Hi love your videos, I'm thinking of upgrading to a all in one brewing system, I brew between 10-15 litres which system would be the best option, cheers and keep rocking 🍻
Hi Keith and thanks. It does depend what your budget is and what type of beers you like to brew. 15 litres of a 12% abv beer will require more volume in the brewing system than 15 litres of a 4% beer, and conversely 10 litres of a 3-4% beer will have too small a volume for many systems. If you are not into huge ABV beers than the Grainfather 30 litre system has a micro pipework available which will let you brew down to 10 litres, so that could be a good option for you. The 30 litre systems like the Guten / Beer torrent / brew devil etc would struggle to brew 10 litres as you would likely struggle to brew less than 15 - 20 litres in them. Despite them being called 30 litre systems, the have a max capacity of 40 litres so even brewing 20 litres the system is only half full
Great vid showing the process. Are the names in the video title names of different systems which are essentially the same one you demonstrated? Cheers!
Sorry, just seen your question, which you have already answered. Though yes, the machine is manufactured by Guten in China and each importer calls it by their own name. The list of names keeps on growing bu I haven't made any attempt to keep up with them now as we are now well into double digits of different names that I have heard of already.
The brew day went well. In a couple of weeks, I'll see if the beer came out ok. It's a bit of an experiment, so interesting to see how it comes out. I think most of these systems are quite similar in how they work, just how you attach things and how you program it.
Thanks :) Yea pumps make a big difference to a brew day. I noticed that when I first set up my little solar pump on the big system. So much nicer than lifting buckets of seriously hot fluid.
Hello, I have a few questions about this equipment! 1. How fine do you crush the grain (1-1.2mm or rather 1.3-1.5mm)? 2. What is your mash thickness given that there is a 5 l deadspace below the bottom plate? 3. What is the rationale of putting on the top plate while mashing? Isn't that useful only when sparging (to prevent channeling)? 4. Also I don't get the reason of the overflow pipe. You don't really want the water to go through that tube directly to the bottom, because then it would bypass the grainbed, So you might as well close it alltogether. The reason I'm asking all this is that I got the same equipment recently, and my efficiency dropped to around 50% from high 70s before. I would very much appreciate any advice on these issues! Thank you!
1) Whatever crush the homebrew store supplies usually 2) I don't worry about it and most of the time I do full volume mash 3) You recirculate during mashing, without the top plate on you will get channelling and wear a big dip in the grain bed. The top plate stops the grain moving around. 4) To stop you pumping all the liquid on top of the grain bed and dry firing your element or allowing the wort to sit around on top of the grain bed for too long and cool down before going through the grain.
Great how to Sarah, I really love my Ace and never ever thought of doing BIAB on it like this thanks for the eye opener. Great work and good luck in the comp hope you do brill
Thanks Mark :) I'm glad it isn't just me loves the Ace. With this batch of ~ 3kilo of grain I wasn't confident there would have been enough liquid in the boiler to do a traditional mash, however I also wanted fast and simple yesterday as I left it late before starting the brew day
Hi, I’ve been looking into water treatment lately but it’s quite confusing to be honest, what did you add here and is it just a basic treatment you add to all your brews? Thank you 🍺
I honestly can't remember as it was quite some time ago and no the water treatment will vary as you want different treatments for different styles. Brew'n water has a good intro to water chemistry at sites.google.com/site/brunwater/water-knowledge
Hi Sarah, any tips on water treatment you can share?, as Im thinking of getting back into brewing again, found your channel and really liked it. However from past experience apart from dashing to Asda and filling a trolley full of spring water Im unsure how to treat water. Should I fit a filter under sink? Would that invalidate any measurements given by local water authority? And also whered you get the syringe thingy to squirt in the acid stuff? Thanks!
Hi Nigel, Thanks a lot :) I got the syringes from ebay. I don't pretend to be a water expert but Peter did a great talk on the topic recently at Leeds Brew Con. th-cam.com/video/X_gln_GdWNI/w-d-xo.html
Hi Sarah. I have a process, Not brewing, that this might be prefrect for. So I have a few questions. where does the pump take the liquid directly from the very bottom or some distance from the bottom and will it pump fine particles which is what i will be making during the process. Thanks for the video.
Hi I really like your channel. It's been a few years since this video and I was just curious if you are concerned about hot side aeration with how you used the pump while cooling the hot wort? I use a silicone tube to stop the splashing at this stage... but it would be one less thing to clean.
I've not had any noticeable impact of HSA. If I was brewing a NEIPA or something highly susceptible to oxidation like that I may wait until it cooled a bit before splashing it around so much
Oooohhhh..... this vid may have just persuaded me what to put on my Santa birthday/Christmas list. (I have been a very good boy this year!) I was flicking between one of these and the BIAB version (I currently brew small batch BIAB in a pot with a small gas stove). This looks like a much easier option and worth the extra dough. Hmmmm... that means the Mrs will be buying something of equal value for her present though... never mind, I want one! Great vid!
:D I honestly think this is worth the extra money over the BIAB version, however both of them make beer so if the Mrs budget is of concern you will still get good beer with the BIAB version it is just not quite so nice as this one.
Daft Cat Brewing I was only joking about the Mrs (although she WILL want to spend the equivalent on a bag or shoes or something, we don't argue, just spend twice as much!) I think I've settled on the microbrewery option though. Thanks for the reply and keep the great vids coming.
What does the pipe in the middle do during the mash? It didnt look like any liquid was going down there so why not just use the longest connection. What is the advantage of it being adjustable on the grainfather?
It's an overflow so you don't end up with all the liquid on top of the grain and none in the bottom where the element is and end up with the element coming on and no liquid there. This is why the length of the pipe should vary to account for the fluid volume you are using to make sure that there will always be liquid in the bottom of the boiler
Hi. Nice Video : Just one question : after boiling an chillin, you use the pump to transfer the liquid to the fermenter: what about whirlpooling ? And the proteins ? Do they get from trough the pump into the fermenter ?
There is a whirlpool arm available if you want to run a whirlpool before pumping out. Yes you do get some trub into the fermenter but brulosophy have done some exbeerients about kettle trub and the general consensus was "Truby has consistently been voted the clearest beer with the sharpest/crispest flavor. Interestingly, there seems to be somewhat of a split when it comes to overall preference." brulosophy.com/2014/06/02/the-great-trub-exbeeriment-results-are-in/
There is no single name for this system, it was a white label Chinese brewing system that many companies have badged under many different names. EG Brew Devil, Brew Monk, Beer Torrent, Ace, Klarstein are some of the more common ones. If you check the logo that is printed on the front of your system it should tell you the brand name your particular system has been sold under.
Hi Sarah. Very smart those in-between heating steps of 1 minute. But now I've heard that (at least the mark2) heats up at full power between program steps. Is this true? That would make your approach unnecessary
Very good question, I haven't really paid much attention to the in between bit on the V2 although I didn't use the 1 min steps on my last few brew days since upgrading to the v2 Beer Torrent, I'll have to watch for it next brew day.
Hi Sarah, great video thank you. I'm just wondering, coming from a coolbox, with a set up like this would you ever calculate the initial water temp accounting for the temperature of the grain when you dough in? I.e, setting the stage 1 temp to 75 deg c so that the grain addition drops the temp to 67 deg c. Thank you!
Hi Sarah. thanks for the video, I was doing a research on this brewing system and this is how I ended up with your video. Can you please tell me what does the hole in the middle do? I am talking about the one you were complaining because you couldn't adjust like you could with grainfather .
hi there, what do you think is the maximum volume (into the fermenter) we can do with this brewery? I ordered one.. I see the common is to get aroung 23 liters in the end, but Im planning to have a little more (like 27 liters). I do a 60 min boil, so if start the boiling with about 32 liters (after sparge) it should do. (consdering losses of around 3 liters boils off and 2 liters trub). Just not sure if this equipment supports that. Thanks
Hello Sara, in a few days I am about to acquire a Guten and I would need to know if you have the equipment profile to load the parameters in the Beersmith 2. I really like your videos. Thank you. Greetings Julio from Uruguay
Hi there :) Hope you enjoy your new machine, I know I do. The Ace and Hopcat Microbrewers group on Facebook has equipment profiles for the 35 and 50 litre versions in the files section. I highly recommend joining the group facebook.com/groups/1324257024320596/files/
Hi Sarah great to see one of these systems in action and a easy to understand vid Ps do you shut the pump off before it drags the trub hot/cold break through the pump ?
Thanks :) I don;t worry too much about it based on the Brulosophy trub experiments that showed it didn't have much effect, a lot of it gets left in the machine but some of it does go through
I just seem to lose so much to trub break material in BIAB I do skim the boil to remove hot break,material but its clear runnings until the last 5 litres and usually have to let at least 2 litres of crap through or I would be well down on volume
hi I'm an Italian homebrewer and I like your vids! I want to buy an all in one all grain electric system but I am uncertain between the grainfather and ace microbrewery. what do you think about ace microbrewery? how much efficiency did you achieve with it?how much clarity did you have or could you expect from it? do you think the grainfather is worth the money difference? I watched your previous video but I couldn't comprehend how good ace is. I have to choose between the new model of grainfather or ace/klarstein system with an electric sparge kettle and a ss 25 lt fermenter for circa the same price. sorry for my silly english 👍🍻 kudos!
Personally I couldn't justify paying the extra for the Grainfather and am very happy with the ACE. If the bluetooth controller available for the Grainfather is a critical thing for you then yes go with the Grainfather, but beyond the progamming method, there is not much to choose between them, both of them are very similar, with similar efficiency and processes. One is half the price of the other.
Hi Sarah, Love your vids. I'm learning a lot from watching them. I own a Klarstein Mundchenk which is the same as the Ace. What is the size of the hop spider you are using ? Greetings, Edwin
Just done my first ever allgrain brew with this brewer, unfortunately it seems to have a fault, i set the first step to heat to 45 degrees 1 minute at 2500, it reached temp quite quickly but carried on, the timer didnt stop, it worked a treat on manual, but the timer would not countdown on auto.
@@DaftCatBrewing thanks for replying sarah, i set the timer fo 1 min at full power for 45 degrees, when it reached temp nstead of running for one minute it kept going on full power, it should have changed to step 2 but it didnt, it kept heating still showing 1 minute i left it for around five mins and the temp reached 55 degrees, i turned it of let the water cool down and used the manual setting which was ok.
How to brew by John Palmer is a good start amzn.to/2Qrxhn3 You can get an older out of date version free on the web at www.howtobrew.com/ but it is worth getting the updated version
finally a really exhaustive video :) ! cheers...just sold my motorbike but had a deal with a missus...gettint this instead. AH!! just a question : how come you do those "minute" steps? i heard in the presentation video you had issues with mashing,am i correct? grazie :)
Hi and thanks. I do a 1 minute step at full power to get it to heat up to the next step as fast as possible, You don;t want to use full power when you are mashing as it can burn stuff onto the element and cause problems down the line but by doing 1 minute at full power, it will use full power to get up to temperature, stay there for 1 minute and then lower the power back down to a more sensible level. You can do it without the 1 minute steps, but it will take a lot longer to heat up between the steps if you do it at the lower power rate
Do you reckon the pump would be ok with loose pellet hops if you whirlpooled before pumping out? I currently use a mates GF but am planning on buying an ACE soon. Is your efficiency affecting much by not sparging?
Personally I wouldn't risk it, I think the chance of clogging your pump would be pretty high and if you brew on the floor like I do then the fact the Ace has a tap on it won't help you empty it. I'm pretty sure I have seen someone do a mod where they put a hop filter on the pump which may be one way to do it
The pump outlet also isn't right at the edge of the system, it's a fair way in so I don't imagine you could form a tight enough cone to avoid the pump outlet.
Maybe raising the unit up high enough to get a fermenter under the tap would be an easy solution. A lot of the beers I've brewed previously call for a whirlpool hop addition. Would be nice to be able to still do this!
The problem for me then is getting the leverage to pull the hot heavy and full malt pipe up, however I'm sure that will be less of an issue for stronger people than me, or if you have a winch. The unit comes with a bazooka filter for the tap outlet. I still do flameout and whirlpool additions, I just drop them in the spider. and give hem a stir.
A very good point. I've seen them as quite variable, I've calibrated some and they were more or less bang on but others were several litres out . Cheers :)
Hi from thailand, just bought the guten here. your video is very helpful and this is the great thing of internet today. I wonder about water calcuation to the grain for this machine, is there any calculation system or something? I usually use infusion mash with fly sparging. Please let me know if you have the magic trick to this. Thanks Sarah by the way, since 2008 this is the first comment on youtube by me :P
Hi :) I use a program called Beersmith to work out my recipes. If you use Facebook at all the Ace / Hopcat / Klarstein / Guten group facebook.com/groups/1324257024320596/ has an equipment profile in the files section for the 30 litre version, you can download and use in beersmith for it to work out how much water and grain you want to use for recipes. Hope that helps :) Enjoy your Guten :) Sarah
Thanks for your vidoes i like them a lot. You can add "easybrew" to the title... Arsegan is selling the same thing under that name. Also .. i would be really interrested in a video how to clean the machine!
Great video Sarah, you make it look so easy! I'm about to purchase a Guten but was just wondering if you could recall what diameter silicone tubing you used for the return arm and tap? I'm assuming the tap is a standard 1/2" size but the return pipe looks thinner. Cheers.
In your earlier review you said you didn't know why you wanted to use the pump when boiling.....in this vid you show why you should. Turning the pump on just after the boiling when cooling the wort will speed up the cooling process. Just a billiant idea of you ☺
Hiyas :) Yea I wouldn't use it whilst the element is on and the wort is still boiling, but once the element is off and the boil has ended, turning the pump on during chilling cuts my chilling time and water use in half :)
Great vid! I just ordered the machine and found you while looking for some info. How did the beer turn out? I suppose I will be sampling this very beer soon for I'm doing the sjporr challenge too :-) Cheers! PP
The test batch needed some tweaking as the hop balance wasn't right, but I've had to pull out as I haven't had time to brew the beers for it due to getting a new job. Good luck with your entries
Excellent video. This answered so many of my questions about the kit !! Thank you so much for taking the time to make it and share it. Cheers
Thats the best step by step I have seen...thanks Sarah!
A great watch was this.
All good to see it in action.
I've learnt some stuff let me tell you.
Thanks for sharing Sarah 👍🏼
Cheers :)
looks like a decent bit of kit Sarah! like the disconnects on the pump out. very slick transfer. cheers me dears! :)
Cheers Tom, it's a decent bit of kit for the money, it has a few niggles but saving £300 or £1,000 will make up for a few niggles I think :D
Hi love your videos, I'm thinking of upgrading to a all in one brewing system, I brew between 10-15 litres which system would be the best option, cheers and keep rocking 🍻
Hi Keith and thanks. It does depend what your budget is and what type of beers you like to brew. 15 litres of a 12% abv beer will require more volume in the brewing system than 15 litres of a 4% beer, and conversely 10 litres of a 3-4% beer will have too small a volume for many systems. If you are not into huge ABV beers than the Grainfather 30 litre system has a micro pipework available which will let you brew down to 10 litres, so that could be a good option for you. The 30 litre systems like the Guten / Beer torrent / brew devil etc would struggle to brew 10 litres as you would likely struggle to brew less than 15 - 20 litres in them. Despite them being called 30 litre systems, the have a max capacity of 40 litres so even brewing 20 litres the system is only half full
Great vid showing the process. Are the names in the video title names of different systems which are essentially the same one you demonstrated? Cheers!
You've just answered this question in an earlier video :-)
Sorry, just seen your question, which you have already answered. Though yes, the machine is manufactured by Guten in China and each importer calls it by their own name. The list of names keeps on growing bu I haven't made any attempt to keep up with them now as we are now well into double digits of different names that I have heard of already.
Looks like a successful brewday! Interesting to see how the Ace works and how it differs from my own experience with the Bulldog.
The brew day went well. In a couple of weeks, I'll see if the beer came out ok. It's a bit of an experiment, so interesting to see how it comes out. I think most of these systems are quite similar in how they work, just how you attach things and how you program it.
nice video Sarah, I like the little pump on those all in ones, makes life much easier than the way I brew 👍
Thanks :) Yea pumps make a big difference to a brew day. I noticed that when I first set up my little solar pump on the big system. So much nicer than lifting buckets of seriously hot fluid.
Hello, I have a few questions about this equipment! 1. How fine do you crush the grain (1-1.2mm or rather 1.3-1.5mm)? 2. What is your mash thickness given that there is a 5 l deadspace below the bottom plate? 3. What is the rationale of putting on the top plate while mashing? Isn't that useful only when sparging (to prevent channeling)? 4. Also I don't get the reason of the overflow pipe. You don't really want the water to go through that tube directly to the bottom, because then it would bypass the grainbed, So you might as well close it alltogether. The reason I'm asking all this is that I got the same equipment recently, and my efficiency dropped to around 50% from high 70s before. I would very much appreciate any advice on these issues! Thank you!
1) Whatever crush the homebrew store supplies usually
2) I don't worry about it and most of the time I do full volume mash
3) You recirculate during mashing, without the top plate on you will get channelling and wear a big dip in the grain bed. The top plate stops the grain moving around.
4) To stop you pumping all the liquid on top of the grain bed and dry firing your element or allowing the wort to sit around on top of the grain bed for too long and cool down before going through the grain.
Great how to Sarah, I really love my Ace and never ever thought of doing BIAB on it like this thanks for the eye opener. Great work and good luck in the comp hope you do brill
Thanks Mark :) I'm glad it isn't just me loves the Ace. With this batch of ~ 3kilo of grain I wasn't confident there would have been enough liquid in the boiler to do a traditional mash, however I also wanted fast and simple yesterday as I left it late before starting the brew day
Hi, I’ve been looking into water treatment lately but it’s quite confusing to be honest, what did you add here and is it just a basic treatment you add to all your brews? Thank you 🍺
I honestly can't remember as it was quite some time ago and no the water treatment will vary as you want different treatments for different styles. Brew'n water has a good intro to water chemistry at sites.google.com/site/brunwater/water-knowledge
Hi Sarah, any tips on water treatment you can share?, as Im thinking of getting back into brewing again, found your channel and really liked it. However from past experience apart from dashing to Asda and filling a trolley full of spring water Im unsure how to treat water. Should I fit a filter under sink? Would that invalidate any measurements given by local water authority? And also whered you get the syringe thingy to squirt in the acid stuff? Thanks!
Hi Nigel, Thanks a lot :) I got the syringes from ebay. I don't pretend to be a water expert but Peter did a great talk on the topic recently at Leeds Brew Con. th-cam.com/video/X_gln_GdWNI/w-d-xo.html
Hi Sarah.
I have a process, Not brewing, that this might be prefrect for. So I have a few questions. where does the pump take the liquid directly from the very bottom or some distance from the bottom and will it pump fine particles which is what i will be making during the process. Thanks for the video.
It pulls from the bottom. Hope this helps.
Hi I really like your channel. It's been a few years since this video and I was just curious if you are concerned about hot side aeration with how you used the pump while cooling the hot wort? I use a silicone tube to stop the splashing at this stage... but it would be one less thing to clean.
I've not had any noticeable impact of HSA. If I was brewing a NEIPA or something highly susceptible to oxidation like that I may wait until it cooled a bit before splashing it around so much
Oooohhhh..... this vid may have just persuaded me what to put on my Santa birthday/Christmas list. (I have been a very good boy this year!)
I was flicking between one of these and the BIAB version (I currently brew small batch BIAB in a pot with a small gas stove). This looks like a much easier option and worth the extra dough. Hmmmm... that means the Mrs will be buying something of equal value for her present though... never mind, I want one! Great vid!
:D I honestly think this is worth the extra money over the BIAB version, however both of them make beer so if the Mrs budget is of concern you will still get good beer with the BIAB version it is just not quite so nice as this one.
Daft Cat Brewing I was only joking about the Mrs (although she WILL want to spend the equivalent on a bag or shoes or something, we don't argue, just spend twice as much!) I think I've settled on the microbrewery option though. Thanks for the reply and keep the great vids coming.
What does the pipe in the middle do during the mash? It didnt look like any liquid was going down there so why not just use the longest connection. What is the advantage of it being adjustable on the grainfather?
It's an overflow so you don't end up with all the liquid on top of the grain and none in the bottom where the element is and end up with the element coming on and no liquid there. This is why the length of the pipe should vary to account for the fluid volume you are using to make sure that there will always be liquid in the bottom of the boiler
th-cam.com/video/ZTL4UIhKdfU/w-d-xo.html Should hep explain it.
Hi. Nice Video : Just one question : after boiling an chillin, you use the pump to transfer the liquid to the fermenter: what about whirlpooling ? And the proteins ? Do they get from trough the pump into the fermenter ?
There is a whirlpool arm available if you want to run a whirlpool before pumping out. Yes you do get some trub into the fermenter but brulosophy have done some exbeerients about kettle trub and the general consensus was "Truby has consistently been voted the clearest beer with the sharpest/crispest flavor. Interestingly, there seems to be somewhat of a split when it comes to overall preference." brulosophy.com/2014/06/02/the-great-trub-exbeeriment-results-are-in/
Hey i have just bought this, can you tell me the full name of the machine? Thx
There is no single name for this system, it was a white label Chinese brewing system that many companies have badged under many different names. EG Brew Devil, Brew Monk, Beer Torrent, Ace, Klarstein are some of the more common ones. If you check the logo that is printed on the front of your system it should tell you the brand name your particular system has been sold under.
Great video, very useful! Do you know what diameter silicone tubing you used on the downpipe?
It is 12mm silicone hose. It isn't a tight fit but it doesn't need to be
Hi Sarah. Very smart those in-between heating steps of 1 minute. But now I've heard that (at least the mark2) heats up at full power between program steps. Is this true? That would make your approach unnecessary
Very good question, I haven't really paid much attention to the in between bit on the V2 although I didn't use the 1 min steps on my last few brew days since upgrading to the v2 Beer Torrent, I'll have to watch for it next brew day.
Hi Sarah, great video thank you. I'm just wondering, coming from a coolbox, with a set up like this would you ever calculate the initial water temp accounting for the temperature of the grain when you dough in? I.e, setting the stage 1 temp to 75 deg c so that the grain addition drops the temp to 67 deg c. Thank you!
You can do, however with an active heating element in the base there is no need as it will bring it straight back up to the selected temperature.
Hi Sarah, don’t know if I’m missing something, but what is the pipe down the middle actually for, it doesn’t seem to have a purpose.
It is an overflow to prevent you dry firing the element if all the liquid is sat on top of your grainbed
Hi Sarah. thanks for the video, I was doing a research on this brewing system and this is how I ended up with your video.
Can you please tell me what does the hole in the middle do? I am talking about the one you were complaining because you couldn't adjust like you could with grainfather
.
Its an overflow so that you don't end up with all the wort sat on top of the malt pipe and no fluid in the bottom of the boiler where the element is
hi there, what do you think is the maximum volume (into the fermenter) we can do with this brewery? I ordered one.. I see the common is to get aroung 23 liters in the end, but Im planning to have a little more (like 27 liters). I do a 60 min boil, so if start the boiling with about 32 liters (after sparge) it should do. (consdering losses of around 3 liters boils off and 2 liters trub). Just not sure if this equipment supports that. Thanks
I'm not sure as I tend to do smaller batches but someone here may have an answer for you .
Hello Sara, in a few days I am about to acquire a Guten and I would need to know if you have the equipment profile to load the parameters in the Beersmith 2. I really like your videos. Thank you. Greetings Julio from Uruguay
Hi there :) Hope you enjoy your new machine, I know I do. The Ace and Hopcat Microbrewers group on Facebook has equipment profiles for the 35 and 50 litre versions in the files section. I highly recommend joining the group facebook.com/groups/1324257024320596/files/
Could you please explain the hop remainers feature?
Hi Sarah
great to see one of these systems in action and a easy to understand vid
Ps do you shut the pump off before it drags the trub hot/cold break through the pump ?
Thanks :) I don;t worry too much about it based on the Brulosophy trub experiments that showed it didn't have much effect, a lot of it gets left in the machine but some of it does go through
I just seem to lose so much to trub break material in BIAB I do skim the boil to remove hot break,material but its clear runnings until the last 5 litres and usually have to let at least 2 litres of crap through or I would be well down on volume
I don't know how much it affects me to be honest I must get some through but it settles out under the yeast so I don't really notice it.
hi I'm an Italian homebrewer and I like your vids!
I want to buy an all in one all grain electric system but I am uncertain between the grainfather and ace microbrewery. what do you think about ace microbrewery? how much efficiency did you achieve with it?how much clarity did you have or could you expect from it? do you think the grainfather is worth the money difference?
I watched your previous video but I couldn't comprehend how good ace is. I have to choose between the new model of grainfather or ace/klarstein system with an electric sparge kettle and a ss 25 lt fermenter for circa the same price. sorry for my silly english 👍🍻 kudos!
Personally I couldn't justify paying the extra for the Grainfather and am very happy with the ACE. If the bluetooth controller available for the Grainfather is a critical thing for you then yes go with the Grainfather, but beyond the progamming method, there is not much to choose between them, both of them are very similar, with similar efficiency and processes. One is half the price of the other.
Hi Sarah,
Love your vids. I'm learning a lot from watching them. I own a Klarstein Mundchenk which is the same as the Ace. What is the size of the hop spider you are using ?
Greetings,
Edwin
Hi Edwin,
Thanks a lot.
I use one the same as this amzn.to/2kpGpxi in that video
Hope that helps
Just done my first ever allgrain brew with this brewer, unfortunately it seems to have a fault, i set the first step to heat to 45 degrees 1 minute at 2500, it reached temp quite quickly but carried on, the timer didnt stop, it worked a treat on manual, but the timer would not countdown on auto.
Not sure what you mean you say the timer didn't stop but then say it didn't countdown.
@@DaftCatBrewing thanks for replying sarah, i set the timer fo 1 min at full power for 45 degrees, when it reached temp nstead of running for one minute it kept going on full power, it should have changed to step 2 but it didnt, it kept heating still showing 1 minute i left it for around five mins and the temp reached 55 degrees, i turned it of let the water cool down and used the manual setting which was ok.
Doesn't sound right. You probably should contact your supplier and check with them as there may be a fault.
@@DaftCatBrewing hi sarah ive just emailed them and asked for advice, its guaranteed for three years so it should be ok. Thanks.
How much is left in the brewer after the pump was stopped sarah ?
When pumping out there is very little left in there, perhaps a few hundred mls
@@DaftCatBrewing ok thanks just trying to workout sparge volumes.
Sorry sarah it me again with another question, when you say you are doing a full volume biab so theres no need to sparge, what do you mean by this.
All the water goes in at the start
@@DaftCatBrewing Thanks.
Can you reccomend any books which would be helpful to someone who has no idea of allgrain brewing. Thanks in advance.
How to brew by John Palmer is a good start amzn.to/2Qrxhn3 You can get an older out of date version free on the web at www.howtobrew.com/ but it is worth getting the updated version
@@DaftCatBrewing Thanks for that sarah.
Hi there, I ordered the machine and I would like to ask you if you know what is the evaporation in one hour of boiling. Cheers.
There is a full equipment profile in the files section of the users group on Facebook facebook.com/groups/1324257024320596/
finally a really exhaustive video :) ! cheers...just sold my motorbike but had a deal with a missus...gettint this instead. AH!! just a question : how come you do those "minute" steps? i heard in the presentation video you had issues with mashing,am i correct?
grazie :)
Hi and thanks. I do a 1 minute step at full power to get it to heat up to the next step as fast as possible, You don;t want to use full power when you are mashing as it can burn stuff onto the element and cause problems down the line but by doing 1 minute at full power, it will use full power to get up to temperature, stay there for 1 minute and then lower the power back down to a more sensible level. You can do it without the 1 minute steps, but it will take a lot longer to heat up between the steps if you do it at the lower power rate
makes absolutely sense :)
Do you reckon the pump would be ok with loose pellet hops if you whirlpooled before pumping out? I currently use a mates GF but am planning on buying an ACE soon. Is your efficiency affecting much by not sparging?
Personally I wouldn't risk it, I think the chance of clogging your pump would be pretty high and if you brew on the floor like I do then the fact the Ace has a tap on it won't help you empty it. I'm pretty sure I have seen someone do a mod where they put a hop filter on the pump which may be one way to do it
The pump outlet also isn't right at the edge of the system, it's a fair way in so I don't imagine you could form a tight enough cone to avoid the pump outlet.
Maybe raising the unit up high enough to get a fermenter under the tap would be an easy solution. A lot of the beers I've brewed previously call for a whirlpool hop addition. Would be nice to be able to still do this!
The problem for me then is getting the leverage to pull the hot heavy and full malt pipe up, however I'm sure that will be less of an issue for stronger people than me, or if you have a winch. The unit comes with a bazooka filter for the tap outlet. I still do flameout and whirlpool additions, I just drop them in the spider. and give hem a stir.
Cheers for the responses. Very helpful :)
Have you calibrated your young buckets? I've found the measurements are nearly always off! Something to keep in mind :)
A very good point. I've seen them as quite variable, I've calibrated some and they were more or less bang on but others were several litres out . Cheers :)
Hello DaftCat - anychance you can add
Hopcat to the name too? Cheers!
Tis done James :)
Daft Cat Brewing thanks soo much!
Hi from thailand, just bought the guten here. your video is very helpful and this is the great thing of internet today. I wonder about water calcuation to the grain for this machine, is there any calculation system or something? I usually use infusion mash with fly sparging. Please let me know if you have the magic trick to this. Thanks Sarah
by the way, since 2008 this is the first comment on youtube by me :P
Hi :)
I use a program called Beersmith to work out my recipes. If you use Facebook at all the Ace / Hopcat / Klarstein / Guten group facebook.com/groups/1324257024320596/ has an equipment profile in the files section for the 30 litre version, you can download and use in beersmith for it to work out how much water and grain you want to use for recipes. Hope that helps :) Enjoy your Guten :)
Sarah
Hey could you put your beersmith profile for this brewpot ?
Here you go daftcatbrewing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/ACE-equipment-profile.bsmx
Thanks ! Is it reliable or need to improve ?
It's the original one that was posted when the machine first came out. I've been using it without issue so far
Hello. Could you please put the profile back up? the link is dead when i tried to download it. It would be much appreciated.
Hi has anyone had efficiency issues? I have done 3 brews, and best is 67 percent worst 56 percent!!
Better late than never. Such a good video
Excellent, as always I learn stuff, thank you Sarah.
Thanks for your vidoes i like them a lot. You can add "easybrew" to the title... Arsegan is selling the same thing under that name. Also .. i would be really interrested in a video how to clean the machine!
Great video Sarah, you make it look so easy! I'm about to purchase a Guten but was just wondering if you could recall what diameter silicone tubing you used for the return arm and tap? I'm assuming the tap is a standard 1/2" size but the return pipe looks thinner. Cheers.
In your earlier review you said you didn't know why you wanted to use the pump when boiling.....in this vid you show why you should. Turning the pump on just after the boiling when cooling the wort will speed up the cooling process. Just a billiant idea of you ☺
Hiyas :) Yea I wouldn't use it whilst the element is on and the wort is still boiling, but once the element is off and the boil has ended, turning the pump on during chilling cuts my chilling time and water use in half :)
Nice one Sarah, Cheers!
Cheers :)
Great vid! I just ordered the machine and found you while looking for some info. How did the beer turn out? I suppose I will be sampling this very beer soon for I'm doing the sjporr challenge too :-) Cheers! PP
The test batch needed some tweaking as the hop balance wasn't right, but I've had to pull out as I haven't had time to brew the beers for it due to getting a new job. Good luck with your entries
really helpful video, thanks
Gracias. Muy buen video¡¡
That's ALMOST too easy. I really should get something like that. Cheers =)
It is :) I've still got the big kit if I want a 50 litre batch of something but for small batches this thing is great
Excellent video
Thanks :)