Cheese Cloth instead of Muslin bags?

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lazylabbrew

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I am a Noob and am trying to get a few less floaters in my brew... Is it ok to use cheese cloth instead of muslin as a 'spice/hop' bag? Will this affect my beer much or not at all. There are no local homebrew shops within 150 miles so that is not an option. What are some other things i can put my hops in to keep them from ending up at the bottom of my bucket and in my bottles?

Any advice is welcome

LazyLab

Primary... Bust A Move Brown Ale
Secondary... Empty
Bottled ... Kiss Me I'm Irish Red Ale
In the works... Liberty Cream Ale.... :mug:
 
Cheesecloth is fine, all it has to do is keep Most of the grains together. You could also use a layer in your strainer when you pour from the brew pot into the fermenter. If you rack carefully you won't get much of a floater in the bottling bucket or keg.
 
I used cheesecloth once or maybe twice for straining stuff. It really doesn't work well because the holes are too large and the material isn't particularly strong to boot. When I tried to double and triple layer it, it basically created more problems than it solved because then it got clogged really easily compared to a mesh bag.

However, if you have a Home Depot, Lowe's or other place that sells painting supplies, what you can use is a paint strainer mesh bag. I use a 5 gallon bag, but you can use smaller ones if you like. They have an elastic band around the outside that make it easy to snap onto my smaller 7.5 gallon pot. They cost maybe a couple of bucks and you get 2 bags in a pack usually.


Buying the bags at the homebrew store is a rip-off IMO.
 
I use the nylon bags from Home Depot during the brewing, works well and could probably reuse them if you had to. might also work for dryhopping, although I never tried it. I use the cheesecloth to filter my wort after I cool it and before I add it to the fermenter. It adds an extra degree of aeration for the wort.
 
I will second NBBC13's recommendation. An excellent extremely cheap substitute are the nylon paint strainer bags from Home Depot, Lowes, etc. They sell them in 1,3, and 5-gallon sizes and only cost a couple of bucks for a pack of them.

When I was still using the Bayou Classic pot for brewing, I found the 5 gallon bag would fit around the entire lip of the kettle, and I would secure it with a couple of binder clips.

Nowadays I use a much larger kettle so those paint strainer bags won't fit. I have since switched to using the fine mesh nylon filter bags that are commonly used for aquariums and the like, and hang them from my mash paddle (which I place over the pot) during the boil for my hops additions.

For grains, I custom-made a BIAB bag for my kettle using $12 worth of materials I picked up at a fabric shop.
 
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