Learnt something else new about the 50ltr BM unit, & from my point of view 25lt is even betterIPA wrote:The small malt tube for the 50 litre model is 25 litres not 20 litres. It helps a lot because you can get 20% more grist in it.Get yourself a 20ltr BM tube (sold for the 50BM unit to enable shorter brew lengths), which then sits perfectly in a 70 ltr stock pot
The markings on the spindle are 20/25/30 litres and 45/50/55 litres
First of all you will need two circulation pumps because one will not be powerful enough to do the job and I recommend that you buy the same ones that Speidel use on account of their size and power. I can't see what you mean about trub. The draining of the grain bed is no different to the sparging of a normal mash tun. In any case trub arrives much later in the process and is by the hot and cold breaks. Good luck with the build.dean_wales wrote:One comparison I cannot work out is the upwards circulation of the mash in these systems. Surely when you shut off the pump and lift the gran tube/basket out you totally disturb the grain bed and the now downwards draining (or even mini sparging) sends a whole load of trub into your kettle full of shiny clear wort??
Dean.
So the wort hasn't drained out of the grain bed but it has been pushed up through the grain bed i.e the pump (pumps) suck the wort from outside of the malt tube and force it up through the bottom of the malt tube, then it flows over the top. After a few cycles, the wort coming over the top of the malt tube is crystal clear. Then once the malt tube is lifted out, from my experiences the runnings remain clear, as the grain bed has already been compacted. I leave mine drain for a few minutes, before removing it and let it continue to drip over a clean bowl and even then it's still clear.dean_wales wrote:Would a chugger or similar pump really not be up to the job? That is a surprise and I find the idea less appealing with two pumps.
Sorry, perhaps I misused the word trub there. My point is that when you lift the malt pipe or inner stock pot up to drain, surely the wort that drains out is really cloudy as it has not flowed through a settled grain bed. In fact the grain bed itself would also slump to the bottom of the tube?
Although I am not paranoid about a clear wort, having grain matter in the boil volume is not good for flavor and I don't want to take a step backwards in this regard.
Dean.
Good question, as I bought my unit second hand, complete with fine stainless 'screen' I can only assume, that since the main filter plates have 3mm holes, then you need something 'extra' to stop the smaller particles making it out of the malt tube and into the pump. They are sold as fine screens by all the stockists, so it's not something specific to my machine.IPA wrote:Why do need to attach the filters? That was only necessary when using the original cloth filters.
How do those pumps differ from a chugger for example? Do both pumps do the same job i.e. draw wort from outside the malt tube and push it into the base of the tube? Or do they have seperate jobs/run inline?barneey wrote:I have simply swapped it out for 2 of the BM style pumps.
Still need to test out the system but am still awaiting the control panel.
