Mesh size versus squeezing…

[Mr_Beer]

And another question from a relative newbie…

Background
I have almost three decades of beer brewing experience. Home brewing technology changed substantially from the early 90s to today. Along the way, BIAB techniques were introduced. The loss of efficiency with a BIAB approach was offset by time saved and no need for sparging.
Product was good and but there were occasional dismissive comments about ‘not being real beer brewing’ or some such.

Distilling became the new focus
New hobby – so get a bigger brew pot for mashing.
Bigger brew pot was too large for the former BIAB bag.
Went looking for a larger bag and discovered that now bags come in various meshes – depending on the vendor there are now nine different mesh sizes available.

(Reminder: mesh size is inversely proportional to micron rating.
https://gacc.nifc.gov/nrcc/dispatch/equ ... onMesh.pdf )


Turns out that my old bag was ~200 microns (63 mesh) – about all that was available at the time.
In talking to a bag vendor, he said that today many hobby distillers are using 800 micron (~20 mesh) and get good results without squeezing with a mop wringer or press of some type.

The Questions
Assume corn based mash but processed with hi and low temp enzymes. The resultant mixture is reasonably thin. Looks like a good candidate for a BIAB with a larger mesh and no squeezing.

Has anyone tried the larger mesh sizes?
What is the experience?
Any views or opinions would be welcome.

[Tōtōchtin]

Silkscreens offer a wide variety of mesh and is durable.Not what you are asking about but it is another direction to look at. The do make durable work bags up to 50 gal. under the heading of bubble bags.
Tōtō

[Dancing4dan]

I have used a 800 micron BIAB that fits my 20 gallon pot. Works well. The 800 bag is fairly stiff compared to my 200 micron bag. The seams pull apart easier on a 800 micron bag.

Mashing was done with both enzymes and the later using Yellow Label Yeast. YLY leaves less corn residue behind.

200 micron bag was a disaster when used with corn. I had a block and tackle system to lift the bag. Lifted the bag and nothing drained out! Was a very long evening!