Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

[MichiganCornhusker]

Thank you for your generosity . Got mine 2 days ago . Got to get something ready to try it .

Time to grind up that bucket of malted barley in the shed....

[Truckinbutch]

Prolly so , MCH . Still a little intimidated about jumping in .

[jedneck]

Prolly so , MCH . Still a little intimidated about jumping in .

Just jump in. It's just like sex, you don't know what your mission till you do it. After a few muck ups it will be easy peazy.

[HDNB]

Prolly so , MCH . Still a little intimidated about jumping in .

now that you have the straining solution, the rest is easy.

if you really want a relaxing time, after all is said and done conversion-wise heat to pastuerization temps for 15 minutes, cool and pitch...that will kill the chance of infection. strain it out and it's basically a sugar wash from there on in.

i have found that straining before ferment is less messy and still very flavourful, but of course on the grain will give over more flavour. stinky mess to strain tho...

[raketemensch]

I did have a thought for big batches. Some kind of big sluice, to spread the grain out even more, might work even faster, better.
This was about a 35 gallon fermentation, and if I hadn't done half in the GeoSack, then I think it would have been too much for my Brute system.

26 gallons isn't a big batch? What is?

One of the things that's kept me from really getting rolling with all-grain is that most of the recipes I've seen have been for small batches. I'm not sure how I'd manage to get that much stuff cooking, although I've been watching for restaurant auctions to find a good, big stockpot.

I've been eyeing this thing, but I won't have that kind of budget for a while, and it's "only" 16 gallons:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007V493PG" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[MichiganCornhusker]

Ha, no, I agree, this was a big batch.
But because I had so much wet grain, I think I overwhelmed this setup.
Still very happy with the results, but I think it would have worked even better if I had a way to take advantage of the whole sheet as a filter.

Big batches are just many small batches.
I do everything with an 8 gallon boil pot and 5 gallon buckets.

[jedneck]

Got a 12 gallon gumball that I dumped a vinegar mother into for a sac run. It's gonna get used for a double sac run. Gonna try it as a test run on the filter then rinse and twirl. Then I got 50ish gallons of mash to try it on. Gonna be hard to stray from steam but I'm gonna give it a try.

[ga flatwoods]

To get the most out of the fabric use the bucket strainer method I first described. I should not be overly difficult to find something g to hang the rod on even if it is chair backs. I kinda suspended the cloth in the bucket not attempting to line it 100%. Take a small racket strap, bungee, or construction string to secure the cloth to the bucket, hang her up and then fill. Sit back and chill while she works for a few minutes.
Flatwoods

[HDNB]

26 gallons isn't a big batch? What is?

regular looking ferment is a 205L barrel almost full. way less dishes than half dozen pails.

[corene1]

Just wanted to add, It worked like a charm, So simple and easy. Thanks for your effort in making this a much easier part of the process. Have a great Christmas too. Thanks again.

[Halfbaked]

I have not seen it but there is an underlayment fabric that goes under pavement that does not pass a compaction test or quality of soil test. The stuff is so strong even if soil compacts it is supposed to be able to hold the pavement in place. Some roads require that here. Is this the same material?

[ga flatwoods]

Yes it could be but this is a light material compared to some Halfbaked.
Glad to hear that Corene!

[jedneck]

I used my malting bucket for the test. I believe the hole size in the bucket (1\8") didn't help the speed once there was a pile of slop in it. I am reporting it does work and to attempt to improve the proformance of my setup I took a 1 1\4 inch hole saw to a bucket to swiis cheese it. After I eat I will be filtering the second fermenter.
As many know I am a big fan of stripping with steam injection. The other use I thought of was to put the cloth on the outside of the bucket and syphon enuf clear out to charge the primary and dump the rest into secondary. Might be the best of both worlds.
And flat if you ever need anything and I have it it is yours. Just need to holler.

[DFitz]

My son left a washing machine in my garage. I've asked him to get it out of there probably a dozen times. I'm tempted to fashion a suitable strainer from several paint strainers and see how it works for separating wash from grain. I wonder how well I can sanitize it.

[yakattack]

My son left a washing machine in my garage. I've asked him to get it out of there probably a dozen times. I'm tempted to fashion a suitable strainer from several paint strainers and see how it works for separating wash from grain. I wonder how well I can sanitize it.

If it's used I wouldn't use it personally. Just my two cents but not all soap is safe and even a slight contamination is to much containment in my opinion.

Yak

[cranky]

My son left a washing machine in my garage. I've asked him to get it out of there probably a dozen times. I'm tempted to fashion a suitable strainer from several paint strainers and see how it works for separating wash from grain. I wonder how well I can sanitize it.

Somebody posted a link about someone doing that and they found that if it was used there was no way to clean it enough so he wound up buying a new one to use for grain.

[Haus]

Been doing some widdlin' on the material thing. Could you add yet another bucket to that fabulous ass-press only this bucket would have large holes only in the bottom with a layer of the material?

[jedneck]

Here to report that it flilter goog enuf to run with know further clearing. Running on a 3000w hwd element. Filtered euf for 2 strip rns and steam stripped the grain that where abouts gravy consistency.

[corene1]

I did some more straining with the material today. I has some leftover stuff at the shop so I built a little vessel just for straining. I had a long stainless filter from an old Frito Lays job and shortened it down to use as a pre filter along with a tapered stainless lid also found a 15 gallon stainless steel barrel so I made a straining unit out of it. It will also work as a sparging system for my all grain mashes. Just need to add a 1/2 inch drain valve but I wanted to try it today and post some pictures. The last picture is of the strained mash.

[HDNB]

corene, i have been thinking about the opposite flow of what you are doing.
the fabric wrapped around the sieve, submerged into a bucket of mash, and then pumping/siphoning the liquid that filters into the sieve out in to a clearing bucket.

do you think that would fly?

[jedneck]

corene, i have been thinking about the opposite flow of what you are doing.
the fabric wrapped around the sieve, submerged into a bucket of mash, and then pumping/siphoning the liquid that filters into the sieve out in to a clearing bucket.

do you think that would fly?

I had the same thought. Soon as the ferment finishesnim trying it.

[raketemensch]

I'm trying to imagine a world in which I just find a 15-gallon stainless steel barrel lying around.

It's not working, though :some appropriate emoticon:

[ga flatwoods]

HDNB I think you would be better off to sew yourself a bag with velcrow top and put your grains in the bag then remove from the fermenter to drain.
Ga Flatwoods

[corene1]

corene, i have been thinking about the opposite flow of what you are doing.
the fabric wrapped around the sieve, submerged into a bucket of mash, and then pumping/siphoning the liquid that filters into the sieve out in to a clearing bucket.

do you think that would fly?

It may be worth a try, I have a small 15 gallon ferment that still needs to be strained so I may give that a try. The sieve I built is 8 inches in diameter and about 14 inches long. I may just push it down into the grain bed and siphon what comes through it into the filter material and into a holding vessel.

raketemensch
I am lucky to work in a place that gets access to other peoples scrap. When the Frito lays plant pulls stuff out of service our company goes and gets it to scrap out then we split the money with Frito. This barrel along with the filter housing was sitting in the scrap box so I paid them the 25 cents a pound the scrapper was offering and kept them. I have saved all kinds of little do dads over the years.

[raketemensch]

That's a pretty sweet situation right there.

[corene1]

That's a pretty sweet situation right there.

Here is some of the junk from the last trip this fall. Also got 3 six foot sections of 4 inch .045 wall stainless tubing that had never been used.

And here are a few things I gleaned out of it

[raketemensch]

Dang, that barbed pole just screams "apple grinder." And right above it you have the hopper!

Nice loot.

[ga flatwoods]

Before and after:

[MichiganCornhusker]

GA, how big a batch was that? Can you filter it all through one 5 gal bucket?
I've got a big ass batch of taters fermenting, and straining them is gonna be a mess. Gonna try my piece of Geo, but not sure it will be up to 200# of sloppy spuds.

[ga flatwoods]

No MCH you cant do it all at once. You can only drain as much as your receiving bucket with holes in it and your material will cover inside it. I used a chlorine tablet bucket that was already drilled and left here by the previous owner, hence the irratic holes SC mentioned earlier. So it will hold a lot of mashbut still not enough to not have to do several reiterations to get a boiler full. Slower? Yes, but a hell of a lot cleaner and easier! I ususlly spray it out with the hose between each load. So how long does it take each to drain? I ccan't answer that as it depends on what it is and its consistency at the time. Thirty minutes will get it close, an hour even better, and overnight it will be dry enough to eat for breakfast with a bowl of milk!
Ga Flatwoods