To add a bit more information about the Mash Filter/Press here is a quote from Curtis Holmes of Alaskan Brewing:
"There are mash filters and there are mash presses. Mash filters were invented in the late 1800′s by Meura out of Belgium. The original systems only filtered the finely ground grain and dumped the spent grain wet, they offered a slight efficiency over lauter tuns but not much. In 1991, Meura upgraded their mash filter design to a mash press where the grains now get squeezed at the end of filtration to remove any remaining sugars. This jumped up their efficiency and speed over the traditional mash filter design and gave even more advantages over lautering, namely that your spent grains now came out as a much dryer cake. Since Meura owns the rights to the mash press design, other manufacturers are still making mash filters.
So when talking about these units you have to watch the description to know what type of system they are. In the U.S. weve only recently found out that F.X. Matt and Yeunglings brewery in Florida have one of these systems, but were trying to find out if they have a press or a filter so Ill let you know. As most of you might know Coors has about 10 mash filters and have been using this technology since the early 1900′s, but Coors is currently in the process of upgrading to the newer Meura mash press design due to the higher efficiencies. I think theyve converted over three so far.
Both types of filters are used worldwide quite regularly but you just dont hear about them much. For some traditional brewers the mash press is taboo especially in Germany and the United States due to the stigma that it affects the flavor of the beer because you are grinding the malt so finely, but we disproved this with our mash press pilot test in 2000. That worry about flavor concerns was the main reason I wanted to test the system before we bought one and Im glad to say we found no issues at all.
The reality is that worldwide they are an accepted and proven method of extracting the wort from the grains. Outside of the U.S. these machines are quite popular especially in remote locations in Europe, Russia, Africa, India, and China due to the efficiencies they bring for the cost of getting the raw ingredients to remote population centers. Heineken, Carlsberg, and Guinness are just a few of the large users. If you want to check references and locations for the mash press, Meura has a great reference list they can send. The other two manufacturers I know of that make the old style mash filters are Landaluce out of Spain, and Ziemann in Germany.
Hope this helps!
Curtis Holmes
Alaskan Brewing Company"
After Alaskan Brewing replaced their Lauter Tun with a Mash Press they found the savings to be real: 360,000 pounds of malt a year, one million gallons of water, and 65,000 gallons of diesel fuel. Spent grain now contains less water than in the past, making it easier to dry now and laying the foundation for using a biomass boiler.
As another large user, all of the Cooper's Malt Extracts are produced with a Mash Press.