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consistency What Is The Best Equipment For Straining/Pressing Mash?

SexyGoatHotSauces

SexyGoatHotSauces

If this is in the wrong forum, please forgive me.

Anyone dealing with 10+ gallon sized batches? Currently, we are using a piston jack on a H-Frame Press, with a perforated stainless steel drum to press the mash of our sauces. It works ok, but is extremely time consuming, requiring a lot of constant adjustments.

We don't keep any seeds or pulp in our sauces, so we need something that actually presses/squeezes the mash completely dry, versus like a screw press that still leaves some of the bits and doesn't get every bit of liquid out.

I have looked into it rather extensively, but I may be Googling it all wrong. I've tried press, strainer, squeezer, etc. I have found the perfect machine, but I'm not coming off $20k+ for it lol. Even the used ones on Ebay are still $8k+. The Juiced Rite Cold Press is exactly what I want/need (minus the shredder), but they are just way too expensive for us at this stage.
1697499634308.jpeg

1697499634308.jpeg

It feeds directly into a mesh bag that is held between 2 press boards, and is hydraulically pressed. You just put a large pot underneath to catch.

Is there anything anyone uses, or knows of, that is more wallet friendly, and can handle larger amounts of mash pressing?

Thank you in advance!
 
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I wonder if you could modify one of those Breville juicing machines. Those are military grade juicers to be sure. Like using food grade tubing for the extraction output and send all the waste into a larger container?

Hope this helps!
 
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Voodoo 6 said:
I wonder if you could modify one of those Breville juicing machines. Those are military grade juicers to be sure. Like using food grade tubing for the extraction output and send all the waste into a larger container?

Hope this helps!
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The downside to those types of machines, is that you're not going to get the most juice out of the mash/pulp as you would from a press, leaving a lot of revenue outside of your bottles.

I like the idea, but when doing 10+ gallons per sauce, that machine would be quite time consuming as well.
 
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I see what you mean now: Here is the cold press from good nature (24k ouch!):

www.goodnature.com

Commercial Cold Press Juicers

Browse Goodnature's commercial cold-press juicers, which are used by businesses all around the world to make millions of bottles of juice every single day.
www.goodnature.com www.goodnature.com

I did a google search for commercial cold press juicers, and looked under shopping. Might want to look in there.
 
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Still out of my price range, sadly. Same with the ones on Ebay for $7k-$8k.

I wish I lived near Franks, or Tabasco, or any of the big brands to take a tour and see how they do their straining/squeezing/pressing. I've watched all their videos on YouTube, but they always leave that part out.
 
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Voodoo 6 said:
I am seeing some priced at 1700, but I never ordered from aliexpress. Here is the search link:

commercial cold press juicer - Google Shopping

www.google.com www.google.com
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I have used Ali before. You can get free shipping, but it's going to take a couple-few months to get it. And if you pay for shipping, it's usually double the price of what you're buying, if not more.

You would think Vevor would have made their knock off version of the Juiced Rite press by now. I should email their development team lol
 
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I will keep looking around, it's a pretty interesting subject. Sauce production videos below.

fruitprocessingmachine.com

Chili Sauce Production Line/Equipment - IBC MACHINE

chili sauce production line is mainly used for making sauce from fresh chili or hot peppers. Chili sauce making machine for industrial scale.
fruitprocessingmachine.com fruitprocessingmachine.com

www.gelgoog.com

Industrial Chili Pepper Sauce Production Line

The industrial chili sauce production line made by GELGOOG Machinery is with high quality stainless steel design, customized capacities.
www.gelgoog.com www.gelgoog.com
 
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I haven't looked at the above links, but what came to mind was an apple cider press. We did hundreds of gallons back in the stone age...when I was a kid... with a mechanical grinder, manual press. the one we had stood about 5' tall with a wooden basket and cloth liner. Basket would hold about 2-3 gallons chopped up apples.

This one is a little shorter than ours, ours was a single basket model. Separate grinder.
www.simplyciderpresses.com

American Harvester Cider Press & Grinder - Free Shipping

Full Details About the American Harvester Apple Press, Complete with Double-Tub Construction and Attached Grinder. Best Price Online & Free Shipping!
www.simplyciderpresses.com www.simplyciderpresses.com

You can find old ones on the usual sites- craigslist, ebay....yard sales...
 
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salsalady said:
I haven't looked at the above links, but what came to mind was an apple cider press. We did hundreds of gallons back in the stone age...when I was a kid... with a mechanical grinder, manual press. the one we had stood about 5' tall with a wooden basket and cloth liner. Basket would hold about 2-3 gallons chopped up apples.

This one is a little shorter than ours, ours was a single basket model. Separate grinder.
www.simplyciderpresses.com

American Harvester Cider Press & Grinder - Free Shipping

Full Details About the American Harvester Apple Press, Complete with Double-Tub Construction and Attached Grinder. Best Price Online & Free Shipping!
www.simplyciderpresses.com www.simplyciderpresses.com

You can find old ones on the usual sites- craigslist, ebay....yard sales...
Click to expand...
Looked at cider presses too, but we're trying to get away from the fully manual labor side of things, and be more automated.

We started off with cheesecloth and squeezing it all by hand, then upgraded to this which can do about a gallon of mash at a time

1697677463963.jpeg


Then we upgraded again to this which handles up to 4-5 gallons of mash

1697677590424.png

That ended up snapping at the welds at the top, so we custom fitted an H-Frame press you find in an auto shop to do the same thing, which is what we are currently using.

1697677876382.jpeg

The basket and sheath sit on that adjustable height cross bar, and we welded a 12" stainless steel circle plate onto a stainless pipe that fits over that metal nub in the middle under the jack to allow it to press further down into the basket.

It works, but it is labor and time intensive. Always having to stop and adjust the heights, resetting the mesh bag, only getting small amounts of sauce at a time, and taking care to not blow out the side of the metal basket.

We produce 10+ gallons of sauce per batch, per flavor. It takes about 2-3 hours with this press per sauce.

So there's gotta be something out there between the frame presses, and the industrial presses that we can use.
 
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What about a combo...
Run the mash thru a juicer for the first run, then run the tailings thru the manual press?


I haven't used a commercial juicer. A vendor at the FM did carrot juice blends. I just remember the cup of juice and the fairly dry veg pulp.


Good luck, i will be keeping an eye out as this is a good topic to know about.
SL
 
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To give you an idea of how much we're working with currently, this is 1 batch of each. The 3 silver Brewtech tanks are 1 flavor, and the 2 20gal yellow drums are the other 2 flavors.

The air conditioning at our commercial kitchen went out over the summer, and I had to bring these home to keep the temp in range during ferment.


1697679517052.jpeg
 
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Voodoo6, I am practicing for my next life!!! Xoxo :lol:


Sexy~ thanks for the pics. Scrambling to keep the batch going when the AC tanked...yep, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
 
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