Anyone use a grain press?

[william_shakes_beer]

I have been BIAB for a couple years now. Tried a few variances and finally arrived at a perforated homer bucket (5 gallon) nestled inside a fermenter (7 gallon) to allow weight of grains to press additional wort out of the bag. Here are the issues I'd like to improve:

1. Gravity only goes so far. when I manually squeeze the bag half the wort comes out the top, since the sides of the homer bucket are unperforated. I fear if I add perforations to the sides I would weaken the bucket so as to be unservicable. I was thinking some sort of head pipe: a length of perforated PVC placed vertically between the bag and the walls of the bucket to redirect squeezate (Hey I just invented a word!!!) to the perforated bottom and break the seal between the bag and homer.

2. Pressure disk to (gently) increase force. Plywood I fear may delaminate and present chemicals into my food products. Any other material Ai can shape using standard woodworking tools?

 

[botigol]

1. I see no reason why holes on the side would cause an issue that holes in the bottom wouldn't. I have seen it done in DIY fruit presses, so it should work fine.

2. Why not use another bucket?

 

[wilserbrewer]

I don't believe in pressing or squeezing the grain bag, given 20 - 30 minutes almost all the wort will free drain out of the grains with just gravity. After 1/2 hour allowing the bag to drip / drain, squeezing the bag only produces a few ounces and is not worth it IMO. Sure, when one squeezes the bag soon after removing from the kettle, squeezing seems very productive, let gravity do the work!

Very easy, just takes a little patience.

 

[redshift76]

My system:



3 gallon bucket with the holes gets dropped into the Ale Pail, grain bag goes in next then I use the 5 gallon pail on the right to squeeze. Also works nice for sparging, I do a 1/2 gallon on every brew.

Forgot to add: I just sit on the top bucket for a couple minutes. No issues & I go about 275.

 

[MerlinWerks]

I was thinking of implementing a similar setup, especially for larger grain bills. To get the weight I was planning on filling the upper bucket with water and putting the lid on. Never thought about sitting on it though

I've done about seven batches now since my return to brewing back in August and I fully intended to use Wilser's gravity only reccomendation instead of squeezing. But it seems that after 10 minutes or so the bag has stopped draining on it's own, but I'm not near my expected pre-boil volume and have resorted to squeezing to get there. Next brew I'll be a bit more patient and wait the 25 minutes or so and see where I end up.

 

[redshift76]

I use the bucket/squeeze method so I can sparge, because its fast & easy & since I brew on an outdoor patio, I don't have any an easy way to suspend a bag. I really like it this system.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Ok, I'll add perforations to the side (Hey, homer buckets are dirt cheap) and add another homer filled part way with water as the pressure disk.

 

[chawn]

FYI: the blue buckets from Lowe's are only $2.49.

 

[Man-O-Leisure]

My system:



3 gallon bucket with the holes gets dropped into the Ale Pail, grain bag goes in next then I use the 5 gallon pail on the right to squeeze. Also works nice for sparging, I do a 1/2 gallon on every brew.

Forgot to add: I just sit on the top bucket for a couple minutes. No issues & I go about 275.

Is that correct, that you only do half gallon brews? Im interested in a system to do a bunch of tiny brews.. hot weather here so i think ill have more luck keeping a small fermenter cold with a swamp cooler

 

[paperairplane]

I think he means he does a 1/2 gallon sparge.

Instead of all this extra effort to squeeze out a quart of wort, why not just increase your starting volume if you want a little more wort.

 

[RM-MN]

I think he means he does a 1/2 gallon sparge.

Instead of all this extra effort to squeeze out a quart of wort, why not just increase your starting volume if you want a little more wort.

I'd squeeze out as much as possible because wort left in the grain bag contains fermentable sugars. Increasing the starting volume would leave these sugars behind.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Update: drilled more holes in the sides of Homer during my mash, dropped in the grain bag after mashing and fired off my boil. 15 minutes in gravity plus the sanitizer bucket press had yielded just under a gallon. 15 minutes further yielded negligable further wort (a mouthful which was quite delicious thank you very much) for fun I then squeezed the bag, not worth the trouble. Now to get those little plastic peices out of the boil (note to self: rinse the Homer bucket after drilling and before using) With 7.5 gallon strike water I ended up with just under 7gallons of preboil volume. Not too shabby for a 19 pound grain bill.

 

[redshift76]

There are special bits for drilling clean holes in plastic. I wish I has known that prior to drilling bucket. I was able to clean up the holes with a flap wheel sander & drill easy enough though.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

maybe I should just call it " plastic chip pumpkin ale" I fear those chips are going to haunt my foot valve come bottling time. They're gone now, so no harm done.

 

[paperairplane]

I'd squeeze out as much as possible because wort left in the grain bag contains fermentable sugars. Increasing the starting volume would leave these sugars behind.

Not exactly - it's not like I can mash in at 8 gallons and get a 1040 beer, but if mash in at 7.5 and I squeeze the bag I'm gonna get 1050.

 

[DuckBrown]

I've arrived at something very similar. I use 2 5 gallon Lowes buckets - one with 3/4" holes drilled throughout the bottom. The holy bucket sits inside the other. At mash out I hold the Wilser bag above the kettle for a minute or two, then try to get it into the buckets as cleanly as possible.

After 5-10 minutes, I put a perforated pizza tray on top of the brew kettle, then put the holy bucket holding the bag on the tray, and use the other bucket to press down and squeeze out some more wort. It occurred to me that the stack of a burning burner > kettle with ~ 7 gallons of hot wort > pizza tray > bucket with bag > bucket without bag (that I am pressing down) is an accident waiting to happen, so maybe I'll revise that bit.

 

[iijakii]

Been using Wilser's bag and ratcheting pulley system. Love it. I hang it over the pot until I start boiling and then it's fairly dry. My system actually comes up to a boil really quickly so the bag isn't hanging for 30 mins or anything, but not worried about trying to squeeze half a cup out afterwards.

 

[Mer-man]

I don't believe in pressing or squeezing the grain bag, given 20 - 30 minutes almost all the wort will free drain out of the grains with just gravity. After 1/2 hour allowing the bag to drip / drain, squeezing the bag only produces a few ounces and is not worth it IMO. Sure, when one squeezes the bag soon after removing from the kettle, squeezing seems very productive, let gravity do the work!

Very easy, just takes a little patience.

I am going to try this on my next brew! I am annoyed by the sticky mess made by trying to squeeze the grain bag out.

 

[jason.mundy]

Been using Wilser's bag and ratcheting pulley system. Love it. I hang it over the pot until I start boiling and then it's fairly dry. My system actually comes up to a boil really quickly so the bag isn't hanging for 30 mins or anything, but not worried about trying to squeeze half a cup out afterwards.

I just saw Hafmpty's video where he is using a racheting pulley. I'm looking to get one myself off of amazon.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Is that correct, that you only do half gallon brews? Im interested in a system to do a bunch of tiny brews.. hot weather here so i think ill have more luck keeping a small fermenter cold with a swamp cooler

I've been doing .75-1.5G batches for about 6 brews so far. The biggest complication is measuring accurately and determining your brew day variables accurately (boil off plays a MUCH larger part in my setup). I've picked up a 0.01gram scale on amazon for like $8, and stainless ruler to determine my water heights. Also the losses in your bottling system aren't linear so expect to lose the same amount as usual, and it's no longer negligible.

One of these days I'm going to attempt a 1 pint brew, and ferment in my thermos, the biggest obstacle I foresee is how do I carbonate it, or rack to a drinking vessel without pouring all the trub (if I attempt to ferment in the bottle).

 

[MaxStout]

1. Get a ratchet pulley from Wilserbrewer.
2. After mash is complete, hoist bag above the kettle to drip.
3. Fire up burner while bag drip-dries.
4. By the time you reach a boil, most of the wort will have drained into the BK.