Hey Lylo,

How are you getting on with the Braumeister now? Has the honeymoon period ended or is it all still good in the world?
Not seen any pics of your brews with it

Still loving it Mally! What a nice, stressless and compact way to brew! I have done 6 brews with it and have 4 currently on tap. These 4 are the best beers I have ever done.
I will try to get a few pics for everyone next brewday. My pipeline is full right now so I am not in a big rush to brew until the weather turns really crappy some weekend. That is another thing I am liking, is joining Thughes and all of others who brew inside!!
When it comes time to pull the maltpipe I just imagine it being a bag and I don't feel like a traitor. I really miss sqeezin the old bag on weekends though.

Lylo

Keep us posted Lylo. We all know that your heart is "In the Bag" most of the time anyway. I want some pictures. Sorry I will be kicking your butt in Cheesestradamus this year. I let you beat me to con you into playing. Gloves are coming off this year. I am taking no prisoners!

P.S. If you don't squeeze the old bag now and then you will be in trouble! I still try to get a squeeze in now and then. I just can't remember why?

That's really good then Lylo, so it's a proper piece of kit then?
I am glad it is so expensive otherwise I would be tempted too.

I have to take your bait though;

These 4 are the best beers I have ever done

.

Do you know why that is? Just curious

I am thinking these are so good due to:
1: The improved process
2: I have started using liquid yeast and starters
3: I now have 2 chest freezers on temp control for fermenting.
Factors 2 & 3 are not brand new additons but the last 4 brews are the only ones
that have had the benefit of all 3 factors.
Also, these were brewed on an expensive,beautiful stainless steel, German made,brewing system.
They have to be best dont they!

Lylo wrote:Homemade, sparging with the BM is easy. Just have some hot (75C)water on hand to pour over the screen after you lift the pipe.
My usual method is to work out my TWN with the Biabacus, dough in with the slightly less water than BM suggests, then I top up the water close to the top of the pipe. This gives my the maximum volume of water that I can use. The remainder of the TWN I set aside for the sparge.
NB: I always dough in at 55c and ramp up to sacch rest temp. This is so easy with the BM, why not? This also negates the need for a specific strike water temp.

Hi Lylo

Thks for your tip, I have only done 3 brews in mine but I am enjoying it and pleased I bought it.

I haven't done any step mashing yet as our brew day is long enough while we get our systems down and I assume having to wait for each increase in temp will only increase the overall time?

I have been slack with exact strike water temps...I heat up to the predicted temp knowing that if it turns out abit low the braumeister will increase it without any effort from me I couldn't see the harm in a degree or two low as long as it wasn't too hot?

I decided not to sparge for a few reasons: it "seemed" like a lot of mucking about and full volume "seemed" like it was a doddle....however I now perceive sparging being easier than I first thought and from experience full volume (in the braumeister) has its complications.

I don't have a gas burner so I perceive a problem heating or maintaining water at 75c for a sparge on the stove, which is obviously inside so id have to carry a big pot of water outside, although I think I have a pot big enough so it might not be too bad but I worry about mucking around with hot water being as accident prone as I am

I was also put off sparging as I thought it would add more time to the brew day and after several reads on this site I got the "impression" it (sparging) didn't gain much over full volume mashing? That's probably a big topic full of differing opinions so I might leave it alone for now and talk about my braumeister experiences instead....

I now (last brew) heat the full volume in Braumeister then remove a no chill container worth, mash in in the reduced volume then pour back the cube of water, i do this as it is easier to mash in in the reduced volume as the water doesnt spill over the malt pipe. during the mash i have found i need to stir at least a couple of times to stop gushing, which i assume is happening until the grain has fully absorbed water. To do it i simply fill my no chill cube again to lower the volume to below the top of the malt pipe, remove top plate and mesh, stir then replace mesh/plate/water/lid...so all told I am mucking about with hot water quite a bit I've only done this on last brew but it seemed efficient enough that I'd decided this was the way to go for future brews.

I had some concerns about hot side aeration but after searching and reading up on it this appears to be of concern "after" the boil only? So I take care not to splash back the wort but I'm not too worried I am harming it.

I only stir when I see it is not flowing evenly over the malt pipe, I also listened to a podcast on BBR where this tip (stirring) was given as a means to improve efficiency.

After doing all that I was happy but you got me thinking....I guess you start your ramp up to boil while the sparge is happening so it doesn't add anymore time? If so I guess I need to balance heating and transporting the sparge water against what I did last time.

I bought a block and tackle pulley system which I will rig up for this weekends brew day so lifting the maltpipe and holding it there during the sparge should be easier. Mines the 50L so that maltpipe is quite heavy.

I also changed the original tap to a full bore type and I'm very happy I did that, much easier to get the feed tube to stay put while draining.

Anyway thanks for your input hope I haven't bored everyone too much

As far as the sparge water goes, I should have mentioned that it is easy for me because I picked up (in a garage sale) a plastic 2 gallon mash bucket with a small 110v heater that heats the sparge water to msahout temps for me.
I am not quite following the process you go through with your dough in.
"I now (last brew) heat the full volume in Braumeister then remove a no chill container worth, mash in in the reduced volume then pour back the cube of water, i do this as it is easier to mash in in the reduced volume as the water doesnt spill over the malt pipe. during the mash i have found i need to stir at least a couple of times to stop gushing, which i assume is happening until the grain has fully absorbed water. To do it i simply fill my no chill cube again to lower the volume to below the top of the malt pipe, remove top plate and mesh, "
P.S. are you aware of the lengthy BM discussions on HBT? It seems that I have seen you name on there but haven't had time to go back through all of the latest postings.
I had quite a brew day last Saturday that you may find humorous as well as instructive.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/speidel ... ex223.html

Hi again Lylo,

In a round about way I was saying that I did the same as you at dough in, except I add all the TWN to the Braumeister which floods the malt pipe completely. This seems fine for the three brews I'v done so far, except if you want to stir the mash at any point. As the malt pipe is flooded you can't easily remove the "sheet metal sieve" (as the manual calls it) as the wort is too hot. So in order to make this easier on the last brew day, I removed some of the mash water (by now its probably called wort?) until I could easily remove the top sieve and the top mesh screen without getting my hands burnt. I put this into a no chill container and then poured it back in once I had finished stirring and reassembled the mesh screen and metal sieve etc. It only takes a minute or two so it did not seem to affect the temp.

Therefore, I think what I am doing is a full volume BIAB and does not need a sparge. I have read that a BIAB should not need a sparge and should be avoided if possible as a first choice. Therefore while I can see a sparge as being fairly easy to perform I have decided not to do it initially. Having read several times its best to get a few brews under your belt before you start to analyse the numbers such as efficiency and change your procedures, I think I will stick with the above approach for a few more brews. I am thinking I can always revisit it later if I need to.

I have read the thread on HBT you linked to, (I haven't forgotten the screens....yet!) I think there are a few more threads as well? although from memory I dont think I have posted anything. Thats a long thread and I have read it for interest before and did so again after clicking on your link but I dont go back to it very often.

To be honest I find it easier to find answers and follow threads on this site than either HBT or AHB, I know those sites have Braumeister threads but many questions go unanswered in that thread and some are answered pages down the track so I find it a bit hard to follow, but that's just me.

I have decided to stick to one forum (this one) if I can as I find it much more informative,.... otherwise it gets to hard to remember where you read something

Cheers

I know what you mean about multiple forums. The HBT I have bookmarded for the BM forum and just keep up with any new stuff that way. I got in early and I think only had to read about 160 pages of posts!! Other than that I am mostly a home body with BIABrewer.
I see now what you are doing with the BM and it sounds practical although, I would suggest leaving out the stirring portion once too see what effect it has on the efficiency. I bet it will be minimal.
I do remember that someone recently posted a question on HBT about your method of flooding the malt oipe, however there were never any replies to it. I have never tried it but am willing to give it a go.
You just clamp the pipe down and fill with TWN, even going over the top of the pipe?
Interesting. Your own idea, or has it been tested elsewhere?

I've only done one brew and it was quite successful. The gushers/geysers, I believe, are due to operator error(s). I set my mill to 1.2mm and had a great crush with very little flour. We did a full volume boil, but, I drew off about 6L of water before adding the grains, stirring only as they were added. Then capped with the screen and added the final water which was well over the screen. The mash went quite well. Once we saw we needn't attend the mash, we went to the local pub for a brew. When we returned the BM was beeping at us telling us the mash-out was complete. We pulled the pipe and hit the start button to begin ramping up to the boil temp. What a wonderful, stressless brew day.

Lylo, if you catch this old thread, let me know what some of your recipes are. I'll be on the lookout for my next brew.

Bill, almost all of my recipes are straight out of Brewing Classic Styles, just load into the Biabacus and go for it. I set my diameter at 35cm and ht. at 40cm. everything works out nicely.

I'm a happy camper with this electric BIAB. Regarding setting the pot dimensions, do you have to account for the coil volume displacement? If so, HOW? My mind is no longer creative enough to figure how to account for that. If the coils were easily removed, it would be easy

I'm wondering if any BIABacus in conjunction with BeerSmith. BIABacus is so darn complete.. but it seems nice to be able to utilize both for storing recipes, etc. I'm still a novice at both formats.. using neither to their full potential.

Bill, Have you a way of measuring the volume of water/Wort in the Kettle??? You can add a Liter/Quart, one at a time, and figure the total amount of water the kettle can Hold, and then adjust the BIABACUS volume by adjusting the Kettles size to make the Volume correct....

Or the Volume of Most Coils are about 2-3 Cubic Inches.
OR at 231 CuIn/Gallon the coil is 0.013 Gallons in volume or 1.66 Fluid-ounces

For me, the Volume of the Coil is less than my ability to measure 2 gallons, that I use per Batch. I miss the Volume by 2-3 Ounces.

The coil in the BrauMeister are quite a few turns of tubing. I'd say it's more than 12 oz displacement. About 4 turns completely around the ID of the kettle which is decent size.

Bill, that would be the difference of the kettle size to the Volume.

I would lower the Kettles Height by 1 Liter Volume to Compensate for the Coils and basket. IMHO

Yah, I guess I could calculate the volume just by knowing the dimensions that Lylo posted.. then filling liter by liter. I'm not sure it makes a LOT of difference.. but, it'll be fun to find out. I'll save the water for the plants or something. Can't afford to waste too much with this blinking drought out here. Or do it coincidentally with a brew. Now that's a thought. :D

You could always fill the coil with water, then tip out into a container & measure the weight of water (after taring for the container of course).
This will tell you the volume displaced by the internal pipe volume (1Kg of water is approximately 1L).

The displacement contributed by the wall thickness of the tubing will be difficult to measure but will at least be small and possibly negligible?
Alternatively, do what Archimedes did, and measure the amount of displaced water the coil makes, and that is its volume.

Thanks Mally, but I think filling the heater coil with water might just be a bad idea. Might just ruin my heating element.

I'm going to stick with a different method. Actually filling the pot up to the top of the coils with X amount of water as a start. Then it should be easy to calculate the rest by the height and diameter. i.e., so many liters per cm
OR, as you mention above, simply weighing the water going into the kettle sounds like a great idea.

Somewhere in the great resources of the internet, I think I saw a DIY on etching the inside of a kettle w/ a simple battery, tape and some gel. I might consider etching one side with cold water and the other with hot wort.

Oops! my bad Bill, I just presumed you were talking about chiller coils.

There is thread here on etching, with a link to the HBT thread too.

Yessir.. that's where I saw it. Thanks.