Fruit press makes this so much easier

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Pyruvate
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Joined: Sat Apr 22, 2023 10:04 am

Fruit press makes this so much easier

Post by Pyruvate »

I'm still very much a newbie to this, just starting stripping runs on my fourth batch ever, all of them all-grain of one kind or another, in my little air still.

My first two batches I fermented off grain, and it was a pain in the butt. I used a brew in a bag inside a bucket, lifted it with an overhead hoist, twisted and pushed and squeezed. Sparged the first one, not the second. It was a pain in the butt, sticky and slippery with the sugar, made a bit of a mess, and probably most important - I know I left a lot of liquid and sugar behind in the grain when I was done. Like, a lot. Maybe as much as 20%, guesstimating?

My woman friend got me a 3 gallon fruit press for a birthday present, because I've been kind of talking about it a little bit.

So my third batch and now this one, I just fermented on grain. That way I know for a fact that every bit of my mash liquid and sugars got into my fermentation. I'm convinced that additional starch extraction and conversion kept happening and pushed my yield up a little bit more. And maybe I'm even getting more flavor from having the grain there through fermentation. So I don't see any downside to that at all.

And then when the fermentation is done, I take 5 minutes to set up the fruit press, put the fruit mesh liner inside. Put a biab inside that, and just pour the entire wash through it grains and all. The free liquid easily drains off into my bucket, I take the bag and fold it over the top and set up the fruit press part and then just very easily squeeze all the liquid out. Alcohol isn't sticky like sugar, so it comes out easy. Whole process takes about 20-25 minutes for my 4 gallon fermentations.

These last two batches have been 10 lb of barley malt in four and a quarter gallons, that I've gotten just slightly under 4 gallons of wash back out after pressing it. The residual grain is damp but loose and crumbly, and I just dump it right into my compost. And it even seems to catch and trap a good bit of the yeast, although obviously what runs off is still somewhat turbid. Let it sit overnight and most of that settles, and certainly makes it clean enough for stripping runs.

If anyone has suggestions for ease and efficiency, or knows a potential problems I'm not aware of, I'm certainly all ears, but right now this process seems to work very well for me.
PLAYMP
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Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2020 8:14 pm

Re: Fruit press makes this so much easier

Post by PLAYMP »

I use one as well although I do 75lbs at a time and out of necessity I separate the grain out before fermenting so it definitely gets to be a bit of a sticky mess, but not sure that’s avoidable.

Mercifully if I remove a shelf I can put the press and all the components in the dish washer and it does a great job.
Pyruvate
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Joined: Sat Apr 22, 2023 10:04 am

Re: Fruit press makes this so much easier

Post by Pyruvate »

PLAYMP wrote: Thu May 25, 2023 3:24 pm I use one as well although I do 75lbs at a time and out of necessity I separate the grain out before fermenting so it definitely gets to be a bit of a sticky mess, but not sure that’s avoidable.
I'm thinking about when I scale up to a larger still and larger fermentation later this summer. Is there a reason you can't do on grain with larger batches, and simply run it through the fruit press after fermentation? Maybe not enough room in your fermenter or something?

It seems like it's the same process either way, and less of a sticky mess after fermentation.
PLAYMP
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Posts: 141
Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2020 8:14 pm

Re: Fruit press makes this so much easier

Post by PLAYMP »

Pyruvate wrote: Thu May 25, 2023 4:47 pm
I'm thinking about when I scale up to a larger still and larger fermentation later this summer. Is there a reason you can't do on grain with larger batches, and simply run it through the fruit press after fermentation? Maybe not enough room in your fermenter or something?

It seems like it's the same process either way, and less of a sticky mess after fermentation.
Yeah fortunately for you it’s probably a “me” problem. I mash and distill in the garage where I have access to 240V and headspace to use my ladder to hoist up my grain bag but I need to ferment in the basement where it’s more discrete and out of the way.
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