ACE Microbrewery

[Brewhound]

The pump might be the same and capable of handling the temperature, but when I used a grainfather I didn't recirculate during the boil. The ace pump pulls via an unfiltered hole in the bottom, so you'd be sucking solids in the form of the hops and additions through it which I don't think would be a good idea. I was thinking about an external pump to connect via the tap, as I believe the bulldog and brewolution do, to allow the ace to sit on the floor whilst draining into the fermenter though, or maybe a bit of additional plumbing on the existing pump to allow it to be switched between standard recirc and drain. Has anyone done any mods to the ace in this way?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
Regarding strike water volume: Pardon my ignorance, but as it is a recirculating system, do you need to add on the volume of liquid beneath the grain basket, or do you include that in the volume calculations.
If the recipe calls for 7 litres of strike water for the mash, if you add on say 5 litres for the volume beneath the basket, won't you be mashing in 12 litres rather than 7?

 

[Dr_LegLess]

Hi!
Regarding strike water volume: Pardon my ignorance, but as it is a recirculating system, do you need to add on the volume of liquid beneath the grain basket, or do you include that in the volume calculations.
If the recipe calls for 7 litres of strike water for the mash, if you add on say 5 litres for the volume beneath the basket, won't you be mashing in 12 litres rather than 7?

Interesting way at looking at it and hadn't occurred to me. My thoughts on deciding the strike volume were (but by no means correct as it was my first all-grain brew). If the recipe called for 12L strike volume, it provides a certain mash thickness when mixed with the full grain bill, say in a normal mash tun where all the grains mix with the water. So if my bottom of my metal grain basket, in the case of the ACE, is sitting above the first 7L of water - it would leave only 5 litres of water to mix with the grains (then with the diameter of the ACE this is probably only 5cm more depth of water), so my thoughts were it may either lead to a too thick mash consistency or the chance grains weren't even mixed in water at all (without the re-circulation). So by calculating the volume of water under the grain basket (hence not mixing with the grains) and adding that to the actual strike water my theory was it should provide the same mash consistency the recipe was trying to achieve - so in my case recipe stated 12L strike, the volume under the grain basket was 7L, so I started with 19L of water in the ACE, so theoretically the grain was mixed with 12L of water as stated in the recipe. Well it was my logic anyway.

 

[foxy]

That is presuming that the space beneath the bottom of the filter is full at all times.

Another Lauter helix which may be cheaper is linked here.
http://www.birramia.it/en/lauterhelixr-1000-bazooka-filter.html#.WNntAVWGPX6

 

[Millemg]

No, do not do that 😳

 

[madoIII]

Interesting way at looking at it and hadn't occurred to me. My thoughts on deciding the strike volume were (but by no means correct as it was my first all-grain brew). If the recipe called for 12L strike volume, it provides a certain mash thickness when mixed with the full grain bill, say in a normal mash tun where all the grains mix with the water. So if my bottom of my metal grain basket, in the case of the ACE, is sitting above the first 7L of water - it would leave only 5 litres of water to mix with the grains (then with the diameter of the ACE this is probably only 5cm more depth of water), so my thoughts were it may either lead to a too thick mash consistency or the chance grains weren't even mixed in water at all (without the re-circulation). So by calculating the volume of water under the grain basket (hence not mixing with the grains) and adding that to the actual strike water my theory was it should provide the same mash consistency the recipe was trying to achieve - so in my case recipe stated 12L strike, the volume under the grain basket was 7L, so I started with 19L of water in the ACE, so theoretically the grain was mixed with 12L of water as stated in the recipe. Well it was my logic anyway.

I completed my first batch with the ACE (and my 3rd AG batch overall) a couple of weeks ago. My thinking process was exactly the same. I was aiming for 12L or so in the FV which meant that, with the amount of strike water that the recipe called for, only a small part of the grains were in contact with water. So I took into consideration the 6.5L of dead space and just followed the same logic as you.

Last night I finally tasted the result and I must admit and well happy. No odd flavours and good head retention.

I did the boil on 2500W and I think it was too vigorous, definitely lost more than what I should have. Next time I will try with 2000W or 1800W but I will keep in mind the issues you described.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
I use the ACE mash tun with false bottom.
I calculate strike volume taking into account the absorption by the grain and the "dead" space beneath the tap outlet.
I don't take the volume under the false bottom into account as the wort is recirculated - all of the liquor is passing through the grain during the mash.

 

[yeastinfection]

Whoop whoop . delivery day today. :lol:

 

[Bigcol49]

Whoop whoop . delivery day today. :lol:

Hi!
I bet it comes at 5.29 pm :grin:

 

[dps51]

Whoop whoop . delivery day today. :lol:

I said you would get one enjoy it mate its a grate bit of kit

 

[grmski]

Whoop whoop . delivery day today. :lol:

Sweet:thumb::thumb::thumb: Have you got a first brew planned to christian it? Don't forget to give it a good clean to get the oils off it before the first batch.

 

[yeastinfection]

Well it's landed. Its here and it's shiny.I have a single hop Ipa knocking about. I just need to move my brew fridges around .
I have one with bottles coming ready and one with an fv in .

 

[dps51]

hope all goes ok mate keep us posted how it all go

 

[jonncfc]

Second brew with the ACE today. All went well and the brew is now safely in the fermenter. However, I noticed that some moisture had apparently got into the digital display and it's now not reading properly. When I looked closely I noticed that the top border of the control panel was not properly sealed to the stainless steel. Has anyone else had this problem?

I've emailed ACE to see what they can do. :-(

 

[soupdragon]

Only done 3 brews so far but no problems as yet

Cheers. Tom

 

[dps51]

done four brews and mine is working as it should

 

[foxy]

What is John Bull Best Bitter ?

 

[dps51]

What is John Bull Best Bitter ?

its a beer kit that I got from Tesco just add sugar and water makes a nice brew

 

[foxy]

dps51, I see you have a Bass conditioning, what was the recipe you used for that, did you copy it from BYO magazine?
I made this and it came out quite dark, I put some roasted barley in the grain bill only 50gram for a 23 litre batch must say though one of the best beers I have made. (we haven't got a Tesco here)

 

[dps51]

dps51, I see you have a Bass conditioning, what was the recipe you used for that, did you copy it from BYO magazine?
I made this and it came out quite dark, I put some roasted barley in the grain bill only 50gram for a 23 litre batch must say though one of the best beers I have made. (we haven't got a Tesco here)

hi @foxy you can order from Tesco direct and get it delivered to your home
I got the ag kit for the bass from Worcester hop shop
it is a nice brew
http://www.worcesterhopshop.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=4&products_id=71