Squeeze mash instead of sparging ?

Hi,

Could you squeeze the mash instead of sparging to get the last wort out?

Never read about it anywhere, so I am guessing no ?

Thank you,
Walther

You guess right. Squeezing pushes tannins out of the grains, and causes unpleasant bitterness. Like squeezing a tea bag when you make tea. yuck.

Try making two cups of tea, and squeeze one bag, just let the other run. Taste the difference.

Another thing to think about is the point of the sparge. The sparge's purpose isn't to get out all of the sweet wort from the mash- the purpose is to rinse the grain of the sugars that are still present on the grain. So, you'd be leaving all of those sugars behind.

There are some brewers doing no-sparge brewing, and that works fine. But they just use more grain, and drain the MLT with no sparge. They don't squeeze the grain dry.

Squeezing doesn't extract tannins. Tannin extraction happens as a function of temperature and pH. Grains being in water and not that not pulling tannins, but simply pushing on them would cause it? Pretty silly sounding.

Someone made a post recently that explained it better than I, with the math and everything. Can't remember where it is though.

excellent, thank you for the quick reply, I will leave it alone

Did my first brew a few weeks ago without sparging. When the sieve had stood an hour or so in a bag, an extra litre had drained from the grain, so I was just wandering.

thank you,
walther

phissionkorps said:

Squeezing doesn't extract tannins. Tannin extraction happens as a function of temperature and pH. Grains being in water and not that not pulling tannins, but simply pushing on them would cause it? Pretty silly sounding.

Someone made a post recently that explained it better than I, with the math and everything. Can't remember where it is though.

Click to expand...

^^^I love posts like this, DUH "I don't know nuthin about it but some other guy said something different, and what you said is silly." nice!


As I understand it, additional tannins are released into the wort primarily if the pH rises to alkaline levels, or if the wort falls below 1.010. Temperature also has an effect. I am no kind of expert though.

I have read that squeezing the grains will release more tannins. I have also read that it is a myth. I know the tannins are there, they are bonded somehow. Something to do with the hydroxide molecule. SOOO if your sp. Grav. is low, temp is high, seems like messing with the grains might release some tannins into the wort.

There is a possibility that I am totally wrong. Here is more than you could ever want to know about tannins:

http://www.users.muohio.edu/hagermae/tannin.pdf

Luck to you!

^^^I love posts like this, DUH "I don't know nuthin about it but some other guy said something different, and what you said is silly." nice!

Click to expand...

Wtf? You speak too soon. And on the contrary, I do know about it. A chemist I am not, but I've (unfortunately) been through my fair share of chemistry, and ended up going the biology route. It's not a very complex concept.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/should-i-squeeze-my-sack-46471/
Read posts by orfy, and espcially Germey.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/mashing-grain-bag-85387/
Post by lamarguy quotes some from the thread I was talking about.