BIABrewer.info

Hi guys, I've signed up for a German site www.hobbybrauer.de (all German) and I've posted about the BIAB technique to see if they are interested and what they think. There appears to be a new one vessel decoctions technique being discussed there so I'll attempt to get a handle on what they are doing and hope to eventually be able to bring it to an English speaking audience here as time progresses.
I'm a fluent German speaker, if not so fluent writer, but I'm having to relearn the language from a brewers perspective as there is a lot of technical terminology that is just different, so it's a new learning experience for me, but it can only make my German better

I'll keep you updated and as said I'm keeping a close eye on this technique as I'm gonna do a pils shortly myself and was dreading the decoction part using one vessel and my small secondary pots and this looks like just the ticket.

Eoin

Cool keep us posted, took german for six weeks in high school before they canceled the class

I lived there for the best part of ten years, hence my love of all things beer.

Thanks EoinMag. I can't wait to hear about this decoction method!

My knowledge of the German language is limited to what I learnt in year 8 at high school (and that was a long time ago!).

I look forward to seeing what you can learn EoinMag.

Just read your Decoction like process for pilsners etc. Thanks for posting that Eoin.

Will look forward to hearing what response BIAB gets on hobbybrauer.

Cheers,
PP

So far, it looks like a German system called the Braumeister, which is a very nifty if not very expensive little all in one machine that works like a deep fat frier in that the grain is in a basket that you lift in and out.

There is a little scepticism about tannin and protein extraction, as they are not happy that the wort is not clear, which I suppose by Pilseners etc is more of a concern, especially as they brew reinheitsgebot and won't add copper finings as a result, I think once you are adding copper finings this is not so much a concern.

http://www.speidels-braumeister.de/shop ... fd33l83av0

On a side note, I'd love one of those machines they look very very cool.

One of them called BIAB the braumeister for poor people, but in a non-derogatory way as he said, if it gets results, why not?

Wow, that Braumeister/Brewmaster is impressive, if perhaps a bit over-engineered. I wants! Maybe I can sell my car for one (or at least a down payment on the 200L model ).

Holy crap, that's over $2,000 AU for the 20l job!

I think I'll stick with my freebie keggle, cheap voile and free gas

Yeah it'd be a job for lotto winners methinks. Definitely a nice machine though, if I could....I would, I have to admit.

There's a really nice brewer from Denmark called mimerbryg who was most helpful in the early BIAB days and first posted a link to the Braumeister. He probably speaks German too so you guys should track him down as he posts really well. (I'll send him a PM and see if I can get him on here.)

There is also a retailer over here in Australia (Mark's Home Brew or MHB) who has the Braumeister and really likes it. He is a very well-educated brewer and doesn't sell anything he doesn't like so this says something.

The Braumeister is essentially automated BIAB but has been around longer than our manual BIAB.

Hopefully we'll see mimerbryg posting here soon.

Fingers crossed,
PP

Inspired by the Braumeister I was designing a single vessel Brew in a Malt tube system using my existing urn, an inner 'sleeve' made out of just a food grade plastic cylinder with a false bottom that would fit fairly snugly into the urn and a March Pump.
The idea was to mash in the urn, BIAB style then turn on the pump and switch on the Urn heat element, recirculating the wort out of the tap and onto the top of the grain in the inner chamber to form a grain bed and Vorlauf then keep circulating until the wort was running clear. Keep heating and recirculating until mashout temperature then turn off the pump and raise the "malt pipe / bucket / inner chamber. Do a small sparge if required then bring to the boil.

I worked it out that with the pump, a three way ball valve (one side to the pump and the other side to a tube to take the finished wort to the chiller or no chill cube) etc etc I would be up for over $350, so I shrugged my shoulders and just bought a second urn (see two-urn system thread).
Why fix what ain't broke

A good move BB. A very good and intelligent move!

I must say that we brewers often have a fascination for making things more complex when we shouldn't . I now have a huge "spare parts" department in my little apartment of things that I tinkered with and shouldn't have.

I remember thinking a stainless steel basket would be better than a bag and spent months exploring this. It isn't any better than a bag and poses a whole new set of problems.

Clarifying wort with pumps, as you have realised is the same. This is a problem easily solved for chilled wort with the commonly available auto-syphon. Wizard is working on a stainless steel version which should completley resolve this problem for both chilled and hot worts. The end result will be simple but the thinking required to get to that stage is very involved and detailed.

Clever, simple things in brewing I think are best. Way too much of home-brewer's thinking goes along the lines of, "How can I be like a commercial brewery?" whereas the commercial brewers are thinking, "Wow, if I only had to brew 23 L - 50L I could do it like this!"

We too often ignore our advantages I reckon.

Cheers BB,
PP

I couldn't agree more with PP, BB etc, keeping the processes and equipment simple while taking advantage of things that actually work already. I think we all realise that BIAB is a quantum leap in terms of minimising actual equipment, compared to other methods it wins hands down. The first brewery to scale it up commercially would be setting the cats amongst the pigeons. Good to see we have some inquisitive minds in our midst, keep up the great work guys.

While the Braumeister is effectively BIAB without the bag plus automation, I'm not sure if the expense would be worth it, particularly as I also remain to be convinced that cloudy wort translates into beer that is any better or worse.
Now, we've probably all seen the automated brewing threads over at AHB, when I've finished laughing (you know which one I mean) / picking myself up of the floor (felled by bling tax in another), I feel so disappointed that brewers feel they have to go to such lengths to make AG beer when in fact, as well know, it can taste just great without any of that ridiculous shiny stuff or any machines that go ping. I'm not an anti- mechanisation troglodyte at all, I actually do similar sorts of knobby techo things for a crust, but unless there's a physical compromise or perhaps a disability issue to overcome, I just struggle to see the point. It would be sort of like building a CNC to do some hobby wood turning- where's the sense in that? Wrong forum maybe...

Sorry, that was an unintended /rant, think I need to have some more soothing anti- grumpy syrup (coffee)...

I would have thought it a bigger leap forward than "quantum"

And surely you meant to say beer

When I was a kid I liked to bowl. The kind in a bowling ally. I was about 10 or 12 (1950's). A professional bowler was in town to give a exhibition or open training? Anyway, somehow I ended up practicing with this guy before the show. I asked him how I could get to be a good bowler? He told me "If you minimize the things that can go wrong you have less to correct"! he said "hold the ball out and just drop it the same way each time" "If you push it out on your first step you will either push it out to early, to fast, to slow, to high" I always remembered that bowling lesson. BIAB is minimizing the things that could go wrong.

Sorry for the long or obtuse analogy! I am a techno-Nut. I love technology but I know that sometimes "Simple is Smarter"!

And who knew that bowlers could give sound advice