Colander for squeezing--one option

[mongoose33]

An information post about a colander.

I've done two BIAB brew days (26 other all-grain before that), and tried to squeeze by hand the bag to get more wort out of it. Not the most efficient of ways to do that.

Morrie suggested a colander that someone once sold to put on top of the kettle against which one could press wort out of the bag. I looked everywhere I could and could not find one that was as he described.

Looked on Amazon, and found this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O8N4556/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I wasn't too excited about the price $16.57 including Prime shipping, and wasn't quite sure it would fit in the top of my kettle (A Spike 10-gallon). A reviewer said it fit in his kettle (different make), I measured, fudged and fiddled, and decided to try.

Pic below. It fits. The dimensions of the colander are 14 3/4" from the edges of the rim to the other side. The bowl measures about 13 9/16"--so if your kettle mouth is more than 13 9/16" and less than 14 3/4", this will fit.

Here's a pic showing it in the kettle:

 

[bajaedition]

do a search for a steamer basket, just another option

 

[ReverseMonk]

Timely post. I just received one of these today with the same intention...make pressing the bag slightly easier and less messy. I hope to put the bag in the colander and find some kind of weight to leave on top of it for a few minutes (hopefully pressing out the last of the wort) while the kettle approaches boil temps.

 

[RM-MN]

Timely post. I just received one of these today with the same intention...make pressing the bag slightly easier and less messy. I hope to put the bag in the colander and find some kind of weight to leave on top of it for a few minutes (hopefully pressing out the last of the wort) while the kettle approaches boil temps.

I use a lid from one of the kitchen pots to press with. I just hold it by the handle and press down, moving the lid to a new location after each press which then gets most of the wort out. It only takes a few seconds to get the bag of wort dry enough that it doesn't drip when I take it out to dump the grains out.

 

[ReverseMonk]

My 13" Chinese colander showed up this week and fits dead-nuts in my 10gal Concord kettle. I imagine this making my process a lot easier and less messy, and I don't have to worry about a hoist. I typically brew 4 or 5 gallon batches, so weight won't be an issue. Higher gravity recipes are usual 4 gallons, just so I'm not pushing my volume constraints, but I could easily do a pour over sparge at this point.

This is the model I bought...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O8N4D4Y/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[doug293cz]

A 5 gal homer bucket full of water makes a nice bag squeezing weight, if your colander has a large enough diameter. Weighs 40+ lbs.

Brew on

 

[OddBrew]

I also use the same colander with my spike 10 gal. I use the pot lid method to squeeze the grain as well. This all works great.

My one complaint with this colander is that it has no handles. I have been doing a pour over sparge as well with the bag in the colander. This works well, but it is difficult to lift the colander with bag to see the wort volume in kettle.

I've been tyring to think of way to add handles or easier way to lift it all or maybe I'll just go back to full volume mashing...

 

[ultravista]

How do you deal with the additional water volume that squeezing the bag produces? I regularly get about a gallon - which then results in a larger boil volume that Beersmith does not account for.

This has been driving me crazy. There is no 'Squeeze Bag' option in Beersmith - how do you not overshoot your pre-boil volume?

Is there a colander that fits a 10 gallon Rubbermaid water cooler?

 

[RM-MN]

How do you deal with the additional water volume that squeezing the bag produces? I regularly get about a gallon - which then results in a larger boil volume that Beersmith does not account for.

This has been driving me crazy. There is no 'Squeeze Bag' option in Beersmith - how do you not overshoot your pre-boil volume?

Is there a colander that fits a 10 gallon Rubbermaid water cooler?

That option is in my head. I just know to short the volume that Beersmith calls for.:rockin:

 

[doug293cz]

How do you deal with the additional water volume that squeezing the bag produces? I regularly get about a gallon - which then results in a larger boil volume that Beersmith does not account for.

This has been driving me crazy. There is no 'Squeeze Bag' option in Beersmith - how do you not overshoot your pre-boil volume?

Is there a colander that fits a 10 gallon Rubbermaid water cooler?

There is a "Squeeze Bag" option of sorts. Look under "Tools -> Options -> Advanced". There you will find that the top two settings are "Grain Absorption" and "BIAB Grain Absorb." I don't know what triggers BrewSmith to use one or the other absorption rate, as I couldn't find anywhere to tell BS that you were doing BIAB vs. traditional MLT (unless it's parsing the equipment profile name or mash profile name, but that seems like it would be unreliable.) Safest thing to do is set your grain absorption rates into both input fields. BS uses fl oz/oz rates instead of the more usual gal/lb. To convert your rate in gal/lb to fl oz/oz, just multiply be 8. The defaults for BS work out to 0.12 gal/lb for conventional MLT, and 0.07325 gal/lb for BIAB.

Brew on