To Squeeze or not Squeeze you BIAB?

[Brew Cat]

I throw cool water over the grain back which cools it down enough to squeeze with bare hands

Wasting BTUs doing that. I'll use the rest of the water in the HLT for a dunk sparge and go directly to boil. Going from 170 to 220 instead of 140 to 220 is faster and saves $$. Use the savings to buy some nice gloves which you should have in the brewery anyway

 

[The Brew Mentor]

Work harder, not smarter.
Carry on!
Cheers

 

[Brew Cat]

I saw what you did there. LOL

Yeah it's no good if you have to explain it

 

[Live and Let Diacetyl]

It is normal. Squeeze the living hell out of it. Get everything you can. It will not lead to off flavors.

I use a fruit press, the bag is dry when im done.lol

 

[Zambi]

Wasting BTUs doing that. I'll use the rest of the water in the HLT for a dunk sparge and go directly to boil. Going from 170 to 220 instead of 140 to 220 is faster and saves $$. Use the savings to buy some nice gloves which you should have in the brewery anyway

Nah, not really as I would have to heat the sparge water....
I got a very primitive set up

 

[Minbari]

Do you get any off flavors or aroma doing that

I use silicon oven mitts. Good too 500F. No flavor issues

 

[The Brew Mentor]

How many breweries squeeze their grain?

 

[Megary]

How many breweries squeeze their grain?

Not sure.
How many breweries mash with a small bag in an 8-gallon pot on their kitchen stove?

I squeeze some, not much. But I full-volume mash and have a pretty good handle on my grain absorption and what volume of strike water I need that will allow me to hit pre-boil volume. I could let the bag just drain, but squeezing takes me 1-2 minutes and I can get the grains dumped and the bag clean long before I get to boil.

 

[Donoroto]

I wonder if a centrifuge for the spent malt is overkill??

 

[Minbari]

I wonder if a centrifuge for the spent malt is overkill??

Hmmmmmmm

 

[Brew Cat]

Well we pretty much agreed no tannins produced but we didn't discuss efficiency. I've not noticed a difference between squeezing or not but I do get a bump when I dunk sparge. It's nothing you can't adjust to in your recipe though

 

[west1m]

I wonder if a centrifuge for the spent malt is overkill??

I think I know where there is an old washing machine....

 

[Mont Y. Märzen]

Well we pretty much agreed no tannins produced but we didn't discuss efficiency. I've not noticed a difference between squeezing or not but I do get a bump when I dunk sparge. It's nothing you can't adjust to in your recipe though

Yep, sqeezing=tannins is myth. Keep the pH and temp in line and don't sparge, and you won't extract tannins. (if you sparge, mind the pH and temp) Efficiency as a matter of gravity is not affected, but as a matter of volume obviously is. I get 1+qts by squeezing vs. passive draining. (about 2–3qts total if simply pulling the bag and discarding with little draining) That can make a difference in final packaged volume, especially if your boil-off rate is high that day. (more of an issue for propane setups than electric) That's at least 2+ pints of beer you're leaving behind by not squeezing.

I now do very little literal squeezing by hand. I setup my ladder over the kettle to hold my bag pulley, raise the bag so the carabiner lines up with one of the steps on the ladder, then slide my mash paddle through the other side so it wedges against the ladder on both sides. (this keeps the carabiner and pulley cord from simply twisting in the opposite direction) Then I twist the ever living crap out of the bag with silicone heat gloves ending with the best squeeze I can muster for a few final drops.

I have found that I can boost my Pre-Boil gravity by doing a Vorlauf step with the bag raised. I raise the bag, fire up the burner, and begin rinsing the grains as I ramp to 168℉. It takes about 10 minutes and I buy myself 3–5 gravity points each time. Then I shut off the pump and burner, and get to twisting. (by 'boost' I mean hitting my target gravity, rather than being short due to sugars being left behind)

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

I wonder if a centrifuge for the spent malt is overkill??

It is absolutely overkill.....but you should definitely do it!!

 

[Zambi]

It is absolutely overkill.....but you should definitely do it!!

Biab bag inside a salad spinner?

 

[testingapril]

How many breweries squeeze their grain?

Quite a few. In pro brewing there is a piece of equipment called a "mash filter" or a "mash filter press" that is basically a giant BIAB bag with a mechanized press to squeeze out the wort. Primary motivation is very high efficiencies, but some other benefits are claimed. There was a Master Brewer's podcast about mash filters at some point.

 

[The Brew Mentor]

In the end, it seems to be about chasing sugars.
If you have things in line" pH, water ratios, temperature, etc" you should be getting decent efficiency.
If you efficiency sucks, maybe look at all the factors before squeezing the crap out of the bag.
I run north of 80% efficiency in my 1 BBL system, so I wouldn't want to head towards a congress mash just to get another percent or two and also risk other negative contributions to the wort.
I think presses as mentioned above may increase the drain speed of the mash in a larger tun, but would also require an exact sparge amount so the tun ran dry prior to pressing. A lot of bigger breweries fly sparge to a volume and stop at a certain gravity with additional water still in the mash bed. You wouldn't want to press that.
Personally I don't feel the need to go through the additional work to achieve great results.
Cheers
Brian