I've been abit slow on my write up with the last brew day and the first go with the Ace Boiler.It was a good bit of kit and worth while purchase to get off the stove that if you wanted a dedicated system but didn't want all the extra parts like a induction hob and kettle or fork out on a more expensive system like the Grainfather.
The boil/heating of especially my powerful 2500W model made the biggest initial impact as it cut down so much compared to heating on the stove, something like 20 minutes and with the double wall insulation it maintained the temperature for the duration of the mash.
I did sparge this time and the colour of the first runnings looked good, it was a bit of a heavy load to then fit to put the wort back in the boiler. I might have to put the kettle lower to the ground rather than on my kitchen top. Trying to lift 19L of warm wort head high (given the height of the boiler on the counter) was a struggle. So that was my first personal note.
The boil went well and got pretty vigorous a few times, my next personal issue came when I tried to cool the thing.....It took ages, I use a immersion chiller which got the temp to around 35-40 from near boiling in about 15-20 minutes but getting it from that temperature to pitching got me really twitched,
I have since picked up the trick (from a forum member of the HomebrewForum) of stirring it constantly for the chilling time which should get it down to pitching in a under 30 minutes with a chiller.
The last personal issue was when I was ready to transfer to my fermentor, this was a real pain as the hop filter got surrounded by crud and just couldn't pass anything through the tap.
I have since bought a different filter (well some heavy grade tubing that goes directly from the boiler tap to my false bottom which should do the job better. As after having such clear wort I kicked up all the Trub by having to manly using a measuring jug to strain into the filter.
These were my only issues, just 3, which I have/will hopefully rectify come the next brew so they aren't brew day killers.
I look forward to using this again,
Until Next time........Happy Brewing
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