Opening sacks of grain

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nealperkins

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OK, I'm swallowing what little pride I have left to ask...how the heck do you determine how to 'properly' open a sack of grain?

Every now and then I get one to zip right open but, not often enough.

Thanks
 
I was taught while working for a local brewery to cut the last two loops on the end of the bag and then pull the remaining string and it would just all come out and fall apart easily. I never truly got the hang of it and there were always at least a few bags that took me forever to open while milling grain for them. The brewers there are able to do it with one hand by pulling one string the very first time. Its impressive to watch for sure and definitely made me feel stupid.
 
Yea, it is pretty easy. Video doesn't show it, but it opens right up after I removed that white string.

[ame]http://youtu.be/eDi7ZyH1ubs[/ame]

1: Bag logo faces you
2012-12-08-at-123550-57573.jpg


2: Insert the scissors into the area where the bag is folded over, and cut.
2012-12-08-at-123717-57574.jpg


3: If you did step 2 properly, the bag sort of opens up at the side, like in this pic. If you don't cut in the right place, you won't get it open
2012-12-08-at-123731-57575.jpg


4. Grab the WHITE string and pull. For whatever reason, mine only opened about 3/4 of the way, then it snagged.
2012-12-08-at-123822-57576.jpg
 
I was taught while working for a local brewery to cut the last two loops on the end of the bag and then pull the remaining string and it would just all come out and fall apart easily. I never truly got the hang of it and there were always at least a few bags that took me forever to open while milling grain for them. The brewers there are able to do it with one hand by pulling one string the very first time. Its impressive to watch for sure and definitely made me feel stupid.

9 times out of 10 I can pull the string out easily but there always is that 1 time (when you need to immediately add the last bag for milling) when the string gets stuck (generally at the beginning) and I end up kludging my way down the bag pulling and snipping with the scissors until I am about 1/3 of the way through and then it miraculously does what it is supposed to do. I think that Wyerman and the other maltsters do this on purpose :)
 
I can't believe this is the first I've heard of this. Makes sense. I store my bags in totes though and it's much easier to knife the side of the bag than to stand it up and pull the string. I've run quite a bit of grain through my mill and bag fragments haven't siezed it up yet.
 
I used to work in a grocery store when I was 15 yo, a sack of potatoes and malt bag work the same way when you open them, I guess was always a no brainer for me.
 
I can't believe this is the first I've heard of this. Makes sense. I store my bags in totes though and it's much easier to knife the side of the bag than to stand it up and pull the string. I've run quite a bit of grain through my mill and bag fragments haven't siezed it up yet.

You will probably be ok on a home brew scale/system using a knife since you are ot running bags through on a regular basis. My reference point is a 7 bbl system where you are dumping multiple bags and where it can quickly become a problem.
 
I get to open a lot of grain sacks and if you pull the correct string it should open right up like shown above. Sometimes it only goes part way and gets stuck. When that happens you grab the other string and pull it until you get to where the first one is stuck and them gently pull both strings at once.
 
So, I wonder why the maltsters are different? The red v white strings of Weyerman do make life easier (and so does the plastic strip sown into the stitching of the bird seed). So, I general pull all the threads.

Is there any key of starting from the left or right for certain brands?
 
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