Ace electric boilers?

[Tony1951]

You have no idea. I'm averaging 3 batches a month this year and moving to AG has made it worse. I think I may have a problem. Need to find a Brewers Anonymous group [emoji1]

Did you ever enquire with Ace about the cost of the false bottom? It worked a treat with the boil, I'm wondering how well it would work with the mash...

No I didn't ask them yet. My new meter long braided hose is all I need as I discovered on its first test outing. There is a picture up above somewhere of it. My only problem was that the original bazoka was blocking up and refusing to pass any wort so I had on the last several brews just baled the whole contents of the kettle into the FV and I had two inches of trub at the end and a really zingy hopiness that was actually pretty good. Other people tried the same trick and were quite pleased, at least they put their late hops back into the FV. Anyway, My braided hose has reduced my trub to about 8mm on the last brew - quite a difference. I got every last drop of wort out through the new arrangement and all the gunge was left behind.

Assuming you have the bazooka under the false bottom and you aren't using the element to heat the mash while the bag is in( why would you?) I doubt you will get any advantage of including the false bottom during the mash.

 

[donchiquon]

Assuming you have the bazooka under the false bottom and you aren't using the element to heat the mash while the bag is in( why would you?) I doubt you will get any advantage of including the false bottom during the mash.

Ah...ok, so it's the boil that the bazooka has problems with, not the mash?

In which case maybe I'll just run with the bazooka for the mash and leave the bag and bottom aside until the boil.

 

[nigelnorris]

I'm not sure how much risk there is of it happening, but the false bottom will prevent the bag from snagging on the jubilee clip or the ragged end of the bazooka.

 

[Tony1951]

I'm not sure how much risk there is of it happening, but the false bottom will prevent the bag from snagging on the jubilee clip or the ragged end of the bazooka.

True that. My bag used to snag on the bazooka when I used he bag.


Edited out remark caused by misunderstanding Donchiquon's post.

 

[donchiquon]

True that. My bag used to snag on the bazooka when I used he bag.


Edited out remark caused by misunderstanding Donchiquon's post.

I was thinking of ditching the bag for the next brew and wondered if the bazooka filter would struggle to drain without the false bottom.

Sorry - I'm probably throwing around more options than is necessary! But I can probably come up with a couple more just to really muddle the thread [emoji50]

 

[Tony1951]

I was thinking of ditching the bag for the next brew and wondered if the bazooka filter would struggle to drain without the false bottom.

Sorry - I'm probably throwing around more options than is necessary! But I can probably come up with a couple more just to really muddle the thread [emoji50]

It will drain the mash if we are talking pale malt and some crystal. If you include some of the sticky grains like wheat you can expect it to be more difficult, but that is true of ordinary mash tuns.

Put the false bottom in for the boil for sure. the only time I ever had problems with my bazooka were after boils of wort made from big grain bills and lots of hops. I think though tha most of my draining problems (all post boil) were about trub which came out of my high gravity worts. You've seen the 'Quatermass' things in the boiled wort. That stuff can be sticky and can clog the pores.

In the end, if it doesn't drain after the boil, just bale the b u gger out and ferment the lot. I don't think you will be disappointed albeit that you will end up with two inches of trub in the FV. It makes no difference to the beer in my experience. Just rack off the fermented beer into your bottling bucket and bottle it.

 

[rory_way]

I'm glad I found this thread, after my first 1 Gal stove top brew I think I've been kicked out of the kitchen due to the the smell.
So I need a boiler/HLT and this looked ideal. I'll be using this as a HLT & Boiler, alongside a separate mashing tun. I'll still only be brewing 1 gallon though, but I don't see that as being an issue using this as I am unless anyone has an opinion otherwise? It also give me the flexibility to increase the brewing size as I need.

 

[Tony1951]

I'll still only be brewing 1 gallon though, but I don't see that as being an issue using this as I am unless anyone has an opinion otherwise? It also give me the flexibility to increase the brewing size as I need.

I bet you drop the one gallon idea pretty quick.... :)

The logic for me was 4 hours work for 1 gallon or 5 gallons.......One gallon just didn't stack up.

 

[rory_way]

I bet you drop the one gallon idea pretty quick.... :)

The logic for me was 4 hours work for 1 gallon or 5 gallons.......One gallon just didn't stack up.

Ha, in all likelihood yes. however I never get through all of it before I want something different. I'll probably got to 2 gallons and see what happens.

 

[donchiquon]

I'm glad I found this thread, after my first 1 Gal stove top brew I think I've been kicked out of the kitchen due to the the smell.
So I need a boiler/HLT and this looked ideal. I'll be using this as a HLT & Boiler, alongside a separate mashing tun. I'll still only be brewing 1 gallon though, but I don't see that as being an issue using this as I am unless anyone has an opinion otherwise? It also give me the flexibility to increase the brewing size as I need.

I think you'll be very happy with the Ace - makes a great boiler. Have to agree with Tony that the temptation to brew extra gallons will be too much....you'll have up your intake :lol:

 

[rory_way]

I think you'll be very happy with the Ace - makes a great boiler. Have to agree with Tony that the temptation to brew extra gallons will be too much....you'll have up your intake :lol:

Glad to hear it as I've just ordered one, should arrive tomorrow! I may have ordered a 10 litre FV as well...ooops.

I'm hoping my ingredients will be turning up shortly too so I can do a brew towards the end of the week.

 

[nigelnorris]

In the end, if it doesn't drain after the boil, just bale the b u gger out and ferment the lot. I don't think you will be disappointed albeit that you will end up with two inches of trub in the FV. It makes no difference to the beer in my experience. Just rack off the fermented beer into your bottling bucket and bottle it.

Which describes my Sunday afternoon to a tee. The question I have, this being my first boiler so having no experience with other kit, is how does this work with other boilers? Surely there must exist a system where you don't have to bale [or in my case syphon] everything out the hard way, how do other boilers achieve that?

[I've seen your post describing your extended drain pipe, I also thought of maybe a simplified version of putting an L bend into it so maybe the filter is vertical and the end just stands up above the trub / hop sediment level.]

 

[Tony1951]

[I've seen your post describing your extended drain pipe, I also thought of maybe a simplified version of putting an L bend into it so maybe the filter is vertical and the end just stands up above the trub / hop sediment level.]

I think the 'L' bend would work, but it might snag if you were using a bag to mash in.

I have mine working ideally now. The extra hose cost me about £7. I don't mash in a bag. That bazooka thing has a very fine mesh.

 

[nigelnorris]

I think the 'L' bend would work, but it might snag if you were using a bag to mash in.

I have mine working ideally now. The extra hose cost me about �£7. I don't mash in a bag. That bazooka thing has a very fine mesh.

You're right the upright bazooka thing is a no go because of the bag [and I've used the false bottom so far], and I do have a spare length of tube that will fit so that looks to be the way forward. Keep the tube length short enough to coil up under the false bottom then just fish it up after the bag's been removed and the boil's done.

 

[donchiquon]

You're right the upright bazooka thing is a no go because of the bag [and I've used the false bottom so far], and I do have a spare length of tube that will fit so that looks to be the way forward. Keep the tube length short enough to coil up under the false bottom then just fish it up after the bag's been removed and the boil's done.

I've only done two full boils in mine with loads of leaf hops. Used the false bottom and bazooka, but no bag. Both times the boiler has drained clean and fast.

When I fished out the false bottom at the end, the leaf hops had formed a 5cm thick pre-bazooka filter and there was hardly anything in the bottom. I guess this might not happen with pellets....

Planning another brewday on Friday so let's see how third time around goes!

 

[Tony1951]

You're right the upright bazooka thing is a no go because of the bag [and I've used the false bottom so far], and I do have a spare length of tube that will fit so that looks to be the way forward. Keep the tube length short enough to coil up under the false bottom then just fish it up after the bag's been removed and the boil's done.

My new tube is a metre long and during the boil I had it doing a circuit of the boiler near the bottom and the rest of it coming up and tied around one of the handles with a string so there was a vertical porous pipe coming up through the wort column. This allowed the boiler to drain very quickly down to the last three inches and then things slowed down, but in ten minutes the whole liquid content of the boiler was through and in the FV.

During the mash the filter pipe was just coiled up on the bottom. The mash drained really fast as did the sparges.

 

[nigelnorris]

I've only done two full boils in mine with loads of leaf hops. Used the false bottom and bazooka, but no bag. Both times the boiler has drained clean and fast.

When I fished out the false bottom at the end, the leaf hops had formed a 5cm thick pre-bazooka filter and there was hardly anything in the bottom. I guess this might not happen with pellets....

Planning another brewday on Friday so let's see how third time around goes!

Yes I used pellets. I opened the tap with a full boiler and nothing came out at all. Spent a couple of minutes scraping at the bazooka with a stirring paddle which got dribbles out while I was scraping but it stopped as soon as the scraping did.

Before I try altering the filter I'll have a go at bagging up the pellets next brew. I've got a bunch of the little filter bags that come with Festival kits, should work keeping stuff in instead of out.

 

[Tony1951]

Yes I used pellets. I opened the tap with a full boiler and nothing came out at all. Spent a couple of minutes scrapping at the bazooka with a stirring paddle which got dribbles out while I was scraping but it stopped as soon as the scraping did.

Before I try altering the filter I'll have a go at bagging up the pellets next brew. I've got a bunch of the little filter bags that come with Festival kits, should work keeping stuff in instead of out.

I've seen exactly the same thing with all leaf hops - even down to the scraping away at the bazooka. I think it was protein coagulation after the wirfloc / Irish Moss had settled over the filter.

 

[donchiquon]

I've seen exactly the same thing with all leaf hops - even down to the scraping away at the bazooka. I think it was protein coagulation after the wirfloc / Irish Moss had settled over the filter.

Sounds like my luck is about to run out then! :lol:

 

[nigelnorris]

I've seen exactly the same thing with all leaf hops - even down to the scraping away at the bazooka. I think it was protein coagulation after the wirfloc / Irish Moss had settled over the filter.

Which reminds me, I bought some Irish Moss and forgot to use it. Would have been pointless anyway presumably if I transferred the entire deposit into my FV.