Ace micro brewer

[shepp]

Well, broke in my Microbrewery on Saturday, was a bit of a mare of a brew day to be honest. Was bloody too hot to begin with, was slightly hungover from a night on the tiles from friday night.
Probably should have given it a skip. Had a big problem with my shed electrics it kept tripping the switch, so with the heat and the hangover and having to reset the settings each time, I'm not expecting much from the brew. Also aimed for 16l mash 16l sparge
but the mash seemed really thick so added some kettle water to thin in. Had some problems with the recirc pump to trying to get flow right, so I struggled alot.

Used a hop spider for the pellets and it didnt work to well with lots of hop sediment in the boiler, too ages to cooll down, then I'd tons of sediment and was afraid to use the tap so syphoned off to fermenter so suffered a good bit of lose.

Packed up into fridge fermenter after yeast pitch and check the following morning, I'd set the inkbird to wrong temp!!. Set to 17c instead of 20c. Upped temp and hoped for best, I've checked since and its taken off got a fine krausen etc. Not bothered doing a reading on it yet too soon.

All in all a bit of a disaster. I'll try again in couple weeks and hope for better results all round

Some people would prefer to start the fermentation off at 17c.

 

[soupdragon]

I had one on the mangrove jacks hop spiders. It let almost all the debris through to the boiler. Exchanged it for the much finer 200 micron job and all is well. I thought it'd be too fine to allow flow but it seemed ok. During my flame out additions I lifted it up and down to drain it now and again. The resulting beer has enough bitterness and plenty of flavour.

Cheers. Tom

 

[mgkpancake]

Well switch melted on me. Sucks but I think it was my fault maybe? When I reassembled everything I noticed the wire attached to the switch was a bit tight. Rather than cut the zip ties to loosen it up I left it. Unfortunately during the long brew process it ended up melting the back of the terminal away from the contacts causing failure. I should have tried bypassing the switch but decided to go to the stove.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5tJOiVNSUw[/ame]

 

[grmski]

Has anybody else had an element failure yet or is it (hopefully) just the two reported here so far?

Cheers. Tom

I've been using mine regularly for 4 or 5 months now and have made about 10 brews and not had any problems with, long may it last!

Very disappointing for you guys who've had issues lets hope they're isolated incidents.

 

[grmski]

Actually, now I think about it a little more the only problem I've had are some doubts about the control panel temperature accuracy. I'd noticed that a number of brews when mashing at 67 were coming on the OG but not reaching the FG. My suspicion was that the mash was too hot and extracted some unfermentable sugars I also felt that some IPA and Pale ale had too much body and a hint of sweetness. So in my last brew (Greg Hughes Single Hop Nelson Sauvin) I dropped the ferment temp on the control panel to 63 and it has produced a beautiful wort right on the dial for OG it fermented out to 1010 and should come out at right about 5%.
Obviously one brew won't confirm so I'm thinking of making a string of simple pale ales over the next couple of months to test out the theory.

 

[Linalmeemow]

So in my last brew (Greg Hughes Single Hop Nelson Sauvin) I dropped the ferment temp on the control panel to 63 and it has produced a beautiful wort right on the dial for OG it fermented out to 1010 and should come out at right about 5%.

Let me know how it comes out - I've got the ingredients for this one sat in the mancave ready for when the brewfridge becomes available...

 

[grmski]

Let me know how it comes out - I've got the ingredients for this one sat in the mancave ready for when the brewfridge becomes available...

Will do, there's a review on the progress so far on my site, I have high hopes for this the tester from the sample jar was awesome. I'll be kegging it this weekend and planning on pouring the first one the weekend after.

 

[Linalmeemow]

Will do, there's a review on the progress so far on my site, I have high hopes for this the tester from the sample jar was awesome. I'll be kegging it this weekend and planning on pouring the first one the weekend after.

Look forward to hearing the results!

I tasted the first of my Belgian Strong Golden Ales from the Hughes book last night. Easily one of the best brews I've made so far - very Duvel-esque.

 

[grmski]

I think he did well with a lot of the recipes in that book, I've made the English IPA, which was good.

I'd like to give that Belgian one a try at some point.

 

[Davemc]

Actually, now I think about it a little more the only problem I've had are some doubts about the control panel temperature accuracy. I'd noticed that a number of brews when mashing at 67 were coming on the OG but not reaching the FG. My suspicion was that the mash was too hot and extracted some unfermentable sugars I also felt that some IPA and Pale ale had too much body and a hint of sweetness. So in my last brew (Greg Hughes Single Hop Nelson Sauvin) I dropped the ferment temp on the control panel to 63 and it has produced a beautiful wort right on the dial for OG it fermented out to 1010 and should come out at right about 5%.
Obviously one brew won't confirm so I'm thinking of making a string of simple pale ales over the next couple of months to test out the theory.

I am pretty sure I read somewhere that you can re-calibrate the temperature reading if its out. It may have been on the ACE facebook site. I'll see if I can find where I read it.

 

[soupdragon]

Actually, now I think about it a little more the only problem I've had are some doubts about the control panel temperature accuracy. I'd noticed that a number of brews when mashing at 67 were coming on the OG but not reaching the FG. My suspicion was that the mash was too hot and extracted some unfermentable sugars I also felt that some IPA and Pale ale had too much body and a hint of sweetness. So in my last brew (Greg Hughes Single Hop Nelson Sauvin) I dropped the ferment temp on the control panel to 63 and it has produced a beautiful wort right on the dial for OG it fermented out to 1010 and should come out at right about 5%.
Obviously one brew won't confirm so I'm thinking of making a string of simple pale ales over the next couple of months to test out the theory.

I thought the same initially.
I then dug out my old Hanna digital thermometer and double checked with that. It was spot on.
The first time I checked the temp I wasn't recirculating but once I flicked the pump on the temp settled out well

Cheers. Tom

 

[Davemc]

duplicate post DOh

 

[Davemc]

I am pretty sure I read somewhere that you can re-calibrate the temperature reading if its out. It may have been on the ACE facebook site. I'll see if I can find where I read it.

Better Still there is a video. [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMe62KYUi6s[/ame]

 

[grmski]

I am pretty sure I read somewhere that you can re-calibrate the temperature reading if its out. It may have been on the ACE facebook site. I'll see if I can find where I read it.

That would be awesome :thumb:

 

[Davemc]

That would be awesome :thumb:

Beat you to it the video is above.

 

[grmski]

Thanks Dave, I'll have a look at that when I get home! :clap::clap:

 

[grmski]

Beat you to it the video is above.

Got distracted with some work and couldn't refresh my browser:lol:

 

[appositive]

Ouch. I'm really sorry to see it. Both because it put you out, and it means there are multiple points of failure on this thing...

I'm worried I should have taken the refund.

Well switch melted on me. Sucks but I think it was my fault maybe? When I reassembled everything I noticed the wire attached to the switch was a bit tight. Rather than cut the zip ties to loosen it up I left it. Unfortunately during the long brew process it ended up melting the back of the terminal away from the contacts causing failure. I should have tried bypassing the switch but decided to go to the stove.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5tJOiVNSUw

 

[soupdragon]

Just another few words about the burnt on brown stuff from a couple of pages ago............

Now it might be a coincidence but I had a brew day today using crisp mo instead of the previous muntons stuff I had. There was still some brown stuff over the element but it wasn't burnt on. It came off easily using an old worn out scouring pad. No lemon juice soak required.

Just thought I'd mention it.

Cheers. Tom

 

[mgkpancake]

Ouch. I'm really sorry to see it. Both because it put you out, and it means there are multiple points of failure on this thing...

I'm worried I should have taken the refund.

Bleh don't take it to heart quite yet. You gotta think that it's a numbers game. Every product is going to have it's % of failure and lots of people are brewing with no problems whatsoever. I'll admit I have just accepted that I got a bad one but have worked through it and replaced things which would otherwise never contribute to the knowledge base other users. It's nice that is something does fail, you can just Youtube it on how to replace it :)