to be slightly off topic but what is the actual volume of water the Braumeister 20 can hold? And how much is this reduced when the malt tube is in drain mode, as these are the two physical limited you'll need to work from

Thanks again.

Basically the critical measurement is the volume the pot can hold whilst still being able to drain the malt tube, this is approx. 26 ltrs (on the highest setting), so this tells you the maximum pre boil volume (if using the BM as intended). you can however in theory get a good 30ltrs + pre-boil volume in the thing to brew with.

The pot itself is 435mm high with a diameter of 350mm so to the brim approx. 42 ltrs