paint strainers for grain bags?

recently watched a youtube vid (posted by jakecpunut) he was doing his first all grain batch. i am going to do my first patial mash soon.

he used paint strainer bags (1 gallon, from lowes) for hop bags.
i looked at the lowes web site and they sell 2 per pack, 5 gallon paint strainer bags in my area for $5 per 2-pack.

can any1 help me? can i use these as grain bags to mash my grains in a 5 gallon bucket then sparge them in a collander.

will they work as well as the 10 dollar bags midwest and northern brewer sell in their catalogs

any input on this is greatly appreciated

Just ued them today for the first time...seemed to work fin

You can find BIAB tutorials on this site that explain that using the paint strainer bags from Lowes/Home Depot for BIAB works great. I used two 5 gallon bags doubled up for an 11lb grain bill last weekend. Worked great for me too.

Another advantage to these is that they have an elastic rim. The ones you will get from homebrew shops generally don't have the elastic rims, and you have to use clips or something to hold the bag onto the rim of the kettle. The elastic part of the paint strainer bags clings to the rim of the kettle quite nicely. No need for clips!

There's a ton of threads on this. We've been using nylon paint strainer bags for years.

+1... much better than muslin... best things ever

Yep, I just used these same bags from Lowe's today myself. A 5gal for the grain on a partial mash and the 2-1gal for the hops additions. Worked great. They are finer than the bag I bought at my LHB store.

Do you guys reuse these bags or just toss them afterwards? I'm thinking of using a 5 gallon bag when moving to primary from the brew kettle to reduce the trub amount in my primary.

VAShooter said:

Do you guys reuse these bags or just toss them afterwards? I'm thinking of using a 5 gallon bag when moving to primary from the brew kettle to reduce the trub amount in my primary.

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rinse and reuse..

I reuse them. Dump grain, rinse, hang to dry, brush off any grain that didn't rinse out, store until next time.

Run them through the wash, with a little bleach.

I love em. They are really easy to clean in you turn them inside out so that the hop particles don't get all stuck in the stiching.

thank you to all for your help

just bought a 2 pack today .. a buck fifty a piece ...what a steal !!

1.) Bigger than my old grain bag from the LHBS.
2.) Elastic rim fits perfectly around my brew pot.
3.) Cleans much easier than my old bag
4.) Cheap!!

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = WIN!!!

I found that when using them for grains I get 3-4 uses out of them before the bag starts to get runs or tears in it, but I am pretty rough with them. Hops, I haven't had to replace one yet (10+ batches)

I just finished a BIAB and I attached the grain bag to my hop spider and ran the recirc tube through the top, that worked great.

Paint strainers work just fine. The 5g are a bit small for high OG brews, perfect for say 1046.

Most HBS carry big grain bags for $2-$3 and they work pretty perfect for higher OG brews.

Not sure if anyone here is still on but I need to ask if anyone has done a 21# grain bill with paint strainers. Im thinking about dividing up the 21# into 3 separate bags at 7# or use 4 bags and have 5# in each. This is for a 10 gallon batch in my keggle.

I use the 5gal bags when going from the kettle to the fermenter, they work fantastic.

Never leave HD/Lowes without one
Toy4Rick

Yeah im going to try the paint strainer as my bag for biab.

eluterio said:

Not sure if anyone here is still on but I need to ask if anyone has done a 21# grain bill with paint strainers. Im thinking about dividing up the 21# into 3 separate bags at 7# or use 4 bags and have 5# in each. This is for a 10 gallon batch in my keggle.

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I put 7lbs per 5 gallon bag. Works well and is easier to stir. I tried one larger bag, but it caught on the built in thermometer and ripped.

Hawkeye11 said:

I put 7lbs per 5 gallon bag. Works well and is easier to stir. I tried one larger bag, but it caught on the built in thermometer and ripped.

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Thats what i was looking for. Planning on doing that the paint strainer bags see how it works.

I brewed my first BIAB yesterday and I put 13.5 lbs into the lowes 5 gallon paint strainer. It was WAY too much grain, and I should have used 2 bags.

Spartangreen said:

I brewed my first BIAB yesterday and I put 13.5 lbs into the lowes 5 gallon paint strainer. It was WAY too much grain, and I should have used 2 bags.

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Yeah plan on 3 to 4 bags about 5 lbs per or 7 for 3 bags. Ill pull mine out and place in bucket and sparge with about a gallon each bag. I want to make sure i get my eff as high as possible.

Forgot to mention ive got a 21 lbs grain bill for 10.5 gallon batch in a keggle. Should be fun.

Toy4Rick said:

I use the 5gal bags when going from the kettle to the fermenter, they work fantastic.

Never leave HD/Lowes without one
Toy4Rick

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^^ This. I was getting pretty decent at whirlpooling (which takes some practice to get right), and have also done the "scrape the colander" dance with a few hop-heavy beers (you too can take 25 minutes to move your wort at its most vulnerable stage), and even the "F it, dump it all in and let the yeast sort it out" pour (which loses you lots of beer to the gigantic yeast cake).

Never again. My friend decided to try it in his bottling bucket to keep out the crazy hop trub from dry hopping his DFH 90 minute clone, and was so impressed he tried it between kettle and primary.

It works amazingly well; why is paint strainer use not the standard process taught with kits?

-Rich

eluterio said:

Not sure if anyone here is still on but I need to ask if anyone has done a 21# grain bill with paint strainers. Im thinking about dividing up the 21# into 3 separate bags at 7# or use 4 bags and have 5# in each. This is for a 10 gallon batch in my keggle.

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Man the largest I've done is 17lbs for a hg 5 gallon batch mashed in my 9 gal pot. Use only 1 Lowes paint strainer. I like the Lowes strainers better as the HD ones have a tag that I have to remove. A dozen plus or so batches and no issues. With 21 lbs man I would double wrap that rascal. Even with that said I just got a keggle and bought a jumbo 2'x3' bag from eBay to use with it.

eluterio said:

Forgot to mention ive got a 21 lbs grain bill for 10.5 gallon batch in a keggle. Should be fun.

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For a grain bill that large, I would consider buying one of the bags from MoreBeer. Great bag and lots of happy users. I've used mine several times and could not be happier...

Check it out here. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/29-x29-morebeer-biab-bag-5-50-a-376435/

I manage a paint store, paint strainers are one of a couple things that I have adopted from work into my brew day. We sell 3 packs of commercial paint pump inlet strainer bags. They are nylon bags about 6" by 8" with a drawstring and I use them for hop bags. We also sell a different style of five gallon strainer that sits one the run of the bucket that I use to help strain of trub and aerate. With my discount I get the different bags so cheap I just throw them away, its not worth cleaning them.

When I first switched from extract to part mash and steeping grains I used the paint strainer bag with binder clips to keep in on top. Worked fine. SInce then I have moved on to AG and a Voile fabric bag I fabricated from a silder sized drapery panel cut in half. Works fine. The general rule is the bag needs to be big enough to completely contain the brew kettle. I put a draw string on mine to have something to tie it off when open and close it up neatly when lifting it out.

CPORT546 said:

I manage a paint store, paint strainers are one of a couple things that I have adopted from work into my brew day. We sell 3 packs of commercial paint pump inlet strainer bags. They are nylon bags about 6" by 8" with a drawstring and I use them for hop bags. We also sell a different style of five gallon strainer that sits one the run of the bucket that I use to help strain of trub and aerate. With my discount I get the different bags so cheap I just throw them away, its not worth cleaning them.

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Those paint pump bags look perfect to put over the end of the siphon inlet when racking to the bottling bucket after dry hopping when you have little hop particles that aren't covered by the yeast cake. I use a 5 gallon paint strainer bag held onto my autosiphon with a rubber band but it is a bit large.

Is anyone else considering using these fine mesh bags (or other fine mesh strainers) in a different way than holding the grain during the mash? It seems much easier to stir and prevent clumping when mashing unbagged grain. We are essentially relying on the bag for it's filtering ability. You don't necessarily have to mash in the bag in order to keep the grain and particulates out of the boil kettle.

The bag does help if you are dunk sparging, but not so much anything else. Cleaning a kettle that you mash in with loose grain is just as easy, if not easier, than cleaning a kettle that you mash in with bagged grain. You don't need a bag to keep the grain out of the main kettle, and you will still be cleaning and reusing the bag if you choose to mash in it.

What do you guys think? I believe most BIAB'ers are mashing in a kettle (instead of a cooler) with the bag wrapped around the kettle brim if it fits. Other ways to use the bag and not necessarily BIAB??

I myself am a bit worried about mashing and/or boiling these bags. They are either made of nylon or polyester, and not labeled for food use, and we boil them for an hour in our beer...it seems a bit dangerous. There's all this discussion about which buckets are food safe and so on and then people go buy something sold as a paint strainer and use it in their beer...thoughts?

The bag is removed before you start the boil. I sanitize my bag before using.

I plan on using the bags to place grains in. Pull them out dump in a bucket and sparge and drain. Dump the left over wort into the keggle and boil.

NivekD said:

The bag is removed before you start the boil. I sanitize my bag before using.

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Lots of people use them for hops bags, though.

BetterSense said:

Lots of people use them for hops bags, though.

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Yes i plan on getting a 1 gallon one amf doing that.

Stretch a paint strainer bag (sanitized) over your fermenter bucket, pour the wort in, pull out the bag with nearly all the hop particles so you don't have it in the yeast that you save.

bobbrews said:

Is anyone else considering using these fine mesh bags (or other fine mesh strainers) in a different way than holding the grain during the mash? * * * Other ways to use the bag and not necessarily BIAB??

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I use the paint strainer bags for three things: 1) dry hop in primary; 2) hop bag in boil kettle (I clip a 5 gallon bag to the keggle and add hops to the same bag as required); and 3) to cover my manifold in the mash tun. I use a cpvc manifold in my cooler mash tun and I put it in a paint strainer bag for the mash. It keeps almost everything except the wort from entering the manifold to be drained. None of the small particles of grain that would otherwise get in the manifold get past the strainer. It is so effective that it is not really necessary to vorlauf if you batch sparge like me. Yes, it is one more thing to wash but worth it to me.

RM-MN said:

Those paint pump bags look perfect to put over the end of the siphon inlet when racking to the bottling bucket after dry hopping when you have little hop particles that aren't covered by the yeast cake. I use a 5 gallon paint strainer bag held onto my autosiphon with a rubber band but it is a bit large.

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You might still need the rubber band to hold it up but it should work the same as a paint strainer bag. They are made from the same material.

BetterSense said:

I myself am a bit worried about mashing and/or boiling these bags. They are either made of nylon or polyester, and not labeled for food use, and we boil them for an hour in our beer...it seems a bit dangerous. There's all this discussion about which buckets are food safe and so on and then people go buy something sold as a paint strainer and use it in their beer...thoughts?

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You don't boil with the bag in place, just Mash at 150 or so for an hour, then remove.