Strainer & hole size

Happy Holidays.

Now that thats out of the way lets get back to business. I'm going AG asap, I'm going to build a cooler mash tun/lautering gadget and an immersions wort chiller within 1 week (Bar procrastination and excessive celebrating). Now I need a strainer. My question is about the specific dimensions of them. The recipe I plan on making next is a minimash with 9 lbs of base grains. Right now I have a pasta strainer thats ~11 3/4" diameter with about 5" depth with holes that are 4/10 of a centimeter in diameter. Is this going to be enough to hold 9 lbs of grain? Are the holes small enough to not let grains drop through? What do you use for a strainer and where do you recommend purchasing them, my LHBS is literally one small room in the back of a sausage house and they are far more involved in wine making than brewing, so any website suggestions will be appreciated.

9 Lbs is almost the total grain bill for most 5 gallon batches, so calling that a mini-mash is kinda strange.

That said, 10 pounds of wet grain is somewhere around 3-4 gallons of volume (according to the graduations in my cooler MLT) so I'm guessing that your pasta strainer would comfortably hold about 2-3 pounds of grain. 4 mm holes would also let a fair amount of trash through until you were able to establish a grain bed in the strainer.

If you check out DeathBrewer's stovetop thread he has some wonderful advice on how to do it with little space or gear.

The easiest strainer to use IMO is the very large nylon sack that you should be able to get from any brewing store.

Since your LHBS caters to winos, you should be able to pick up a bucket-sized mesh bag for a few bucks. Use that inside the mash tun.