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This is @appositive review from this thread - http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=54878



Ace micro brewer


Hi All,

I ordered one of the micro brewery units mid-january (it's a Klarstein branded one, but identical to the ace unit). When I was considering the purchase, this thread was one of the few sources of information I could find online (along with the youtube videos posted by people on this thread, and the 'IPA' brewday thread on another forum). I just finished my second brew with the unit and thought I'd scribble down my general impression and a few specifics.

Full disclosure: I'm new to brewing... before recent brews on the Klarstein have made about 6 extract or partial mash batches.

General impression when I received the brewer was pretty good... it's a little on the flimsy side of things (not a braumeister), but that was expected at the price point. And has it's advantages... the kettle is pretty easy to manhandle. One minor complaint: the recirculation faucet didn't fit into the glass lid when the lid was closed. Had to bend it a little to make it fit, which is a little harder than you'd think. Not a big deal, but sort of a sign of low quality control. Again, no surprise; I bought it for less than half the price of the grainfather.

When I got the unit I did a mock run, just to make sure everything worked. Had no troubles. But first brew was a disaster. After mashing in, for some reason it kept blowing an internal breaker... the unit would switch off after some random amount of time before turning itself back on some 15 seconds later. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why. It made for a rough brew day... didn't want to waste the batch, so spent a few hours lying on the floor in order to reach the not-so-convenient control panel and reset temprature etc. after each reset. Didn't hit my target SG by a longshot (but topped up with LME, effectively brewed a partial mash batch that should be ok).

Ran another mock brew the next day, did everything as per real brew except mash in. Had no troubles. Did a real brew today, holding my breath the whole time. Went smooth as butter.

No clue what the trouble was, but I'm hoping it's gone. Perhaps something was blocking the pump, blowing the breaker? Or maybe power was particularly badly conditioned that day, caused the electronics some grief? (this is not unheard of in my area)

If anyone else has had this trouble, I'd love to hear about it.

That all said, the brew today - the 2nd brew - was wonderful. Prepped to 72 degrees, mashing in brought it to target of 68. Started with recirculation tap at about 50%. Noticed that temperature at top of mash was about 1.5 or 2 degrees below indicated value... opened the tap to about 80%, this reduced down to almost nothing. So thermometer seems good, reasonably well calibrated.

As mentioned earlier in the thread (maybe elsewhere) the thermostat seems to operate in 2 degree units. So if you set for 68, mash will sit at 67 the majority of the time (a little bit at target of 68, then a lot of time at 67 before temp drops to 66 and the element kicks in). I may consider setting target 1 degree higher than nominal value in next run.

Also, these temp units appear fixed... that is, 1 temp unit is from 66 to 68 degrees, another from 68 to 70... so if you set for 69, you'll probably stay pretty close to that temperature, say 68.5, as it cycles between 68 and 69. But if you set for 70, you'll spend most of the time at 69, as it cycles from 68 to 70. Hope this makes sense.

The recirculation pump is very 'clean'... there's no aeration of the wort, the recirculated fluid reenters the mash with very little splashing.

The grain pipe worried me at first... some gaps where the filter fits into the pipe. But in the end, I've found very little grain in the wort... seems to work pretty ok.

The 2500 watt heater is great. Makes for a quick start to brewday... mash temperature achieved quickly. And boils the **** out of the wort.

The manual is garbage, not even worth looking at.

In spite of nightmare first brew (I almost threw the whole thing off the balcony) after this second brew, I like the unit a lot. I hope the gremlins don't return... if they don't, I'll be very pleased with the purchase. Haven't calculated my efficiency on the brew today, but I painlessly hit my target.

One last thing: on their website Klarstein included a wort chiller in the list of parts, but no wort chiller was provided. I don't think this thing ever shipped from China with a chiller... someone made a mistake. I've asked for a partial refund, just to see what happens. I already had a chiller, so wasn't a problem... but perhaps they'll refund me a few euro that I can put toward grain.

Thanks to all who have posted earlier in the thread, and particularly those who put up youtube videos... helped a lot both in deciding to buy and in setting up for first run.
 
Nice Kettle love it...........cheers looking forward to using it. What efficiency are people getting using the Ace
 
I've got the Bulldog rather than the Ace (pretty much the same thing though) and I get around 75% most of the time.
 
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