Grain bag or cheese cloth

Going to be brewing my first batch that uses actual grain. They say to go get a "grain bag" but can I just use one of my wife's cheese cloths instead? Is there anything special about a grain bag?

I've used cheese cloth, it works fine

Like with anything in life conditions apply.

I am seeing a nylon mushing bags being sold by suppliers for the same price as a chesses close in my local grocery.... They say the bag will last 4-5 times easily.
Something like that !:
Austin Homebrew Supply



I tried using a pillow casing once... Maybe the pillow casing had to big of a thread count cause the grain starches "glued" the pillow casing it not to have good drainage there.

But the grain is crushed and the weight of grain plus some fluid that it observes... A single ply of cheesecloth may let some grain out, rip and otherwise will not let you take the bag out... (12-14lbs of grain plus the 1.5-2 gallons it will absorb according to my software)


A "one pound" mashing bag is like $0.75, I have read somewhere that people simply use a bunch of those...

A turkey fryer bucket lased with multiple layers of cheese cloth (or a mushing bag) is what I want to play with

paint strainer bags cost more then the mashing stuff I found @ my supplier .

unionrdr said:

I've never had problems with the muslin gran bags. The grain isn't like broken glass. They don't rip or tear. I also have a good way to keep them looking new.

Click to expand...

A "hop bag" I was using is close to End of Life. It did not get cut by the grain but buy just handling it... I did like 5 batches with it... Supplier Descriptions do not seem to tell much but more expensive bags seem to make a world of difference.


What bags are you using / by what supplier?

A good grain bag seems to be a commodity.

I brew all-grain recipes and don't use any bags at all! I fact, I toss the grains in the pot, mash, then filter throw a large strainer a few times to get my wort ready for boil. I end up composting the grains, so I prefer not to bag the grains. I should caveat this by saying I am only brewing for 1 gallon carbons, so my method probably wouldn't necessarily work for everyone.

So glad I found that last post. I'm looking into brewing all grain one gallon batches and was wondering if I could just pour the mash through strainers, considering the small sizes, to get the same effect. Will be trying this my next brew day!