Newbibrewbi
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- Jul 8, 2021
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Hi all, I've not found a thread dedicated to BM issues. If there is one I apologise.
Sorry for a long post.
Any advice greatly appreciated.
I'm at my wit's end with my BM 20 (2015) and I'm not sure what else I can do except sell it and switch to a different setup. Maybe someone here has some input on my process.
I have a BM20, 2015 model. I have the Low oxygen kit which lets me fix the top plate and I have 1,5mm filter discs from BAC brewing.
I crush my grains with a Mattmill master. I figured I should get a new mill since at first I thought my efficiency issues was due to a bad crush. I opted for a Mattmill since Speidel is selling a mill from Mattmill to go with their Braumeisters.
I've tried different malts and crush sizes. At first I tried to crush at 1,6mm as per Speidel's recommendations but found that the husks do not break properly and so I started experimenting. Nowadays I try to get a crush where the hulls are cracked but still "fluffy" since the BM is prone to wort fountains if the crush is too fine (For me this starts moderatly at 1,3 and is a guarantee with wort escaping the BM if I go lower. Might also depend on how heavy the malt bill is.)
I then figured my water was the problem so I got a RO filter. I also made a post here about my water.
Yesterday I tried to brew a belgian tripel. The recipe is posted below, copied from Beersmith.
According to beersmith my water profile after added salts were added was:
ca 51,8
Mg 0
Sodium 8
Sulfate 28,5
Chloride 38,6
Bicarbonate 45,6
Mash steps:
60 min @ 65c
30 min @ 72c
protafloc @ 20
I ended up with an OG of 1.058 which accordning to Beersmith gives me a BH efficiency of 57% and an estimated mash efficiency of 66,1%.
I boiled the wort for 90 minutes and ended up with 22l of mostly clear wort in the fermenter, some of the trub got in too, roughly 1l. Nice cold break.
Notes from brewday:
Mashed in at 65C with 23 litres of water.
Milled the malt at 1,45mm. Crush looked good. Tiny fountains at first and then a slow flow. Paused pump and restirred the grain basket.
PH 5 minutes into mashing: 5,53. Added 3ml 80% lactic acid.
PH 45 minutes into mashing: 5,31
After mashing I stirred the grains and hoisted the grain basket, let it drain. Put it down back in the wort and stirred, let it drain again.
Sparged slowly, 1l at a time with 10,25 litres of water. Let the grain pipe drain into a kettle. PH of that last wort was 5,8. OG was 1,020
Added contents of kettle to BM as the boil was starting.
Pre boil PH 5,25
Pre boil OG 1,050
The worst part is that the efficiency is a bit inconsistent. The best efficiency I've gotten was 70% with Weyerman malt and a small malt bill. Wort fountains were a real pain in the neck that time and it was before I moved and got new water. It would be bad enough if I was always around 50% efficiency but the efficiency is typically around 48-62% which means I can't reliably plan my recipies.
Sorry for a long post.
Any advice greatly appreciated.
I'm at my wit's end with my BM 20 (2015) and I'm not sure what else I can do except sell it and switch to a different setup. Maybe someone here has some input on my process.
I have a BM20, 2015 model. I have the Low oxygen kit which lets me fix the top plate and I have 1,5mm filter discs from BAC brewing.
I crush my grains with a Mattmill master. I figured I should get a new mill since at first I thought my efficiency issues was due to a bad crush. I opted for a Mattmill since Speidel is selling a mill from Mattmill to go with their Braumeisters.
I've tried different malts and crush sizes. At first I tried to crush at 1,6mm as per Speidel's recommendations but found that the husks do not break properly and so I started experimenting. Nowadays I try to get a crush where the hulls are cracked but still "fluffy" since the BM is prone to wort fountains if the crush is too fine (For me this starts moderatly at 1,3 and is a guarantee with wort escaping the BM if I go lower. Might also depend on how heavy the malt bill is.)
I then figured my water was the problem so I got a RO filter. I also made a post here about my water.
Yesterday I tried to brew a belgian tripel. The recipe is posted below, copied from Beersmith.
33,25 litres | RO Water | 1 | - | - | |
3,00 ml | Lactic Acid (Mash) | Water Agent | 2 | - | - |
1,65 g | Calcium Chloride (Mash) | Water Agent | 3 | - | - |
1,13 g | Chalk (Mash) | Water Agent | 4 | - | - |
1,13 g | Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash) | Water Agent | 5 | - | - |
4,70 kg | Viking Pilsner Malt (4,0 EBC) | Grain | 6 | 77,7 % | 3,06 L |
0,20 kg | Crystal Malt - 185L (Thomas Fawcett) (185,0 EBC) | Grain | 7 | 3,3 % | 0,13 L |
0,15 kg | Acid Malt (4,5 EBC) | Grain | 8 | 2,5 % | 0,10 L |
0,73 g | Calcium Chloride (Sparge) | Water Agent | 9 | - | - |
0,51 g | Chalk (Sparge) | Water Agent | 10 | - | - |
0,50 g | Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Sparge) | Water Agent | 11 | - | - |
1,00 kg | Corn Sugar (Dextrose) [Boil] (0,0 EBC) | Sugar | 12 | 16,5 % | 0,63 L |
31,00 g | Spalter Select 2022 [4,75 %] - Boil 60,0 min | Hop | 13 | 14,9 IBUs | - |
1,0 pkg | La trappe tripel (bottle harvested yeast) |
According to beersmith my water profile after added salts were added was:
ca 51,8
Mg 0
Sodium 8
Sulfate 28,5
Chloride 38,6
Bicarbonate 45,6
Mash steps:
60 min @ 65c
30 min @ 72c
protafloc @ 20
I ended up with an OG of 1.058 which accordning to Beersmith gives me a BH efficiency of 57% and an estimated mash efficiency of 66,1%.
I boiled the wort for 90 minutes and ended up with 22l of mostly clear wort in the fermenter, some of the trub got in too, roughly 1l. Nice cold break.
Notes from brewday:
Mashed in at 65C with 23 litres of water.
Milled the malt at 1,45mm. Crush looked good. Tiny fountains at first and then a slow flow. Paused pump and restirred the grain basket.
PH 5 minutes into mashing: 5,53. Added 3ml 80% lactic acid.
PH 45 minutes into mashing: 5,31
After mashing I stirred the grains and hoisted the grain basket, let it drain. Put it down back in the wort and stirred, let it drain again.
Sparged slowly, 1l at a time with 10,25 litres of water. Let the grain pipe drain into a kettle. PH of that last wort was 5,8. OG was 1,020
Added contents of kettle to BM as the boil was starting.
Pre boil PH 5,25
Pre boil OG 1,050
The worst part is that the efficiency is a bit inconsistent. The best efficiency I've gotten was 70% with Weyerman malt and a small malt bill. Wort fountains were a real pain in the neck that time and it was before I moved and got new water. It would be bad enough if I was always around 50% efficiency but the efficiency is typically around 48-62% which means I can't reliably plan my recipies.