Ask The Brewmasters

Hey there fam!

I was curious what knowledge is out there about the operations of mash press filters. I have just begun working at a distillery and we have the luxury of a brand new mash press but none of us have ever use one prior. We did our first cook yesterday and noticed there was a decent amount of grain still left behind specifically in the center of the press itself where the mash is fed through. Does anyone have any advice on what they do to clear that residual grain out in a controlled manner other than just spraying it out with a hose and creating a mess on the floor? 

Any other general maintenance and/or operational tips on how to keep this machine as clean and functional as possible would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

Hi Patrick,

We've been using a mash press since 2008 so hopefully I can help.   We have a Meura mash filter press for reference, I'm not sure what brand of filter you have.     On our system, most of our grain will fall out on its own when the press is opened, but there is always some manual removal required by the operator with a plastic paddle to lightly push across the filter cloths to knock off any leftover grain.   The spent grains will start to stick more to the filter cloths as they age as well.   You can also hose off this spent grain but it will make a mess as you are finding, so a plastic paddle would be easier and faster.     You can find these paddles on many food grade supply web pages.  You'll never get all of the grain off the plates, its just like residual grains that never come out of a lauter tun after a brew so leaving some grains behind is ok until the end of the week cleanup.  

How long you press the spent grains after recovery of the wort will also have an effect on how well the grain falls off the plates.  If you shorten or extend the final press time you'll change the moisture content of the spent grains and you can experiment and see which squeeze times work best.   

End of the week cleanup is important otherwise you'll get dried wort sugars stuck in the filter cloth fibers which will cause more sticking of spent grains and shorten the life of the cloths as they plug up over time.   So a long circulation time with 100 degree caustic at the end of the week is critical for the lives of the cloths.  You also want to make sure the filter press is totally full during CIP so the plates are fully submerged, so if you have a 10 bbl system usually your mash filter will need to hold about 5-6 bbls of caustic for cleaning.  It's also critical to neutralize all of the caustic after cleaning as the dried caustic salts can damage the cloth fibers.  So after CIP you either want to flush your filter with a lot of warm water until the pH of the water is neutral or you can run a light acid solution afterward. 

I hope all of that helps, feel free to reach out if you have other questions, cheers.   

Hey there fam!

I was curious what knowledge is out there about the operations of mash press filters. I have just begun working at a distillery and we have the luxury of a brand new mash press but none of us have ever use one prior. We did our first cook yesterday and noticed there was a decent amount of grain still left behind specifically in the center of the press itself where the mash is fed through. Does anyone have any advice on what they do to clear that residual grain out in a controlled manner other than just spraying it out with a hose and creating a mess on the floor? 

Any other general maintenance and/or operational tips on how to keep this machine as clean and functional as possible would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

Curtis,

My apologies on the rather tardy response, things have been hectic here as we are ironing out a lot of kinks that come with being a new facility.

I apricate your insight and it is wildly helpful. At this current point in time we are having issues with wort still remaining inside of our press even after our rest. 

Our procedure goes as follows:

After KO we "sparge" with water then rest 15mins to allow our grant to catch up. We then "squeeze" our press allowing the air sacks inside of the plating to force the residual liquid out of the grain. After another 15min rest with our initial "squeeze" on we send another sum of water to act as a second sparge. With the "squeeze" still on we then rest for an additional 30mins after all of the water has gone through. After the 30mins rest we release our "squeeze" and open the filter for cleaning.

In your professional opinion do you see any issues with that SOP? We have not had any luck with collecting all of our wort and the result is leaving us with lower gravities and therefore less product coming out of our stills.

Thank you again for the guidance, it truly is appreciated!

Hi Patrick,

We've been using a mash press since 2008 so hopefully I can help.   We have a Meura mash filter press for reference, I'm not sure what brand of filter you have.     On our system, most of our grain will fall out on its own when the press is opened, but there is always some manual removal required by the operator with a plastic paddle to lightly push across the filter cloths to knock off any leftover grain.   The spent grains will start to stick more to the filter cloths as they age as well.   You can also hose off this spent grain but it will make a mess as you are finding, so a plastic paddle would be easier and faster.     You can find these paddles on many food grade supply web pages.  You'll never get all of the grain off the plates, its just like residual grains that never come out of a lauter tun after a brew so leaving some grains behind is ok until the end of the week cleanup.  

How long you press the spent grains after recovery of the wort will also have an effect on how well the grain falls off the plates.  If you shorten or extend the final press time you'll change the moisture content of the spent grains and you can experiment and see which squeeze times work best.   

End of the week cleanup is important otherwise you'll get dried wort sugars stuck in the filter cloth fibers which will cause more sticking of spent grains and shorten the life of the cloths as they plug up over time.   So a long circulation time with 100 degree caustic at the end of the week is critical for the lives of the cloths.  You also want to make sure the filter press is totally full during CIP so the plates are fully submerged, so if you have a 10 bbl system usually your mash filter will need to hold about 5-6 bbls of caustic for cleaning.  It's also critical to neutralize all of the caustic after cleaning as the dried caustic salts can damage the cloth fibers.  So after CIP you either want to flush your filter with a lot of warm water until the pH of the water is neutral or you can run a light acid solution afterward. 

I hope all of that helps, feel free to reach out if you have other questions, cheers.   

Hey there fam!

I was curious what knowledge is out there about the operations of mash press filters. I have just begun working at a distillery and we have the luxury of a brand new mash press but none of us have ever use one prior. We did our first cook yesterday and noticed there was a decent amount of grain still left behind specifically in the center of the press itself where the mash is fed through. Does anyone have any advice on what they do to clear that residual grain out in a controlled manner other than just spraying it out with a hose and creating a mess on the floor? 

Any other general maintenance and/or operational tips on how to keep this machine as clean and functional as possible would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

Hi Patrick,

I'll list the steps that our Meura mash filter does below, that may help you figure out some areas to experiment with.  One possible issue I see is that you are starting and stopping the flow through the mash filter.   As you read the steps below its important to note that our Meura mash filter never stops the wort flow.   As each step transitions, the changes happen quickly and are designed to always keep flow through the filter so you don't disrupt the filter bed.   

Here's a rough outline of the steps:

1.      Pump from the mash tun into the mash filter slowly.   As you fill the mash filter up you are already collecting wort to the brew kettle because the filter cloths are doing the work to remove the solids

2.      When the mash tun is empty, your mash filter should be full.   Push out the mash tun pipes with sparge water but only enough to push all the grain into the filter, stop the water. 

3.      Compress the filter to push all of the high gravity wort into the kettle, after the grain bed is compressed only leave it compressed for a few minutes or until regular flow slows down

4.      Slowly release the compression air on the filter bed, as you do this you also immediately start pushing sparge water into the filter.   The idea is to push the membranes back with the sparge water so it displaces the air gap in the plates.  If you release air too quickly with no water coming in, the space left in the filter by the retracting membrane will allow grain to fall to the bottom of the plates and you'll get gaps on the filter cloths that will allow straight sparge water through to the kettle. 

5.      Continue sparging through the filter bed until you get close to the kettle height that you want or close to the kettle Plato that you want.  You'll need to determine when to stop at this step depending on how much more wort you collect in the next step during final compression, it may take some trial and error.

6.      Final sparge and compression – There are two options here:

a.      Once you decide your kettle is close to being full, stop the sparge flow through the filter bed and do a final compression.  This will push any remaining wort into the kettle.  If your kettle is full, then the rest of the wort/water can be dumped to the floor to keep drying out the filter bed.  Then compress the filter bed for as long as you want to dry it out and dump. 

b.      Keep sparging until the kettle is full and then recover the remaining wort back to the mash tun for another brew.     If you have good quality wort in these last runnings, you can keep sparging down to 1 Plato to help your brewhouse efficiency.    Then compress the filter bed to dry it out for as long as you want and dump.

I hope that helps in some way, good luck!   

Curtis,

My apologies on the rather tardy response, things have been hectic here as we are ironing out a lot of kinks that come with being a new facility.

I apricate your insight and it is wildly helpful. At this current point in time we are having issues with wort still remaining inside of our press even after our rest. 

Our procedure goes as follows:

After KO we "sparge" with water then rest 15mins to allow our grant to catch up. We then "squeeze" our press allowing the air sacks inside of the plating to force the residual liquid out of the grain. After another 15min rest with our initial "squeeze" on we send another sum of water to act as a second sparge. With the "squeeze" still on we then rest for an additional 30mins after all of the water has gone through. After the 30mins rest we release our "squeeze" and open the filter for cleaning.

In your professional opinion do you see any issues with that SOP? We have not had any luck with collecting all of our wort and the result is leaving us with lower gravities and therefore less product coming out of our stills.

Thank you again for the guidance, it truly is appreciated!

Hi Patrick,

We've been using a mash press since 2008 so hopefully I can help.   We have a Meura mash filter press for reference, I'm not sure what brand of filter you have.     On our system, most of our grain will fall out on its own when the press is opened, but there is always some manual removal required by the operator with a plastic paddle to lightly push across the filter cloths to knock off any leftover grain.   The spent grains will start to stick more to the filter cloths as they age as well.   You can also hose off this spent grain but it will make a mess as you are finding, so a plastic paddle would be easier and faster.     You can find these paddles on many food grade supply web pages.  You'll never get all of the grain off the plates, its just like residual grains that never come out of a lauter tun after a brew so leaving some grains behind is ok until the end of the week cleanup.  

How long you press the spent grains after recovery of the wort will also have an effect on how well the grain falls off the plates.  If you shorten or extend the final press time you'll change the moisture content of the spent grains and you can experiment and see which squeeze times work best.   

End of the week cleanup is important otherwise you'll get dried wort sugars stuck in the filter cloth fibers which will cause more sticking of spent grains and shorten the life of the cloths as they plug up over time.   So a long circulation time with 100 degree caustic at the end of the week is critical for the lives of the cloths.  You also want to make sure the filter press is totally full during CIP so the plates are fully submerged, so if you have a 10 bbl system usually your mash filter will need to hold about 5-6 bbls of caustic for cleaning.  It's also critical to neutralize all of the caustic after cleaning as the dried caustic salts can damage the cloth fibers.  So after CIP you either want to flush your filter with a lot of warm water until the pH of the water is neutral or you can run a light acid solution afterward. 

I hope all of that helps, feel free to reach out if you have other questions, cheers.   

Hey there fam!

I was curious what knowledge is out there about the operations of mash press filters. I have just begun working at a distillery and we have the luxury of a brand new mash press but none of us have ever use one prior. We did our first cook yesterday and noticed there was a decent amount of grain still left behind specifically in the center of the press itself where the mash is fed through. Does anyone have any advice on what they do to clear that residual grain out in a controlled manner other than just spraying it out with a hose and creating a mess on the floor? 

Any other general maintenance and/or operational tips on how to keep this machine as clean and functional as possible would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

Hi Patrick,

I'll list the steps that our Meura mash filter does below, that may help you figure out some areas to experiment with.  One possible issue I see is that you are starting and stopping the flow through the mash filter.   As you read the steps below its important to note that our Meura mash filter never stops the wort flow.   As each step transitions, the changes happen quickly and are designed to always keep flow through the filter so you don't disrupt the filter bed.   

Here's a rough outline of the steps:

1.      Pump from the mash tun into the mash filter slowly.   As you fill the mash filter up you are already collecting wort to the brew kettle because the filter cloths are doing the work to remove the solids

2.      When the mash tun is empty, your mash filter should be full.   Push out the mash tun pipes with sparge water but only enough to push all the grain into the filter, stop the water. 

3.      Compress the filter to push all of the high gravity wort into the kettle, after the grain bed is compressed only leave it compressed for a few minutes or until regular flow slows down

4.      Slowly release the compression air on the filter bed, as you do this you also immediately start pushing sparge water into the filter.   The idea is to push the membranes back with the sparge water so it displaces the air gap in the plates.  If you release air too quickly with no water coming in, the space left in the filter by the retracting membrane will allow grain to fall to the bottom of the plates and you'll get gaps on the filter cloths that will allow straight sparge water through to the kettle. 

5.      Continue sparging through the filter bed until you get close to the kettle height that you want or close to the kettle Plato that you want.  You'll need to determine when to stop at this step depending on how much more wort you collect in the next step during final compression, it may take some trial and error.

6.      Final sparge and compression – There are two options here:

a.      Once you decide your kettle is close to being full, stop the sparge flow through the filter bed and do a final compression.  This will push any remaining wort into the kettle.  If your kettle is full, then the rest of the wort/water can be dumped to the floor to keep drying out the filter bed.  Then compress the filter bed for as long as you want to dry it out and dump. 

b.      Keep sparging until the kettle is full and then recover the remaining wort back to the mash tun for another brew.     If you have good quality wort in these last runnings, you can keep sparging down to 1 Plato to help your brewhouse efficiency.    Then compress the filter bed to dry it out for as long as you want and dump.

I hope that helps in some way, good luck!   

Curtis,

My apologies on the rather tardy response, things have been hectic here as we are ironing out a lot of kinks that come with being a new facility.

I apricate your insight and it is wildly helpful. At this current point in time we are having issues with wort still remaining inside of our press even after our rest. 

Our procedure goes as follows:

After KO we "sparge" with water then rest 15mins to allow our grant to catch up. We then "squeeze" our press allowing the air sacks inside of the plating to force the residual liquid out of the grain. After another 15min rest with our initial "squeeze" on we send another sum of water to act as a second sparge. With the "squeeze" still on we then rest for an additional 30mins after all of the water has gone through. After the 30mins rest we release our "squeeze" and open the filter for cleaning.

In your professional opinion do you see any issues with that SOP? We have not had any luck with collecting all of our wort and the result is leaving us with lower gravities and therefore less product coming out of our stills.

Thank you again for the guidance, it truly is appreciated!

Hi Patrick,

We've been using a mash press since 2008 so hopefully I can help.   We have a Meura mash filter press for reference, I'm not sure what brand of filter you have.     On our system, most of our grain will fall out on its own when the press is opened, but there is always some manual removal required by the operator with a plastic paddle to lightly push across the filter cloths to knock off any leftover grain.   The spent grains will start to stick more to the filter cloths as they age as well.   You can also hose off this spent grain but it will make a mess as you are finding, so a plastic paddle would be easier and faster.     You can find these paddles on many food grade supply web pages.  You'll never get all of the grain off the plates, its just like residual grains that never come out of a lauter tun after a brew so leaving some grains behind is ok until the end of the week cleanup.  

How long you press the spent grains after recovery of the wort will also have an effect on how well the grain falls off the plates.  If you shorten or extend the final press time you'll change the moisture content of the spent grains and you can experiment and see which squeeze times work best.   

End of the week cleanup is important otherwise you'll get dried wort sugars stuck in the filter cloth fibers which will cause more sticking of spent grains and shorten the life of the cloths as they plug up over time.   So a long circulation time with 100 degree caustic at the end of the week is critical for the lives of the cloths.  You also want to make sure the filter press is totally full during CIP so the plates are fully submerged, so if you have a 10 bbl system usually your mash filter will need to hold about 5-6 bbls of caustic for cleaning.  It's also critical to neutralize all of the caustic after cleaning as the dried caustic salts can damage the cloth fibers.  So after CIP you either want to flush your filter with a lot of warm water until the pH of the water is neutral or you can run a light acid solution afterward. 

I hope all of that helps, feel free to reach out if you have other questions, cheers.   

Hey there fam!

I was curious what knowledge is out there about the operations of mash press filters. I have just begun working at a distillery and we have the luxury of a brand new mash press but none of us have ever use one prior. We did our first cook yesterday and noticed there was a decent amount of grain still left behind specifically in the center of the press itself where the mash is fed through. Does anyone have any advice on what they do to clear that residual grain out in a controlled manner other than just spraying it out with a hose and creating a mess on the floor? 

Any other general maintenance and/or operational tips on how to keep this machine as clean and functional as possible would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

Curtis,

My apologies on the rather tardy response, things have been hectic here as we are ironing out a lot of kinks that come with being a new facility.

I apricate your insight and it is wildly helpful. At this current point in time we are having issues with wort still remaining inside of our press even after our rest. 

Our procedure goes as follows:

After KO we "sparge" with water then rest 15mins to allow our grant to catch up. We then "squeeze" our press allowing the air sacks inside of the plating to force the residual liquid out of the grain. After another 15min rest with our initial "squeeze" on we send another sum of water to act as a second sparge. With the "squeeze" still on we then rest for an additional 30mins after all of the water has gone through. After the 30mins rest we release our "squeeze" and open the filter for cleaning.

In your professional opinion do you see any issues with that SOP? We have not had any luck with collecting all of our wort and the result is leaving us with lower gravities and therefore less product coming out of our stills.

Thank you again for the guidance, it truly is appreciated!

Hi Patrick,

We've been using a mash press since 2008 so hopefully I can help.   We have a Meura mash filter press for reference, I'm not sure what brand of filter you have.     On our system, most of our grain will fall out on its own when the press is opened, but there is always some manual removal required by the operator with a plastic paddle to lightly push across the filter cloths to knock off any leftover grain.   The spent grains will start to stick more to the filter cloths as they age as well.   You can also hose off this spent grain but it will make a mess as you are finding, so a plastic paddle would be easier and faster.     You can find these paddles on many food grade supply web pages.  You'll never get all of the grain off the plates, its just like residual grains that never come out of a lauter tun after a brew so leaving some grains behind is ok until the end of the week cleanup.  

How long you press the spent grains after recovery of the wort will also have an effect on how well the grain falls off the plates.  If you shorten or extend the final press time you'll change the moisture content of the spent grains and you can experiment and see which squeeze times work best.   

End of the week cleanup is important otherwise you'll get dried wort sugars stuck in the filter cloth fibers which will cause more sticking of spent grains and shorten the life of the cloths as they plug up over time.   So a long circulation time with 100 degree caustic at the end of the week is critical for the lives of the cloths.  You also want to make sure the filter press is totally full during CIP so the plates are fully submerged, so if you have a 10 bbl system usually your mash filter will need to hold about 5-6 bbls of caustic for cleaning.  It's also critical to neutralize all of the caustic after cleaning as the dried caustic salts can damage the cloth fibers.  So after CIP you either want to flush your filter with a lot of warm water until the pH of the water is neutral or you can run a light acid solution afterward. 

I hope all of that helps, feel free to reach out if you have other questions, cheers.   

Hey there fam!

I was curious what knowledge is out there about the operations of mash press filters. I have just begun working at a distillery and we have the luxury of a brand new mash press but none of us have ever use one prior. We did our first cook yesterday and noticed there was a decent amount of grain still left behind specifically in the center of the press itself where the mash is fed through. Does anyone have any advice on what they do to clear that residual grain out in a controlled manner other than just spraying it out with a hose and creating a mess on the floor? 

Any other general maintenance and/or operational tips on how to keep this machine as clean and functional as possible would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

I have worked on a few different mash filter designs (beer). As Reade mentioned loading rate is important. You need to fill the chambers properly,  the amounts will vary based on the grist.  You will have to look at the capacity (volume) and work form there.

Do you have an idea of how much extract you are recovering?  The basic method I have used is chase the wort with the sparge then squeeze.  You may be able to recover slightly more extract with squeeze then sparge but this is at the expense of time.  Feel free to PM me to discuss.

Curtis,

My apologies on the rather tardy response, things have been hectic here as we are ironing out a lot of kinks that come with being a new facility.

I apricate your insight and it is wildly helpful. At this current point in time we are having issues with wort still remaining inside of our press even after our rest. 

Our procedure goes as follows:

After KO we "sparge" with water then rest 15mins to allow our grant to catch up. We then "squeeze" our press allowing the air sacks inside of the plating to force the residual liquid out of the grain. After another 15min rest with our initial "squeeze" on we send another sum of water to act as a second sparge. With the "squeeze" still on we then rest for an additional 30mins after all of the water has gone through. After the 30mins rest we release our "squeeze" and open the filter for cleaning.

In your professional opinion do you see any issues with that SOP? We have not had any luck with collecting all of our wort and the result is leaving us with lower gravities and therefore less product coming out of our stills.

Thank you again for the guidance, it truly is appreciated!

Hi Patrick,

We've been using a mash press since 2008 so hopefully I can help.   We have a Meura mash filter press for reference, I'm not sure what brand of filter you have.     On our system, most of our grain will fall out on its own when the press is opened, but there is always some manual removal required by the operator with a plastic paddle to lightly push across the filter cloths to knock off any leftover grain.   The spent grains will start to stick more to the filter cloths as they age as well.   You can also hose off this spent grain but it will make a mess as you are finding, so a plastic paddle would be easier and faster.     You can find these paddles on many food grade supply web pages.  You'll never get all of the grain off the plates, its just like residual grains that never come out of a lauter tun after a brew so leaving some grains behind is ok until the end of the week cleanup.  

How long you press the spent grains after recovery of the wort will also have an effect on how well the grain falls off the plates.  If you shorten or extend the final press time you'll change the moisture content of the spent grains and you can experiment and see which squeeze times work best.   

End of the week cleanup is important otherwise you'll get dried wort sugars stuck in the filter cloth fibers which will cause more sticking of spent grains and shorten the life of the cloths as they plug up over time.   So a long circulation time with 100 degree caustic at the end of the week is critical for the lives of the cloths.  You also want to make sure the filter press is totally full during CIP so the plates are fully submerged, so if you have a 10 bbl system usually your mash filter will need to hold about 5-6 bbls of caustic for cleaning.  It's also critical to neutralize all of the caustic after cleaning as the dried caustic salts can damage the cloth fibers.  So after CIP you either want to flush your filter with a lot of warm water until the pH of the water is neutral or you can run a light acid solution afterward. 

I hope all of that helps, feel free to reach out if you have other questions, cheers.   

Hey there fam!

I was curious what knowledge is out there about the operations of mash press filters. I have just begun working at a distillery and we have the luxury of a brand new mash press but none of us have ever use one prior. We did our first cook yesterday and noticed there was a decent amount of grain still left behind specifically in the center of the press itself where the mash is fed through. Does anyone have any advice on what they do to clear that residual grain out in a controlled manner other than just spraying it out with a hose and creating a mess on the floor? 

Any other general maintenance and/or operational tips on how to keep this machine as clean and functional as possible would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

Hey there fam!

I was curious what knowledge is out there about the operations of mash press filters. I have just begun working at a distillery and we have the luxury of a brand new mash press but none of us have ever use one prior. We did our first cook yesterday and noticed there was a decent amount of grain still left behind specifically in the center of the press itself where the mash is fed through. Does anyone have any advice on what they do to clear that residual grain out in a controlled manner other than just spraying it out with a hose and creating a mess on the floor? 

Any other general maintenance and/or operational tips on how to keep this machine as clean and functional as possible would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

Hey there fam!

I was curious what knowledge is out there about the operations of mash press filters. I have just begun working at a distillery and we have the luxury of a brand new mash press but none of us have ever use one prior. We did our first cook yesterday and noticed there was a decent amount of grain still left behind specifically in the center of the press itself where the mash is fed through. Does anyone have any advice on what they do to clear that residual grain out in a controlled manner other than just spraying it out with a hose and creating a mess on the floor? 

Any other general maintenance and/or operational tips on how to keep this machine as clean and functional as possible would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

My guess is this isn't the usual Muera press and might be a center fed poly plate press? Can you throw up a photo? I'm a fan of all things filter press and have designed/built fully automatic systems for distillation and brewing. 

Hey there fam!

I was curious what knowledge is out there about the operations of mash press filters. I have just begun working at a distillery and we have the luxury of a brand new mash press but none of us have ever use one prior. We did our first cook yesterday and noticed there was a decent amount of grain still left behind specifically in the center of the press itself where the mash is fed through. Does anyone have any advice on what they do to clear that residual grain out in a controlled manner other than just spraying it out with a hose and creating a mess on the floor? 

Any other general maintenance and/or operational tips on how to keep this machine as clean and functional as possible would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

Hey there David, you are in fact accurate in your assumption. We are using  MicroPure press. I will throw up an image of the front of the press as well as the interior, if you have any advice on how to get the most out of this piece of equipment it would be wildly appreciated.

My guess is this isn't the usual Muera press and might be a center fed poly plate press? Can you throw up a photo? I'm a fan of all things filter press and have designed/built fully automatic systems for distillation and brewing. 

Hey there fam!

I was curious what knowledge is out there about the operations of mash press filters. I have just begun working at a distillery and we have the luxury of a brand new mash press but none of us have ever use one prior. We did our first cook yesterday and noticed there was a decent amount of grain still left behind specifically in the center of the press itself where the mash is fed through. Does anyone have any advice on what they do to clear that residual grain out in a controlled manner other than just spraying it out with a hose and creating a mess on the floor? 

Any other general maintenance and/or operational tips on how to keep this machine as clean and functional as possible would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

Nice. No stinky rubber liners but you do lose a tiny bit of "squeeze-ability" with a center fed vs. corner fed. First things first, are you using a hammer mill or a roller mill? I'm kinda scared you're going to say the latter… 

Hey there David, you are in fact accurate in your assumption. We are using  MicroPure press. I will throw up an image of the front of the press as well as the interior, if you have any advice on how to get the most out of this piece of equipment it would be wildly appreciated.

My guess is this isn't the usual Muera press and might be a center fed poly plate press? Can you throw up a photo? I'm a fan of all things filter press and have designed/built fully automatic systems for distillation and brewing. 

Hey there fam!

I was curious what knowledge is out there about the operations of mash press filters. I have just begun working at a distillery and we have the luxury of a brand new mash press but none of us have ever use one prior. We did our first cook yesterday and noticed there was a decent amount of grain still left behind specifically in the center of the press itself where the mash is fed through. Does anyone have any advice on what they do to clear that residual grain out in a controlled manner other than just spraying it out with a hose and creating a mess on the floor? 

Any other general maintenance and/or operational tips on how to keep this machine as clean and functional as possible would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

Nice. No stinky rubber liners but you do lose a tiny bit of "squeeze-ability" with a center fed vs. corner fed. First things first, are you using a hammer mill or a roller mill? I'm kinda scared you're going to say the latter… 

Hey there David, you are in fact accurate in your assumption. We are using  MicroPure press. I will throw up an image of the front of the press as well as the interior, if you have any advice on how to get the most out of this piece of equipment it would be wildly appreciated.

My guess is this isn't the usual Muera press and might be a center fed poly plate press? Can you throw up a photo? I'm a fan of all things filter press and have designed/built fully automatic systems for distillation and brewing. 

Hey there fam!

I was curious what knowledge is out there about the operations of mash press filters. I have just begun working at a distillery and we have the luxury of a brand new mash press but none of us have ever use one prior. We did our first cook yesterday and noticed there was a decent amount of grain still left behind specifically in the center of the press itself where the mash is fed through. Does anyone have any advice on what they do to clear that residual grain out in a controlled manner other than just spraying it out with a hose and creating a mess on the floor? 

Any other general maintenance and/or operational tips on how to keep this machine as clean and functional as possible would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

Richard, are you suggesting we should be pushing wort in through the press at a high rate initially?

Nice. No stinky rubber liners but you do lose a tiny bit of "squeeze-ability" with a center fed vs. corner fed. First things first, are you using a hammer mill or a roller mill? I'm kinda scared you're going to say the latter… 

Hey there David, you are in fact accurate in your assumption. We are using  MicroPure press. I will throw up an image of the front of the press as well as the interior, if you have any advice on how to get the most out of this piece of equipment it would be wildly appreciated.

My guess is this isn't the usual Muera press and might be a center fed poly plate press? Can you throw up a photo? I'm a fan of all things filter press and have designed/built fully automatic systems for distillation and brewing. 

Hey there fam!

I was curious what knowledge is out there about the operations of mash press filters. I have just begun working at a distillery and we have the luxury of a brand new mash press but none of us have ever use one prior. We did our first cook yesterday and noticed there was a decent amount of grain still left behind specifically in the center of the press itself where the mash is fed through. Does anyone have any advice on what they do to clear that residual grain out in a controlled manner other than just spraying it out with a hose and creating a mess on the floor? 

Any other general maintenance and/or operational tips on how to keep this machine as clean and functional as possible would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

Nice. No stinky rubber liners but you do lose a tiny bit of "squeeze-ability" with a center fed vs. corner fed. First things first, are you using a hammer mill or a roller mill? I'm kinda scared you're going to say the latter… 

Hey there David, you are in fact accurate in your assumption. We are using  MicroPure press. I will throw up an image of the front of the press as well as the interior, if you have any advice on how to get the most out of this piece of equipment it would be wildly appreciated.

My guess is this isn't the usual Muera press and might be a center fed poly plate press? Can you throw up a photo? I'm a fan of all things filter press and have designed/built fully automatic systems for distillation and brewing. 

Hey there fam!

I was curious what knowledge is out there about the operations of mash press filters. I have just begun working at a distillery and we have the luxury of a brand new mash press but none of us have ever use one prior. We did our first cook yesterday and noticed there was a decent amount of grain still left behind specifically in the center of the press itself where the mash is fed through. Does anyone have any advice on what they do to clear that residual grain out in a controlled manner other than just spraying it out with a hose and creating a mess on the floor? 

Any other general maintenance and/or operational tips on how to keep this machine as clean and functional as possible would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

We do in fact have a hammer mill

Nice. No stinky rubber liners but you do lose a tiny bit of "squeeze-ability" with a center fed vs. corner fed. First things first, are you using a hammer mill or a roller mill? I'm kinda scared you're going to say the latter… 

Hey there David, you are in fact accurate in your assumption. We are using  MicroPure press. I will throw up an image of the front of the press as well as the interior, if you have any advice on how to get the most out of this piece of equipment it would be wildly appreciated.

My guess is this isn't the usual Muera press and might be a center fed poly plate press? Can you throw up a photo? I'm a fan of all things filter press and have designed/built fully automatic systems for distillation and brewing. 

Hey there fam!

I was curious what knowledge is out there about the operations of mash press filters. I have just begun working at a distillery and we have the luxury of a brand new mash press but none of us have ever use one prior. We did our first cook yesterday and noticed there was a decent amount of grain still left behind specifically in the center of the press itself where the mash is fed through. Does anyone have any advice on what they do to clear that residual grain out in a controlled manner other than just spraying it out with a hose and creating a mess on the floor? 

Any other general maintenance and/or operational tips on how to keep this machine as clean and functional as possible would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

Glad to hear you have a hammer mill, while I respect Richard's position on this, the truth of the matter is that a hammer mill's ability to powder the entire grain kernel is important. This isn't a mash tun, you aren't making a filter bed. We don't want any kind of crush, we want flour. I personally have never seen a mash filter properly set up with a roller mill. There is one manufacturer that insists on it, but you don't have one of those monstrosities and there's no need to mention them here. The next main thing to consider is mash density. Here's where I agree with Richard, you want you keep the velocity up so that you have an even fill. With mash filters you want a very loose mash that you might not be accustomed to with a typical tun. The reason for this is pretty clear and meshes (puns) with the idea that you want to uniformly load up the plates by keep the velocity high. A low mash density will do that no problem. Since your sparge is so much more effective with the press, just borrow from there to lower the density. I'm also assuming you're using a standard centrifugal pump instead of a positive displacement pump. In that case it's even more important to have a nice thin wort. I've seen some folks use small pneumatic diaphragm pumps with these presses too but the lack of "smoothness" is a problem.  Have you contacted Micropure? Trey is very helpful for stuff like this. 

We do in fact have a hammer mill

Nice. No stinky rubber liners but you do lose a tiny bit of "squeeze-ability" with a center fed vs. corner fed. First things first, are you using a hammer mill or a roller mill? I'm kinda scared you're going to say the latter… 

Hey there David, you are in fact accurate in your assumption. We are using  MicroPure press. I will throw up an image of the front of the press as well as the interior, if you have any advice on how to get the most out of this piece of equipment it would be wildly appreciated.

My guess is this isn't the usual Muera press and might be a center fed poly plate press? Can you throw up a photo? I'm a fan of all things filter press and have designed/built fully automatic systems for distillation and brewing. 

Hey there fam!

I was curious what knowledge is out there about the operations of mash press filters. I have just begun working at a distillery and we have the luxury of a brand new mash press but none of us have ever use one prior. We did our first cook yesterday and noticed there was a decent amount of grain still left behind specifically in the center of the press itself where the mash is fed through. Does anyone have any advice on what they do to clear that residual grain out in a controlled manner other than just spraying it out with a hose and creating a mess on the floor? 

Any other general maintenance and/or operational tips on how to keep this machine as clean and functional as possible would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

I agree with David! But there is a very famous southern German brewer using Mash Presses with roller mills in a very specific way, so there are many paths to success! I would definitely reach out to Micropure. The specifications around usage should be very clear: Plate/Chamber loading minimum and maximum, optimal mash density,  transfer velocities, pressures, and timing, then recommended sparge velocity and pressures, max pressure overall, etc. When you get everything dialed, they are really consistent and great pieces of equipment.

Glad to hear you have a hammer mill, while I respect Richard's position on this, the truth of the matter is that a hammer mill's ability to powder the entire grain kernel is important. This isn't a mash tun, you aren't making a filter bed. We don't want any kind of crush, we want flour. I personally have never seen a mash filter properly set up with a roller mill. There is one manufacturer that insists on it, but you don't have one of those monstrosities and there's no need to mention them here. The next main thing to consider is mash density. Here's where I agree with Richard, you want you keep the velocity up so that you have an even fill. With mash filters you want a very loose mash that you might not be accustomed to with a typical tun. The reason for this is pretty clear and meshes (puns) with the idea that you want to uniformly load up the plates by keep the velocity high. A low mash density will do that no problem. Since your sparge is so much more effective with the press, just borrow from there to lower the density. I'm also assuming you're using a standard centrifugal pump instead of a positive displacement pump. In that case it's even more important to have a nice thin wort. I've seen some folks use small pneumatic diaphragm pumps with these presses too but the lack of "smoothness" is a problem.  Have you contacted Micropure? Trey is very helpful for stuff like this. 

We do in fact have a hammer mill

Nice. No stinky rubber liners but you do lose a tiny bit of "squeeze-ability" with a center fed vs. corner fed. First things first, are you using a hammer mill or a roller mill? I'm kinda scared you're going to say the latter… 

Hey there David, you are in fact accurate in your assumption. We are using  MicroPure press. I will throw up an image of the front of the press as well as the interior, if you have any advice on how to get the most out of this piece of equipment it would be wildly appreciated.

My guess is this isn't the usual Muera press and might be a center fed poly plate press? Can you throw up a photo? I'm a fan of all things filter press and have designed/built fully automatic systems for distillation and brewing. 

Hey there fam!

I was curious what knowledge is out there about the operations of mash press filters. I have just begun working at a distillery and we have the luxury of a brand new mash press but none of us have ever use one prior. We did our first cook yesterday and noticed there was a decent amount of grain still left behind specifically in the center of the press itself where the mash is fed through. Does anyone have any advice on what they do to clear that residual grain out in a controlled manner other than just spraying it out with a hose and creating a mess on the floor? 

Any other general maintenance and/or operational tips on how to keep this machine as clean and functional as possible would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!