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Using a Braumiester with BeerSmith

Fatduckbrewery

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Hi All,

I'm brewing with a Braumiester 20L and I was wandering if there is anybody else out there using one also with the beersmith software? if so do you have any tips for the set up, and what sort of brew efficiency are you stating.

Love the site, just a little hard for the new boy to navigate around and understand all facets.

Would love to hear back from people so I can keep improving my craft beer.

Thanks

Craig
 
Up at the top of Beersmith open up the Profiles menu and select Equipment. Then open up Add Ons and there is a Braumeister 20L profile you can start with.

Next you want to customize your equipment profile using one of these tutorials to dial-in your system...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwEbjOt8OR8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmW7pwQP5mQ
 
Hi,

I've done 27 brews so far with Braumeister 20L. First with Beersmith 2 + different Excel sheets (Bru'nWater and BrewCipher) and now with Beersmith 3.

Here's my findings, feel free to comment/challenge!

- Beersmith 2 and 3 both have a very odd way of calculating cooling shrinkage, or in fact its effect to OG. I have had to set cooling shrinkage to 0% to get Post-Mash Gravity, Pre-Boil Gravity and OG  to match spot on with my brews. This needs to be compensated with negative (!) Mash Deadspace Losses value in BS profile, otherwise the water volumes don't match. I hope this would be finally fixed or somebody would explain why it behaves like it does...

- Grain absorption in Beersmith needs to be changed depending on the grain bill. This is in the Advanced settings. My empirical value is 0,017*grain-kgs+0,5973 (result is in fl-oz/oz). This however depends on how you sparge, drain/squeeze the grain, etc. Like said, it is my empirical mean value based on 27 brews. Also, I would hope that you could set the grain absorption value per Profile instead of having a global one! To overcome this limitation I just write the proper value in the Profile notes so that I remember to change every time.

- Braumeister 20L rod top marker is 25,5L (not 25L)

- Boil evaporation varies a bit depending on climate (different in winter than in summer). On average it is around 2,4 L/h in my environment, but varies between 2,2 L/h and 2,6 L/h.

So, having measured mash water, sparge water, pre-boil vol, post-boil vol, trub losses, gravities etc. I constantly hit all targets with the following Braumeister 20L profile:



Brewhouse efficiency varies a bit. I use 70% to start with and then tune after first brew with a new recipe.

Mash Tun Volume, Weight and Specific Heat don't play any role with Braumeister.

Fermenter losses depend on your style of transferring the final beer (I hit a constant 1,8 L with my tubing).

Mash Deadspace Losses set to -1,0 L (!). This is to compensate the Cooling Shrinkage value of 0%. The total water volumes (Mash + Sparge) are off unless this is done! And if Cooling Shrinkage is set to 4% the OG will be off.

Loss to Trub and Chiller is the trub left in Braumeister. In my setup I drain the Braumeister by setting a wooden block under the back foot of the Braumeister (in order to tilt it a bit forward). This way I leave a consistent amount of Trub (2,9 L) always in my Braumeister.

Notes - Here I record the value of Grain Absorption (GA) for the recipe. This setting (unfortunately not set in the Profile) needs to be changed in Tools - Options - Advanced: Grain Absorption and BIAB Grain Absorb. I always set both to the same value.



I always mash with 25,5 L of water (I plan my recipes in this way) and Sparge with enough water to get to around 20-21 L Batch Size (= Volume into fermenter i.e. 18-19 L final beer after fermenter losses). Sparge water is typically between 2,5 L to 4,5 L.

The mash salt additions calculator in Beersmith 3 seems to be really an improvement over Beersmith 2. I nowadays only double check the values using Bru'n Water. The same goes with the new Yeast Starter calculator, which supports 2-step starters (in Beersmith 3).
 
Comments/recommendations in red:

havu said:
Hi,

I've done 27 brews so far with Braumeister 20L. First with Beersmith 2 + different Excel sheets (Bru'nWater and BrewCipher) and now with Beersmith 3.

Here's my findings, feel free to comment/challenge!

- Beersmith 2 and 3 both have a very odd way of calculating cooling shrinkage, or in fact its effect to OG. I have had to set cooling shrinkage to 0% to get Post-Mash Gravity, Pre-Boil Gravity and OG  to match spot on with my brews. This needs to be compensated with negative (!) Mash Deadspace Losses value in BS profile, otherwise the water volumes don't match. I hope this would be finally fixed or somebody would explain why it behaves like it does...

BeerSmith does not compensate the gravity reading for the volume as expanded by temperature at all.  Since the program only considers the thermal expansion as either 'on' or 'off', the calculation would be off for measurements of volume at mash out temperature versus boiling temperature anyway.  If you measure you water volume into your Braumeister cold, then I would use a thermal expansion of 0.  If you measure it at strike temperature, then apply a thermal expansion close to that temperature (probably somewhere around 2%) to bring the volumes into alignment with how you measure. 

- Grain absorption in Beersmith needs to be changed depending on the grain bill. This is in the Advanced settings. My empirical value is 0,017*grain-kgs+0,5973 (result is in fl-oz/oz). This however depends on how you sparge, drain/squeeze the grain, etc. Like said, it is my empirical mean value based on 27 brews. Also, I would hope that you could set the grain absorption value per Profile instead of having a global one! To overcome this limitation I just write the proper value in the Profile notes so that I remember to change every time.

I would like to see the grain absorption included in the equipment profile as well.  Having said that, I find very little change in grain absorption rate (fl oz/oz) in over 120 recipes brewed.  It comes down to how consistent you operate your process.  If you squeeze differently each time, are inconsistent in how long you allow the wort to drain from the grain, etc, then you will get variable results.  I do mostly BIAB, sometimes with a sparge step, and my variability in grain absorption is well below my ability to measure.

- Braumeister 20L rod top marker is 25,5L (not 25L)

- Boil evaporation varies a bit depending on climate (different in winter than in summer). On average it is around 2,4 L/h in my environment, but varies between 2,2 L/h and 2,6 L/h.

Maybe it is different with a Braumeister than with my gas burner, but my boil off is again below what I can accurately measure.  Being below +/- 0.1 liters/hr it really does not have much of an impact on my water and gravity point balance greater than my measurement error.

So, having measured mash water, sparge water, pre-boil vol, post-boil vol, trub losses, gravities etc. I constantly hit all targets with the following Braumeister 20L profile:



Brewhouse efficiency varies a bit. I use 70% to start with and then tune after first brew with a new recipe.

Mash Tun Volume, Weight and Specific Heat don't play any role with Braumeister.

Fermenter losses depend on your style of transferring the final beer (I hit a constant 1,8 L with my tubing).

Mash Deadspace Losses set to -1,0 L (!). This is to compensate the Cooling Shrinkage value of 0%. The total water volumes (Mash + Sparge) are off unless this is done! And if Cooling Shrinkage is set to 4% the OG will be off.

If you get your water balance in line with your measurements, then you should be able to adjust the brew house efficiency to bring the OG into alignment with your actual results.  These are two different material balances which are interconnected, but can be controlled separately.

Loss to Trub and Chiller is the trub left in Braumeister. In my setup I drain the Braumeister by setting a wooden block under the back foot of the Braumeister (in order to tilt it a bit forward). This way I leave a consistent amount of Trub (2,9 L) always in my Braumeister.

Notes - Here I record the value of Grain Absorption (GA) for the recipe. This setting (unfortunately not set in the Profile) needs to be changed in Tools - Options - Advanced: Grain Absorption and BIAB Grain Absorb. I always set both to the same value.



I always mash with 25,5 L of water (I plan my recipes in this way) and Sparge with enough water to get to around 20-21 L Batch Size (= Volume into fermenter i.e. 18-19 L final beer after fermenter losses). Sparge water is typically between 2,5 L to 4,5 L.

The mash salt additions calculator in Beersmith 3 seems to be really an improvement over Beersmith 2. I nowadays only double check the values using Bru'n Water. The same goes with the new Yeast Starter calculator, which supports 2-step starters (in Beersmith 3).
 
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