SevenFields

Recipes 

I am fairly new to brewing and have done 6 Extract kits so far.
I have noticed that some kits say to squeeze the grain bag after steeping, and others say Do Not Squeeze.
I also just read an article in BYOB mag. that says Do Not Squeeze the grain bag, instead pour hot water through it. Im curious what other people here do?

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Tap 1: Imperial Stout
Tap 2: Milk Stout
Primary 1: Irish Stout
Primary 2:
Secondary:
Bottled: American Barleywine
On Deck:

ArcaneXor

Recipes 

The story as I understand it is that unless you manage your pH and temperatures well, squeezing can result in higher-than-desired amounts of tannins from the husks - the result would be astringency in the final product. But the same would happen if you rinse/sparge with water that is too hot.
I'd just stick with putting the grain in a strainer after you are done steeping, pouring some 170 deg F water over it until you reach your boil volume, let them drip for a while, and then throw them onto the compost.

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The Fiesty(sic) Goat Brewery est. 2007 & Clusterfuggle Experimental Ales est. 2009
Planned: Fat Man Brown Porter (Pro-Am #2), WLP 351 Hefeweizen, WLP 860 Munich Helles
Primary: Centennial Falcon IPA (Pro-Am #1), sLambic I
Secondary: Flanders Red
Kegged:Himmel un Ääd Kölsch #8, Farmhouse Session Saison Pilot Batch, Chocolate Milk Stout, Pale Ale, Chili Smoked Porter, Berliner Weisse w/ Brett #3

lamarguy

Recipes 

Squeezing the bag has been discussed to death...Tannin extraction from squeezing the bag is a myth.

The benefit is reaching full extraction potential (minimal wort trapped in the grains) and the side effect is a more turbid (cloudy) wort.

When I practiced BIAB, I squeezed the bag and did observe a more turbid wort. But, it matters not given a couple of weeks of conditioning and a small dose of gelatin.

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Doggfather Brewery

Planned: Lambic, American IPA
Fermenting: 6 gals of 1.090 stout (Belgian) & 6 gals of 1.090 stout (English)
Tapped: Berliner Weisse, Black English IPA, German Pils, & Live Oak Primus

SevenFields

Recipes 

Up to this point I have squeezed the grain bag on all 5 of my extract brews and all have turned out "great".
On my next one, I will try not squuezing the bag and see if it makes a differance in taste.

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Tap 1: Imperial Stout
Tap 2: Milk Stout
Primary 1: Irish Stout
Primary 2:
Secondary:
Bottled: American Barleywine
On Deck:

jgln

Recipes 

What would you squeeze it with? Welding gloves? Those thinks are super hot at that point. I could see pressing it with something in a colander or something.

MMW

Recipes 

I use a silicone oven pad for 'pressing' when BiaB.

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Primary:A simple Bock, Vienna

Bottled: Centennial Blonde, Mostly Dead Guy Ale, Pale Rye Ale

On Deck: waiting...

pnj

Recipes 

My first AG I a few months back. I used my oven as my mash tun, with every large pot I could fit inside it. I was making a 3 gallon batch and, being my first I really didn't want to miss out on any of the sugars so I squeezed my grain bags with everything I had. then I rinsed and squeezed again. and again... I used tongs and my hands and whatnot and it hurt plenty.

THEN... I read that squeezing was bad. I bottled that batch on 6/7/09 and when I tasted them periodicly, they tasted very weird. Had a odd mouth/tongue feel that I only guessed was tannins.

I had one of these beers lastnight (8/20/09) and it tasted great. also, my beer is very very clear, not cloudy at all.

SevenFields

Recipes 

I used some metal tongs, like you would use for BBQ.

__________________
Tap 1: Imperial Stout
Tap 2: Milk Stout
Primary 1: Irish Stout
Primary 2:
Secondary:
Bottled: American Barleywine
On Deck: