Squeezing the sack and overhoppage

[wulfsburg]

So , I had a friend over last night and we brewed a batch together in a very unconditional way. I am used to doing things my way, but was. . . well different.

He makes big beers. 14% double IPA's. Pliny clones . . I did a stone aarogant bast, and a russian imperial, but I normally do the lighter stuff. . . . hefe's, oktoberfest, kolsch, etc.

Anyway, we had 3 lbs of specialty malt, and whenever I have steeped my specialty grains, I NEVER squeeze the sock. I let it drip and throw it in the trash. Everything I have read tells me to never squeeze it. Well, he swears up and down to squeeze everything out of it. I need some more of an opinion here please.

Also, I have never used more than 4 oz's of hops in a brew before. We had a 90 min boil that used 9 oz's of hops and are using 3 oz's for dry hopping.

I have never had the need to filter out my beer prior to pitching, but there was so much sludge, and my strainer got so clogged. We ended up just throwing it in there. Whats the hard of hop sludge in the bottom of the beer?

He brought over a ruination style of beer that was his prided 14% abv ipa. It was delicious, but also very flat due to (and I quote here) "The high alcohol content"

Thoughts and comments please??

 

[MeatyPortion]

From what I've seen and read you don't want to squeeze the grain sack since that will impart more tannins into the final beer. Maybe it's different for high abv beers but that's new to me then.

 

[sprocketmaker]

to squeeze or not to squeeze... has been expertly debated numerous times, here's a link: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f37/grain-bag-squeezing-185039/
I like the quote from Monty3777 "squeeze your sack like it owes you money"

As for the massive hop additions... for me more is better. but consideration for beer style and personal taste will lead to many opinions... do what you like and enjoy!

 

[lostboysbrew]

Wehn I was doing partials, NEVER squeezed. However, have a pot of hot water near by, but the sack in a collander/strainer and run the hot water over the top to get the additional flavors/sugars/ whatever out of it without squeezing. Its basically running a makeshift sparge on your specialty grains.

As for the high ABV, if he tried to bottle condition, that is exactly his problem with the low carbonation. There is no living yeast left to convert the priming sugar.

Cheers

 

[klyph]

I've read that tannin extraction is caused by temps over 170F so if you don't sparge too hot, squeeze away. The ONLY beer I ever made with noticeable tannins was one that I accidentally sparged at 190F

 

[wyzazz]

I do all grain BIAB and I squeeze my grain bag, never had tannin extraction that I could detect. Go ahead, squeeze your sack... ...you might like it.

 

[ultravista]

Tannins are extracted over 170, squeezing or not squeezing should have zero bearing on wort astringency as long as the temps did not peak 170+.

There are many topics on this; however, I am interested to know if, and by how much, squeezing the grist bag will improve efficiency. In theory, you should have sweeter wort this way.

Right?