BIAB bag question

Hi everyone,
What are BIAB bags made out of? Among them, which has the best properties like handling heavy grains? And also what size should the holes in the bag be?

I am a 1-gallon brewer so that is not that important now, but if I do 5 gallon batches in the future, the bag should be able hold the grains of my 5 gallon batch.

I picked up 5 gallon paint bags from Home Depot. They are pretty durable, easy to clean and cheap! I had one tear at the seam but that was my fault when dumping the spent grains.

Wilserbrewer is a vendor on HBT, and his BIAB bags are extremely nice quality at at very good price. He custom makes them for the size of your pot. I have made many batches with his bags from 5 gallons to 11 gallons. (My pot is 15 gallon).

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f41/wilserbrewer-biab-summer-vacation-free-ship-426045/

I use a paint strainer bag,5 gallon made out of course weave nylon. Medium weave would be better,imo. I use up to 6 pounds of grains or more in mine & it takes it just fine. The nylon is really easy & quick to clean.

In general the fabric you want is "swiss voile" ... You can buy the stuff at a fabric store and make your own bag if you're handy that way.

Until recently I was using voile curtains from Ikea (~$4.50 for 2 large panels) and just folding a panel over a few times until it was about he right size to line the kettle. I've read here that people also have used voile curtains from Walmart & Lowes. Either folded or sewn into bag form. The weave on the Ikea curtain is pretty coarse, so you'd definitely want to layer it.

But I have to +1 the Wilserbrewer bag. I just got one and have only done 2 batches with it but it has a nice fine weave and it's much nicer dealing with a properly sized bag rather than the excess fabric of a folded curtain.

If you're freindly with a coffee house you may be able to get a large toddy bag for cheap or free. They are nylon mesh bags, made for holding 5+ lbs of coffee, with an elastic band at the opening. It easily holds 10-15 lbs of grain. It's made by a company called Toddy Products. I've had excellent results using it in a bunch of standard mashes and few BIAB mashes.

I use Walmart voile fabric curtains that I have sewn into bags. The Wiserbrewer bags I have seen are great and his strength test proved to me that if built correctly the bags will survive any grainbill a homebrewer is going to attempt.

Yes, polyester voile is the fabric of choice. Size the bag to entirely line your kettle with extra depth to fold over the top. Stitch the bag with a taper at the bottom like shown in my avatar. Stitch the bag, turn inside out and stitch again twice FTW!

A drawstring at the top is handy as well! Cheers! PM me if you have any questions on sewing a bag!