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

Any hardware used for mashing, fermenting or aging.

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ga flatwoods
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by ga flatwoods »

Oh, forgot to mention that it also depends on how much free head you have below the straining bucket and the receiving one. That is why I use another fermenting barrel. If you want more you will have to raise the bucket higher than it will hang from the rim as in my pictures but not hard to do.
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a

Post by nerdybrewer »

corene1 wrote:
raketemensch wrote: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.
P2210011.JPG
And here are a few things I gleaned out of it
P2210015.JPG
Corene1 if you ever offer vacations to your place sign me up for a week.
Looks like an HD playland!!
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by Bushman »

Corene, love the way that strainer basket fits into the boiler. Would be perfect for my current essential oil still design.
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by varocketry »

Ga Flatwoods:

I cannot tell what you're before and after pictures are depicting.

The first picture appears to be black material filled with grain inside a blue barrel.

I cannot tell what the second picture is depicting. Can you offer more explanation?
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by ga flatwoods »

varocketry wrote:Ga Flatwoods:

I cannot tell what you're before and after pictures are depicting.

The first picture appears to be black material filled with grain inside a blue barrel.

I cannot tell what the second picture is depicting. Can you offer more explanation?
If you look closely Va the high float line in the first picture is where the grain was out before draining out. As the beginning of this thread it is a bucket in a bucket. The second is a picture of a clear cup showing the low wines dipped directly out of the fermenter after the grain bucket was removed.
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by nerdybrewer »

At the suggestion of Ga Flatwoods I'm asking if anyone knows a source for this material in smaller than industrial orders.
I will be making up about 50 gallons of AG wash soon and will need a way to strain the grain.
This stuff looks like it makes quick work without so much "work".
Does Home Depot sell anything like this?
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by MichiganCornhusker »

ebay.
non-woven geotextile. lots of sizes.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Non-Woven-Polyp ... qt_lEIkJHQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by nerdybrewer »

MichiganCornhusker wrote:ebay.
non-woven geotextile. lots of sizes.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Non-Woven-Polyp ... qt_lEIkJHQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
THANKS!!
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by nerdybrewer »

MichiganCornhusker wrote:ebay.
non-woven geotextile. lots of sizes.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Non-Woven-Polyp ... qt_lEIkJHQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
Does it matter the weight of the fabric?
I see 4oz, 6oz, 8oz for sale in various sizes.
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by ga flatwoods »

nerdybrewer wrote:
MichiganCornhusker wrote:ebay.
non-woven geotextile. lots of sizes.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Non-Woven-Polyp ... qt_lEIkJHQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
Does it matter the weight of the fabric?
I see 4oz, 6oz, 8oz for sale in various sizes.
It is all a good value. The heavier it is the more liquid it will retain. At four pieces of 5x5 those four pieces should last for several years if not longer! Free shipping too. I know it costs me $6/per piece to send out before Christmas.
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by nerdybrewer »

ga flatwoods wrote:
nerdybrewer wrote:
MichiganCornhusker wrote:ebay.
non-woven geotextile. lots of sizes.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Non-Woven-Polyp ... qt_lEIkJHQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
Does it matter the weight of the fabric?
I see 4oz, 6oz, 8oz for sale in various sizes.
It is all a good value. The heavier it is the more liquid it will retain. At four pieces of 5x5 those four pieces should last for several years if not longer! Free shipping too. I know it costs me $6/per piece to send out before Christmas.
GA Flatwoods
I have ordered a 10' x 10' piece of 4 oz.
Hopefully this will greatly reduce the work when it comes time.
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by ga flatwoods »

It will be one of your favored tools as long as you stay in the hobby of fermentation. You didn't go wrong!
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by yakattack »

Gaflatwoods. Can this material be sewn.?
HDNB wrote: The trick here is to learn what leads to a stalled mash....and quit doing that.
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by ga flatwoods »

yakattack wrote:Gaflatwoods. Can this material be sewn.?
They do in road stabilization with a hand held heavy duty sewing machine.
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by ga flatwoods »

Bump! Anyone else tried this since last post? MCH did order any of the ebay find?
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by MichiganCornhusker »

No eBay stuff, but I did try the sheet you sent me with my potato ferment. It was a definite no-go.
Taters make a very gooey, thick, mess, and I think the best "no-press" for them is steam!

I'm still using this for my corn based whiskey ferments, works great. Better than paint strain bags, and the larger size makes it much easier to handle.

If you have the time, all you need to do is what you've described. Put all the slop in the fabric and just let it go for a day or two. It will be completely drained and clear.
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by nerdybrewer »

I received my box of fabric from Ebay, seems like good stuff.
I'm toying with an idea, don't know if it would be good or bad.
What if I had a big container for my mash lined with this stuff and had the ability to lift it out like a bag but a little at a time so the mash would drain gradually as I lifted.
I'm thinking of using my 2 ton engine hoist.
First would it be safe and good to ferment in.
Second would it hold, I mean something like 80 gallons would weigh a lot.
Of course I'd only lift it a few inches at first and then liquid would filter through and it would gradually weigh less and less.
What do those who have used the stuff think about that?
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by jedneck »

I have also used it a few times with both good and bad results. I have a soft white wheat flour ferment, I can piss in the boiler and fillnit faster. 24 hours and only 3 gallons clear. Now if I don't grind to flour/powder works great. I gots me another keg on the way and I'm gonna upgrade my rig. Keg/keg boiler thump plan is filter enuf to charge boiler and the rest shovel into thump.
If getting clear out of the mash is holding you back from allgrain, this is the ticket. Just grind to a course meal and have at.
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One way to find out. I'd bet it works.
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by ga flatwoods »

Nerdy it will hold the weight you want. Securing the neck to pick it up will be the difficult part.
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by HDNB »

ga flatwoods wrote:Nerdy it will hold the weight you want. Securing the neck to pick it up will be the difficult part.
put it in a vessel with a false bottom/sides, with a drain and you won't need to lift it until it's dry!
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by raketemensch »

I finally got a chance to try this out today, this stuff is awesome.

I drained a 16-gallon BAP full of fine-ground AG corn/barley into a secondary fermenter no time. Crazy fast, it drained as fast as my 3/4" pot valve could fill it.

Both before and after the run I just put it in the washing machine on "gentle" with a hot wash, and it comes out perfect and ready for the next run.

Corn, you have finally met your match.
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by steelmb »

ga flatwoods wrote:As an experiment I tried a new method of grain pressing to remove the liquids from the grain after all the free run has been pulled off and it is to brag about! The secret is in the filter material I used. I took a bucket that once contained chlorine tablets and drilled many holes up the sides and in the bottom. Removed the original handle and fashioned another of rope with only a little slack over the top of the bucket when picked up. Now for the magic. To this bucket I draped a piece of four once, non-woven, needle punched geotextile fabric that did not mquit hand all the way to touch the bottom of the bucket. The extra material on the side overlapp was tucked between the rope handle and the bucket itself. This bucket I now hung in the top of one of my 50 gallon ptfe drums suspended with a cross bar under the rope and across the top of the barrel. To this I now added my grain from the bottom of the mash barrel. As it filled the geotextile it tightened the cloth against the rope and bucket and remained suspended in the tab bucket. All of the remaining water gravity fed through the cloth and bucket into the barrel. It take a moment for a load to drip dry (30 minutes) but when dry it was CLOUD FREE!!!!! Easies method ever! This material is used a lot by construction companies to wrap the joints of concrete pipe to help ensure the soil does not leak into the joint when the pipe is running hard. In this manner it is a cheap insurance to the contractor installing the line. Otherwise, I do not know where it could be obtained outside of an unreasonable amount of material at a high cost.Maybe a septic supplier would carry it as well.
Good hunting!
Ga Flatwoods
I have only read the first page of this thread as I have things to do and was not going to waste my time with the rest What happened to the "approved materials list" and the "Rules we live by"? Do you have a food grade stamp or FDA approval for any of these items? Suggesting these sorts of things and getting away with it must depend on whether you are considered an "newbie" or a "novice" as compared to a "master distiller". Oh look if you check the join dates he may have 6 months on me. :moresarcasm: I was once told that you learn more by keeping your ears open and your mouth shut. :wink: I have seen new guys on here piled on and ripped a new a-hole for suggesting that they may use a non-approved material, and here nothing. WTF? :wtf: I've seen in other threads of people using mop buckets to press their thick mash in. I bet those mop buckets are also FDA approved and real sanitary. If the site is gonna have rules then we all need to live by them. :P
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by der wo »

Oh oh... :esurprised:
I see rad is coming...
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by steelmb »

der wo wrote:Oh oh... :esurprised:
I see rad is coming...
LOL. Came and went already. Check here for the exchange.

http://ww.homedistiller.org/forum/viewt ... 50&t=61335
I believe MCH may have said it best. "It's your hooch, you get to choose."
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by der wo »

I am looking forward to tomorrow. After breakfast I will enjoy, what happened during the night here.
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by ga flatwoods »

Steelmb thank you for posting. Unbeknownst to you and most others, Georgia Flatwoods is also a site donor, just doesn't advertise the fact. What sir, outside of borderline trolling of late, have you contributed ? You remind me of a damned yankee. In case you do not understand the reference, let me explain. It is a northerner moved south for residence, and in itself not an entirely bad thing, especially for them. They join the damned yankee crowd though after they have settled in and begin to miss the bullshit of society from whence they came. This in turn compels them to begin a campaign to correct the backwards ways of whence they relocated. "In New York, we did it like this.....!" Well why the hell did you decide to come here if it was so much better there? So, the question begs to be asked after all this time, as a silent USER, do you feel obligated to get vocal in a loud sort of way? As you have not invested much here in effort outside of your own curiosity, how is it that you need to take up the shield and become champion for all the verbally abused and scolded individuals that may have gotten their little feelings hurt, bless their hearts, and became quitters rather than adapters and conquers?

In regards to the rules which you mention, both here and other posts, you reference the distillation process not in distillation but in fermentation. The reaction to products used in fermentations are not as critical as distillation for obvious reasons. As for still sizes, lets relate it to prescription medication sizes. A small bottle of pain killers, say 30 pills, in a prescription bottle with your name on it, is far less likely to draw attention than a ziplock bag with 300 pills of the same type. Obviously the 30 would be for you, but 300 must be for sale. It only makes sense to sensible people I suppose.

As far as Georgia Flatwoods is concerned, he could give a damn less if you ever get to experience the pleasure of his artistry! Many on here have. No negative comments posted except that it was all drank up and there was no more. If you ever see a bottle of Flatwood's Creekwater, Jackass Juice, or Blackbeard's Treasure on the shelf at you local package store, and that is a possibility, please dont buy it. As a comparision to what you make, it may ruin the hobby for you and what you are able to produce. As you digest all of this, just remember that Flatwood's didn't come looking for a fight but he don't run either. It would not have been so bad had you simply referenced the post and content, but no that was not in you to do. As a liberal politician, you had to make it personal for sensationalism. For that, I am not offended. But the words from the mouth of a man show his true character. You have shown yours. Georgia Flatwoods has many times over shown his. Perhaps you may fill the void left herein by Janitor67!
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by StillerBoy »

Came across this post sometime back, and wanted to thank Flatwoods for posting his experience using this geotextile fabric..

Living in a small community with few contractors, and being winter at the moment, I had some difficult finding the fabric.. but by pursuing, I did find a contractor who was willing to help, and gave me a piece of fabric measuring about 5' x 5'..

Well I must say that the fabric does work.. after washing it out (was very dusty for storage I guess), I filtered a Odin's Rye Bread wash which does have lots of sludge.. usually I lose about 5 litre of wash to sludge after I have pressed the bread.. but after filtering it through the fabric, I recovered 3 litre, and that was after 2 days of sitting after filtering..

Now I just got to get a big piece, something like 3' x 10', and make a setup so that I can roll it across the fermenter as the fabric gets mud up, and let the fabric do its job quicker..

So thanks again Flatwoods for sharing with the forum.. :thumbup:

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

Post by ga flatwoods »

Thanks and congratulations Stillerboy! If I made any claims you found to be false please advise. I trust your wash turned out completely clear.
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by StillerBoy »

ga flatwoods wrote:I trust your wash turned out completely clear.
I make Odin's rye bread whiskey/shine, and have changed the receipt somewhat.. I mash the bread in the blender, and add some oats, which I then mash all together at 160 F degrees for one hour, then enzyme overnight..

This process generates lots of sludge/mud like sediment, along with whatever grains there is from the bread.. I do a 27 litre wash, and once done I run the wash through a paint bag, and that process would leave me with about 5 litre of sludge/mud like sediment.. but by using the fabric, I was able to gain 3 litre of wash back for a total of 24 litre ready for the boiler.. past washes I would lose 7 litre to sediment/mud, now only lose 3 litre.. in my book that's dam good..

As for clarity/clearing of the wash.. I allow the wash to sit an extra day in the fermenter about filtering, and there was very little sediment when it racked it into the boiler.. stripped the wash with no issues with scorching.. filtering with the fabric does not take out the colour of the wash, but certainly removes whatever sediment/mud that would cause scorching..

So I very please with the result of my first try.. but after observing the behavior of the filtering, I will develop a setup where I can unroll the fabric as it becomes muded up, therefore speeding up the process..

Mars
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Re: Best All Grain Press is a "No-Press"!

Post by WIski »

stillerboy, when you "run the wash through a paint bag" are you squeezing it or just pouring the wash through? Then with the FF (flatwoods fabric) are you just pouring it through or??? I'm looking for a way to recover more of the liquid from AG ferments. This sounds promising.
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