Cheese Cloth for Easy Clean Up?

So I was just thinking about how much i hate cleaning the grain out of my braid and tun when the mash is over and then I had this idea.

What if I buy a large swatch of cheese cloth and line my tun with it, even though I have a braid in the bottom.

By doing this, I could potentially just lift the whole cloth out and dump it then wash down the tun with out having to worry about all the grain particles in the braid and such.

So, thoughts on this? Has anyone tried it? Anyone have a better idea? I am just trying to make mashing cleaner and easier to clean up since I do 5 gallon batches in my kitchen and would like to shorten and alleviate my cleaning times.

Do a search for BIAB -- Brew In A Bag

Tons of threads here for essentially the same concept, instead it removes a step. Instead of putting the bag in a cooler (which also works just fine) you put the bag directly in the pot and then just pull it out when the mash is done.

But I went through all the trouble of making a mash tun... I would hate for it to go to waste

Well for cleanup on a stainless steel braid, I recommend spraying it with a hose. That always works for me.


And you CAN put a bag in your mash tun, but if you're doing that then I don't see the point in keeping the braid there, really. You can also wrap your braid in cheesecloth, but then you have to clean the cheese cloth instead.

Cheese Cloth clogs easy, I tried to make hop bags that didn't work. Try the pain strainer bags.

I do this, I have a two or three meter strip of muslin that I double up and put in my 32litre cool box/mashtun. I initially got it for BIAB but I only did one or two of them before using a separate larger mash tun.

You do have to clean it of course, but I just hang it up on my washing line and blast it with the garden hose then let it dry, that seems to do the trick and only takes a few minutes. Unless you plan to throw it out but that seems like a waste to me, cheesecloth/muslin should last years of reuse

edit - I should say I only do this as I don't have a copper or SS manifold, I just use a raised wire mesh on the bottom, so the bag is essential for me. I'm too lazy to properly convert the cooler to a proper mash tun

Dont lie....you got the idea from this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBEwKxgU1wA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

HAHA absolutely... I ain't gonna scoop it if I don't have to.

At least you didnt have an idea like this one.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GF0X38/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I have an elderly neighbor who had no idea she had to clean that thing out once in awhile. I had to clean out caked on litter after the motor burned out cuz it couldnt spin anymore.

On topic....look into biab

mikeysab said:

At least you didnt have an idea like this one.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GF0X38/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I have an elderly neighbor who had no idea she had to clean that thing out once in awhile. I had to clean out caked on litter after the motor burned out cuz it couldnt spin anymore.

Click to expand...

My roommate in college...a man they gave a degree in aerospace engineering to, mind you, couldn't figure out where his hair went when he shaved with his electric razor. He asked me WTF has happening to all his hair at the end of the year...I opened the thing up and I swear it looked like a mouse was living inside his razor.

And I just sprayed my Founders Dirty Bastard all over my computer. Thanks. I knew I should have browsed HBT on my tablet today. (no keys = easy clean up.)