Joey Ramone

Recipes 

In the Brewer's Best recipe it states that one should not squeeze the steeping bag. When i was at the local do it yourself brewery, they told me to squeeze the heck out of the steeping bag. What gives?

elkdog

Recipes 

You can extract tannins from the grain if you squeeze it, I believe. Besides that, it's a good way to hurt yourself.

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Revolving Door Brewery

Orfy

Recipes 

I think it is a mythe. A gentle squeeze can't do any harm.

It hurts if you squeeze the sack to hard though.

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shunoshi

Recipes 

I did this on my second brew and I can tell you from first hand experience that you can easily extract some heavy tannins out of the grains if you do it. My Winter Ale that I'm currently drinking isn't "bad", but it does have a noticable astringent taste. I blame squeezing every last ounce of liquid from the sack.

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8-Bit Brewing
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rdwj

Recipes 

I used to squeeze with no ill effects - do it!

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mbaha

Recipes 

Sure but it is more fun to squeeze a rack

Donasay

Recipes 

It depends on the size of the sack and what the sack is made of. You don't want to squeeze huge sacks that are full, as without proper loving, they can burst and make a mess all over the place. Many inexperienced brewers use sacks made of cheese cloth rather than a sturdy long lasting reusable sack, those inexperience brewers are are more likely to have their flimsy sacks bust open when squeezing.

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shunoshi

Recipes 

I do have one question regarding this though. Would some grains have a higher chance of lending tannins due to "squeezing" over others? The Winter Ale that I have the issue with has some heavily roasted grains (roasted barley, chocolate, etc.). Could a heavier roast create more tannins?

Just a shot in the dark here.

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8-Bit Brewing
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cheezydemon

Recipes 

Thank god for a real question, the inuendo was getting a little old.

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Bernie Brewer

Recipes 

Maybe you should have SWMBO do it for you.

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I like to squeeze the nickle until the buffalo craps-mt rob

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