Squeezing the Grain Bag?

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

jgln said:

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.

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