Mash Tun

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

I squeeze the bag over the kettle, between a chopping board and an oven rack.

Then I may dunk sparge the bag in about 6l of hot water to flush out more sugars.

If I am making a sessionable beer, the dunk liquor will usually be added back in.

For a big beer, I will check my gravity of both post mash and bag, before making a call to add it back in. I rarely get higher than 15 gravity out of the bag unless I have been lazy with the squeeze.

The logic is that it is easy to get a session strength beer over gravity and dilute post mash to get more volume.

But I may not be willing to drop the gravity of a big beer if I came in under gravity.

So yes, I sparge on occasion, mostly to increase final volume

[Acott]

I heard squeezing the bag can give you tannins? Have you tasted any difference in your brew?

[Garry]

That's a myth. Squeezing the bag won't extract tannins. I twist my bag until it looks like it's going to burst 

[Acott]

That's a myth. Squeezing the bag won't extract tannins. I twist my bag until it looks like it's going to burst 

Haha, so it's grand to squeeze your bag!

I opted for the Ritchies mashing and sparging bag, seems to be decent!
Suppose I wont know until it arrives and I try it out on a Saaz SMaSH next week.

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

The tannin myth is probably a hold over from grain steeping days, where you have a very high water to grain ratio, and therefore high pH

[DEMPSEY]

If anyone thinks that squeezing their bag is wrong then look at this video clip of a mash filter being used by the Malt Acadamy. This is state of the art designer research gear to gain theoretical and practical knowledge of mashing and if tannins were a problem then they would not be doing this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szQa9f6xBMI

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

It's a mash press is it? As used in large commercial breweries the world over. The thou-shalt-not-squeezers always overlook those things

[DEMPSEY]

Have often found that if you tell a good story it can make it seem correct. Case of the why you should not squeeze  can be told well and so make people believe it. Another example of a  well told story is "hot side aeration". I am on the fence on this one as at first I believed the story because it sounded so convincing but later as I read up I found conflicting views .