ACE Microbrewery

[mgkpancake]

I was able to rewire my ace to an Inkbird paired to an auber relay and voltage regulator. Haven't had time to test it. Maybe I will this weekend. I started this project before smartpid. Might have done that if I had waited a bit longer. Anyways, I'll keep you guys posted

 

[ChuckG]

I emailed with Davide several times. He had a family emergency that threw things off a bit. He said schematics and step by steps are on the way. The Ace/Klarstein kit is a new approach with previous being just the controller. He said he also working on improvements to the “cloud” and app side of things. Super responsive.

Chuck

 

[mgkpancake]

This is basically how I have mine wired. Relays are wired in series and heater element is wired in parallel. Switches and fuses removed for simplicity

 

[brunoc]

I was able to rewire my ace to an Inkbird paired to an auber relay and voltage regulator. Haven't had time to test it. Maybe I will this weekend. I started this project before smartpid. Might have done that if I had waited a bit longer. Anyways, I'll keep you guys posted

I think that for SSRs rated at 25A working at about 10-15A you're at the edge of requiring a heat sink for them. From the pics it looks like you aren't using any. If that's so, be careful.

 

[mgkpancake]

I think that for SSRs rated at 25A working at about 10-15A you're at the edge of requiring a heat sink for them. From the pics it looks like you aren't using any. If that's so, be careful.

Heat sink on both SSR and SSVR :) Ordered stuff for a fan already.

Here's a video I did of the setup

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByZ46tcLVb0[/ame]

 

[sanygor]

Step-by-step recipe for wheat beer WEIZEN at home from pouring water to tasting - a full cycle.
.

 

[appositive]

Biggest batch yet... 22.5 litres real volume (sparge) plus 20 litres mash volume (to 20 litre mark on kettle).

So probably about 40 litres pre-boil volume? I'm still not sure what 20 litres marked on kettle is in actual litres.

Hot break was a little stressful, but only for a couple of minutes. :)

 

[Lowcliff]

Step-by-step recipe for wheat beer WEIZEN at home from pouring water to tasting - a full cycle.
.

This is the best video I have seen on the Ace brewer

 

[bigfrogs]

Hi people
I haven't been on here for some time. I have just bought the Brewster beacon which looks all most identical to the ACE . I have gone down this route because my cooler mash tun stove top kit was just too time consuming together with having to keep my equipment in the attic meant running up and down 2 flights of stairs god knows how many times...
My main question is what brew house efficiency do people get with there kit? I was getting 75% with my old kit even with the 3lts dead space in my kettle and hop absorption from using leaf hops, I have only brewed twice with the beacon and got 65% with no dead space using pellets. I followed the instructions on the web site so strike water of 19lts with a grain bill of 6kg and sparged to top up to a pre boil volume of 24lts as at 1800watts the boil off is around 4lph. Does this sound right? Cheers in advance
PS I am not bothered about having to use extra grain but it just seemed low.

 

[The Baron]

Hi
I get nothing less than 70% and usually 75 to 80% I get boil off of about 4 lph @ 1900 watts too so that seems ok. I tend to use 20ltrs with approx 4.5 kg of grain but thats just me and it suits my method and just jug sparge to reach my pre boil volume. I have just also started doing overnight mashes which helps with the efficiency

 

[bigfrogs]

Hi
I get nothing less than 70% and usually 75 to 80% I get boil off of about 4 lph @ 1900 watts too so that seems ok. I tend to use 20ltrs with approx 4.5 kg of grain but thats just me and it suits my method and just jug sparge to reach my pre boil volume. I have just also started doing overnight mashes which helps with the efficiency

I only mashed for 60mins as thats all I have ever done.I thought with the recirculated mash that would be fine.

 

[The Baron]

It is, that is what I always did 60 mins with the recirc but just finding it takes 2 hours off my brew day by mashing the night before and starting early the next morning I still have most of the day to do other things with the wife/ grandkids and I get a improvement in efficiency just do not leave too long before boiling if you do decide in the future to go that way i.e that is start early next morning

 

[TomR]

Hi I'm about to purchase the klarstein. I used to brew many years ago with an electrim boiler. I'm interested to see how this kit works.
Anyway could anyone suggest a nice straightforward ipa or similar for my first brew?
Cheers

 

[dafbach]

It is, that is what I always did 60 mins with the recirc but just finding it takes 2 hours off my brew day by mashing the night before and starting early the next morning I still have most of the day to do other things with the wife/ grandkids and I get a improvement in efficiency just do not leave too long before boiling if you do decide in the future to go that way i.e that is start early next morning

This has been my method too, especially with a brew that requires 90 mins of mashing and 90 mins boiling.

 

[sanygor]

I replaced a new, updated control unit at my brewery and I want to show how to do it. Now nine pauses and memory, as well as better quality electronics.
Video link:
To understand the commentary, set the subtitle translation in the settings of YouTube.

 

[PhilBrew]

Hi All

I know lots of the conversation around all of this happened a while ago, and there's a lot of very useful information in this thread, but having read all of it I don't think it ever seemed to come to any conclusions about the figures need for water calculations ... I guess I'm particularly hoping grmski and/or Millemg are still around to help me here ... so can I ask about;

1. Volume under the grain basket needing to be filled before it will wet any grain added into the basket ... is that 6.5 lts?
2. What sorts of water to grain ratios (in a Volume for Mash = Volume Under Basket + Ratio*Weight of Grain sort of formula) are people using for these sots of systems? ... is that 2.7 lts/kg?
3. Then, if I assume that the wet grain will take 0.8 lts/kg of water out with it when the malt pipe is lifted (Is that about right?), what other losses do people generally experience, for calculating total water volume? ... I've seen figures ranging from 7% per hour (which seems to work out at around 2 lts loss per hour) to 5 lts over a 90 min boil (more like 3 1/3 lts per hour), should I assume more or less than 2.5 lts per hour? ... and I think volume of 2 lts lost to trub figure seems to have been mentioned by all, but is that still right?

Thanks for any help.
Cheers, PhilB

 

[The Baron]

use these settings as a rough guide. You do not really need the amount of water to the bottom of the maltpipe unless you are planning on doing small batches as this is recirculated by the pump during the mash
EQUIPMENT SETTINGS:
BRAND: Add to Catalog ?
BOIL EVAPORATION RATE: (qt or L) / hr Amount of volume lost per hour during boil in quarts or liters. Typically 6 for wide kettles, and 4 for keggles. Electric elements tend to produce less. Also depends on how 'hard' you boil. Generally 4 - 5
GRAIN ABSORPTION: qt/lb or L/kg How much water the mashed grains soak up. Generally 0.5 qt/lb, 1.0 L/kg
HOPS ABSORPTION: qt/oz or L/g How much wort the hops soak up. Generally 0.15 qt/oz, or 0.005 L/g Will be much less if you squeeze the hops bags.
KETTLE DEAD SPACE: qt or L The amount of liquid (and gunk) left behind in your kettle in quarts or liters. Can be thought of as trub losses. Enter zero if you pour out your kettle.
MISC LOSSES: qt or L A general catch all for misc losses, Generally 1 if anything
COOLING SHRINKAGE: % Volume lost when cooling wort from boiling to 68 °F / 20 °C, Generally 4%
CHILLING METHOD: Default wort chilling method. This option will be presented when you go to brew a recipe.
ALL GRAIN BREWING:
AVERAGE EFFICIENCY: % Default efficiency on the recipe editor. Bigger beers have lower efficiency. Generally 60% - 80%
DEFAULT MASH THICKNESS: qt/lb or L/kg Generally between 1.0-2.0 qt/lb or 2.0-4.0 L/kg See article on mashing thick or thin for more information.
MASH WATER UNIT: Controls default setting for the 'mash water unit' option on the Brew page for users with their units set to US. The system requires metric users to mash in Liters.

MASH TUN VOLUME: qt or L Mash tun volume in quarts or liters.
MASH STRIKE HEAT LOSS: F or C How much heat is lost in your mash tun on initial infusion. Would be zero for HERMS/RIMS systems or a heated tun. Generally ~3° F, or ~1.6° C
LAUTER DEAD SPACE: qt or L Amount of liquid left behind in your lauter/mash tun in quarts or liters. For fly spargers, enter the average amount left behind after rinsing.

these figures are for brewers friend and a generic all in one system so should apply to other brewing programmes now the figures I actually use are
4ltr boil loss per 60 minute boil
grain absorption 1ltr/kg
kettle dead space 1 ltr
misc losses zero
cooling shrinkage 4%
brewhouse efficiency 70%
4.5 ltr per 1 kg of grain I prefer a loose mash as to not cause stuck mashes and some brewers do full volume as well
mash tun volume 32ltrs (thats my system)
mash strike temp loss 1 degree
If you use my figure it will give you a place to start but bear in mind all systems are not the same and this is to my 30ltr Ace system and adjusted to the way I brew so is not absolute but will give you a good starting point for most all in one systems

 

[PhilBrew]

Hi Baron

Thanks for the reply .

I understand what you're saying about your profile being for your 30ltr Ace system ... but I'm looking to make some calculations for a 30ltr Brew Devil, which is pretty much the same thing (possibly with some updated electronics/control, depending on how old your Ace is) so I think your profile should get me "in the ballpark" (as they say )

If you don't mind though, just to make sure I'm reading your numbers correctly, could you please check my following "working out"? ... if I wanted to brew 23 lts of a beer with a recipe involving 5kg of grain and a 1 hr boil ... then I'd start off with 4.5*5 = 22.5 lts of water in the machine to heat to strike temp and dough into ... but the Total Volume of liquor would need to include:

• the 23 lts to get out
• 5 lts (5kg time 1.0 lts/kg) left soaked up in grains when the malt pipe is removed
• 4 lts that will be evaporated off
• and an extra 1 ltr that can't be got out of the boiler (deadspace)

... so a total of 23+5+4+1=33 lts ... is that right or do you generally include another ltr or so for the wort left in trub/hops?

If it was a total volume of 33 lts, that would mean you would generally sparge with around 10 lts or so ... is that about right?

Thanks
Cheers, PhilB

 

[PhilBrew]

If it was a total volume of 33 lts, that would mean you would generally sparge with around 10 lts or so ... is that about right?

... sorry, typo in there, that was supposed to be "around 10.5 lts" for the sparge ... is that right?

Thanks,
Cheers, PhilB

 

[The Baron]

yes you are in the ball park all you need to remember is that the amount you require + boil off + absorption+trub so that is what is required do bear in mind it may take you a few brews to fine tune to your brewing technique. I generally mash with 19 to 21 litres and sparge with 10 to 12 litres but you do not have to do the 4.5/kg exact it is just that a lot of the one pot systems quote 2.5/kg which I have found to be too thick a mash in my opinion. You have understood it correctly and good luck with the brewing.
Ps I advise people not to use the elements at full throttle and I do not use my elements at more than 1900 even for the boil as it prolongs the life of these bonded elements( it is extreme unnecessary heat that breaks the elements down) and it only takes a few more minutes to boil anyway. I mash for 45 and boil for 45 and it takes me as near as damn it 4 hours including cleaning up and that also includes a 10 min mash out at 75c