Ace electric boilers?

[nigelnorris]

Thanks Nigel. What batch size do you do? I am aiming at 23l although might be a bot optimistic. Most recipes use 70% efficiency i think so you must do doing alright.

Please bear in mind that I'm new to this, only done two so far. Taken with a pinch of salt then, but everything has come out exactly as predicted before each start so I must be getting close.

I'm aming for 15L into the FV. Starting with 20L BIAB mash, then another 4L of water for the dunk, after losses to grain and boil off I end up with exactly the 15L I wanted.

I've used the Brewers Friend desktop version, which does assume 70%, and I've hit the predicted OG to within a sensible margin.

[60 minute mash @66C, 60 minute uncovered boil, sparge at about 75C for 15 minutes while the rest is boiling up]

 

[JonInLeeds]

Welcome to the forum Jon.
Can anyone give me some advice on sparging with the Ace. My efficiency was way down with my first brew. I have always done a dunk sparge but the bag seems a bit long to but in a FV of water. Any help appreaciated.

Thanks BeerCat.

I've never sparged. I've always just give the bag a good old squeeze, and got pretty much most of the liquid out. I always started with 19 litres. I've never done an full on aggressive boil in the ACE, and because of the low surface area, never lost a lot a great deal through evaporation. To get the SG to where I want it, normally 1.050 - 1.055, needs 2, maybe 3 litres of water adding after the boil. I probably have 17 or 18 litres as that stage, as I normally end up with 15 - 16 litres of beer at the bottling stage, so i guess a couple of litres gets left behind with the yeast?

 

[BeerCat]

Cheers, i think i used 22l for the mash and about 8l for a sparge and ended up with 20l in the FV instead of 22. I think i would of got a bit more if i hadn't forgotten to use the false bottom. As i have been using a smaller pot before i used to top up with cold water which works for stopping the bittering process but not exactly correct i presume. I have been doing 15l brews for a while but its annoying when you brew a good one and only have 30 bottles of it. I normally lose 2l or so with the yeast but i never sieve anything. The wort from my first brew with the Ace was much clearer overall than i had been getting. Never used a hop filter before or such a fine mesh sieve.

 

[donchiquon]

Welcome to the forum Jon.
Can anyone give me some advice on sparging with the Ace. My efficiency was way down with my first brew. I have always done a dunk sparge but the bag seems a bit long to but in a FV of water. Any help appreaciated.

Hi Beercat

I've now tried 3 sparging techniques with the ACE:

1. Bag batch sparge. 68% efficiency. I mashed in the bag, drained the tun and then refilled it, stirred, left for 10 mins, did a vorlauf, and then drained. I then repeated once more. I didn't lift the bag or dunk. I guess I simply used it as a filter.

2. No-bag batch sparge. 80% efficiency :shock:. As per Tony1951's method I mashed and batch sparged as above but without the bag.

3. Fly-sparge. 75% efficiency. I mashed wihout the bag as per method 2, and then started pumping in sparge water as I was draining out the tun. I tried to keep a couple of inches of sparge water above the grain bed level at all times.

Caveat: I've only tried these methods a few times so the figures may be far from reliable! I'll keep recording them for info.

 

[MickDundee]

My old plastic boiler died today, so I'm thinking of asking my folks for one of these for my birthday. I see they have a few, which is best? Is there anything I need to be aware/wary of?

 

[user 5969]

My old plastic boiler died today, so I'm thinking of asking my folks for one of these for my birthday. I see they have a few, which is best? Is there anything I need to be aware/wary of?

They are all the same just different prices get the cheapest. I think they just set different prices to catch folk out. Bear in mind they are 1600w not 2500w as Per the standard tea urn without ballvalve. They all come with grain bag and false bottom.



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[donchiquon]

My old plastic boiler died today, so I'm thinking of asking my folks for one of these for my birthday. I see they have a few, which is best? Is there anything I need to be aware/wary of?

When I called up before I bought there only seemed to be 2 models (with and without timer).

Even the cheapest non-timer model (about £95) still came with the bag and false bottom (the latter I have found brilliant for mashing). I still emailed Ace to confirm that these were included before pressing the buy button!

 

[user 5969]

They are all the same just different prices get the cheapest. I think they just set different prices to catch folk out. Bear in mind they are 1600w not 2500w as Per the standard tea urn without ballvalve. They all come with grain bag and false bottom.

 

[nigelnorris]

Don't pay extra for the timer, mine's useless.

 

[BeerCat]

Hi Beercat

I've now tried 3 sparging techniques with the ACE:

1. Bag batch sparge. 68% efficiency. I mashed in the bag, drained the tun and then refilled it, stirred, left for 10 mins, did a vorlauf, and then drained. I then repeated once more. I didn't lift the bag or dunk. I guess I simply used it as a filter.

2. No-bag batch sparge. 80% efficiency :shock:. As per Tony1951's method I mashed and batch sparged as above but without the bag.

3. Fly-sparge. 75% efficiency. I mashed wihout the bag as per method 2, and then started pumping in sparge water as I was draining out the tun. I tried to keep a couple of inches of sparge water above the grain bed level at all times.

Caveat: I've only tried these methods a few times so the figures may be far from reliable! I'll keep recording them for info.

Thanks for your observations, once i get a larger pot will be trying out the bagless method as i cant see myself cleaning the pot halfway through. I suck at cleaning! In the meantime will try batch and fly sparging and keep some notes on efficiency.:lol:
The 2nd brew has gone much better. Still lower efficiency than normal but amazingly clear wort. My old pot was fairly shallow and wide so it made stirring a lot easier and i didn't get as much boil off as i wanted to ended up a bit over with the wort. Remembered to put the false bottom in this time and that helped a lot.
I shall be going for an 18l batch next time so gonna be interesting.

 

[donchiquon]

Thanks for your observations, once i get a larger pot will be trying out the bagless method as i cant see myself cleaning the pot halfway through. I suck at cleaning! In the meantime will try batch and fly sparging and keep some notes on efficiency.:lol:

The first brew I did I used the bag, but more as a grain bed filter - I didn't move it or dunk it. Just mashed, stirred and batch sparged whilst leaving it in place.

I was a bit worried/lazy over the cleaning, but thought I'd try out the bagless method on the next brew. Once I'd finished sparging I tipped out the grain and gave the boiler and false bottom a quick swill with cold water to get rid of any husks.

Took less than 5 mins and I was back on with the boil! I think in retrospect it was quicker than cleaning the bag!!! :)

 

[donchiquon]

Right - thought you might like a good laugh at the expense of my build skills!

The last time I tried a recirculating mash, the Inkbird only needed to flick on the boiler element (1600w) for a few seconds before overshooting the 76 degrees target temperature.

I'm thinking of swapping the Inkbird 308S for one of their PIDs, but I'd also like to reduce the power of the element.

I've bought a 2000W 220V dimmer from fleabay (£5) and have test rigged it up to see whether I can reduce the power of the element down to 200-400W to give a gentle heat. It should stay on for longer and give a more stable temperature.

Here's the fruits of my incompetent labours...."emptying" the ice cream was the best bit. Due to test on Friday brewday!

 

[Wrongway]

Just been looking at the Ace boilers on Ebay sold mainly by the chap in Normanton, Wakefield. He seems to sell the two versions, with and without timer. The one without the timer is slightly more expensive and seems to be a dull or satin finish and doesn't come with the false bottom which is sold separately. The timer version is shown as grade 'B' stock, has a very shiny finish, comes complete with false bottom and is cheaper! Is the non timer version a better build quality or is there any other differences. I presume 'B' stock means a few marks etc. I haven't seen any of the timer versions non 'B' stock which makes me suspect it's an older model thats being phased out.

I would like the Grainfather, but it's just a bit too pricey for me. Especially when it may be possible to achieve something of similar design and standard a lot cheaper with a bit of extra work.

 

[user 5969]

Hi Wrongway, I have just purchased this ACE boiler too, to make my own Grainfather, which is still a work in progress, i've read that the timer isn't very good and you are better of getting a wall pluggable one which can handle 10A the old version with the timer has a 2500W element and the new one has 1600W element (which is still the 2500W but not connected underneath - i'm considering rewiring this up if the terminals aren't too short to increase boil up temperatures).

I'll post some photos soon when it all starts coming together!

 

[Wrongway]

Hi Wrongway, I have just purchased this ACE boiler too, to make my own Grainfather, which is still a work in progress, i've read that the timer isn't very good and you are better of getting a wall pluggable one which can handle 10A the old version with the timer has a 2500W element and the new one has 1600W element (which is still the 2500W but not connected underneath - i'm considering rewiring this up if the terminals aren't too short to increase boil up temperatures).

I'll post some photos soon when it all starts coming together!

So you got the new one without the timer? If so is it a sort of satin finish as shown in the Ebay pictures. Looking back at both of them on Ebay they both claim to be 1600W.

 

[user 5969]

So you got the new one without the timer? If so is it a sort of satin finish as shown in the Ebay pictures. Looking back at both of them on Ebay they both claim to be 1600W.

That's right mine is 1600 without timer. I think the pictures don't do them justice as it is very shiney still. My pump has just arrived so getting there!!


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[Wrongway]

Looking forward to seeing your progress. I am hoping to try something similar.

 

[nigelnorris]

Right - thought you might like a good laugh at the expense of my build skills!

The last time I tried a recirculating mash, the Inkbird only needed to flick on the boiler element (1600w) for a few seconds before overshooting the 76 degrees target temperature.

I'm thinking of swapping the Inkbird 308S for one of their PIDs, but I'd also like to reduce the power of the element.

I've bought a 2000W 220V dimmer from fleabay (�£5) and have test rigged it up to see whether I can reduce the power of the element down to 200-400W to give a gentle heat. It should stay on for longer and give a more stable temperature.

Here's the fruits of my incompetent labours...."emptying" the ice cream was the best bit. Due to test on Friday brewday!

How hot will the heatsink get on something like that? Not hot enough to wilt the plastic box?

 

[Bigcol49]

I've bought a 2000W 220V dimmer from fleabay (���£5) and have test rigged it up to see whether I can reduce the power of the element down to 200-400W to give a gentle heat.

Hi!
I like the look of your dimmer set-up.
The fleabay blurb says it's a voltage regulator, so using the Watts = Amps x Volts (all that I can remember from O-Level Physics - sorry, Mr. Stankley!), by reducing the voltage, the wattage of the element will fall, giving a gentler heat. Is that the idea?
Colin

 

[donchiquon]

How hot will the heatsink get on something like that? Not hot enough to wilt the plastic box?

I think that given the rating is high enough (2000 watts) it should be ok, although I will pop the lid off and check the temperature (carefully!) during the mash.

Maybe if I'd have left the ice cream in it would have helped!