Anyone got the Klarstein Maischfest? Is it any good?

Hi All,

These are going for £199 at the moment. Is that a bargain? Has anyone used one? I’m about to go into all grain (I’ve been doing kits til now) and this looks like a bargain. Is it a good choice for a newbie?
Really appreciate any guidance.
Thanks.

DrCrinkle said:

Hi All,

These are going for £199 at the moment. Is that a bargain? Has anyone used one? I’m about to go into all grain (I’ve been doing kits til now) and this looks like a bargain. Is it a good choice for a newbie?
Really appreciate any guidance.
Thanks.

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Concerning price, they have been seen 30 quid (ish) cheaper in the last year. As a beginner I bought one and once I had process worked out thought it was a great piece of kit. The main difference between this and some of the more involved pieces of kit ( which generally seem to be coming down in price) is there is no recirculation pump. I wrote a short thread a few months ago re my process on Maischfest which has consistently produced good beer

Thanks got the pointer. I’ve found it and read it. Very helpful!

Is a recirculaton pump worth the extra cost , is it to gain some brewhouse efficiency?

Cheshire Cat said:

Is a recirculaton pump worth the extra cost , is it to gain some brewhouse efficiency?

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Also helps maintain even temperature and produces clearer wort. As to how important these factors are I don't know.

On my Klarstein I used to do a few manual recirculations at the start and found the temperature in the mash to remain pretty even and constant. Also you can vorlaef at the end to remove any larger grain particles or boil.

The recirc pump also aids the cooling process when using a chiller.

What's the difference between vorlaef and sparging?

Cheshire Cat said:

What's the difference between vorlaef and sparging?

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Vorlauf is just a fancy word for recirculations at the end of mash. Basically jug a few big jugs of wort back through grain bed to filter out particles before sparging

Thanks, next question has anyone got a Maischfest FV either 25 or 30l? If so would you recommend it?

Sorry to be so needy but one more question... I’ve ordered the 30l model, do you know what sort of boil off rate I can expect? Thanks again.

DrCrinkle said:

Sorry to be so needy but one more question... I’ve ordered the 30l model, do you know what sort of boil off rate I can expect? Thanks again.

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Not really - all I can tell you is that the boil is violent and the boil off on my 25l was much more than 'typical' amounts you read about. I recently did a first brew on a GF and the boil was nowhere near as vigorous. On the Klarstein for day a 5kg bill I would quite often do combined mash and sparge volume of 33L aiming at 21L in FV and ending up liquoring back a couple of litres

Put another way I've checked my old BF profile and I would say the 5L an hour was underestimating it - reality was potentially a couple of litres north of that

Horners said:

Not really - all I can tell you is that the boil is violent and the boil off on my 25l was much more than 'typical' amounts you read about. I recently did a first brew on a GF and the boil was nowhere near as vigorous. On the Klarstein for day a 5kg bill I would quite often do combined mash and sparge volume of 33L aiming at 21L in FV and ending up liquoring back a couple of litres

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Thanks again. I’m just gonna have to try it out aren’t I? I can’t wait.

@Horners would you be so kind as to advise if the power cable for these units is detachable and, if so, is it the standard computer cable sort?

Cheers

@JonBrew no its hardwired into the base and mine has a moulded European 2 pin plug at the wall end so adaptor required.

I have a Klarstein, recently bought, only done 2 brews on it but I can concur that the boil is vigorous to say the least, I do full volume 10l batches and I find 16l usually suffices for the starting volume of water for an hour boil.

Horners said:

@JonBrew no its hardwired into the base and mine has a moulded European 2 pin plug at the wall end so adaptor required.

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No what I wanted to hear but thanks for confirming

I paid about £135-140 for the 25L one from seller Hi-fi Tower on eBay, very pleased with it.

Mini review here in my brew day thread. There's also some pics before and after that post if you scroll around.

I use the 3kW heater to bring it rapidly to the boil (or heat the mash water) then switch to 1500W to maintain it - I find this gives a good rolling boil without being over the top.

I use 15L water and based on the 3 brews I've done with it, boil off is about 3.75-4.0L per hour (similar to what I got on the kitchen hob)

The main issue is the temp sensor is about 4degC out on mine, but this can be managed. Just that it caught me out the first time.

For the mash I heat my strike water then effectively just switch the heater off - it's double skinned so it seems to hold temperature pretty well, even outside in the cold (actually I just set it to, say, 10degC below my chosen mash temp just to be sure it keeps warm)

I'm considering adding a pump but not sure I can be bothered with the extra faff. The reason I went for one without a pump is I only do 10-12L batches and worried the 30L models would be too big for my water and grain bill.

For leaf hops the grain basket also serves as a good hop basket. For pellet hops I just check them in. After the boil I let everything settle out for a few hours and magically so far it seems to settle just below the tap so I can drain the clear wort to the FV.

So I'd certainly recommend it, just that I would have said track the prices for a few weeks and wait for a good deal.

matt76 said:

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I'm considering adding a pump but not sure I can be bothered with the extra faff. The reason I went for one without a pump is I only do 10-12L batches and worried the 30L models would be too big for my water and grain bill.

...

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Yeah I went and got the pump and tubing bits. I did a few 20L batches with it and could issue government backed bonds based on the likelihood of me spilling something somewhere. But it did increase my efficiency, however I'm rubbish at controlling all variables so can't say for sure it's down to the recirc.

I did a 10L brew a few weeks ago and left it out. Got decent efficiency for me, so next 20L I will probably try and skip the pump and see how I go.

Henders said:

Yeah I went and got the pump and tubing bits. I did a few 20L batches with it and could issue government backed bonds based on the likelihood of me spilling something somewhere. But it did increase my efficiency, however I'm rubbish at controlling all variables so can't say for sure it's down to the recirc.

I did a 10L brew a few weeks ago and left it out. Got decent efficiency for me, so next 20L I will probably try and skip the pump and see how I go.

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Interesting. Can you put some numbers on that - what was your efficiency with & without the pump?

Since I switched to a 30 min full volume no-sparge my efficiency went from high seventies to anywhere between 65-75% (seems to depend how manically hard I squeeze the bag!)