Filtering with 5gal paint strainer bag while bottling?

[cuserjuicer]

I'm ready to bottle my American IPA thats been sitting in secondary fermentation for about 3 weeks. I dry-hopped with pellets and there is some hop material floating on the top of the fermenter.

My question is: Since I have a 5gal paint strainer, can I attach this to my racking cane when I place in the fermenter when I rack to the bottling bucket? Will it prevent some of the hop material in getting into the bottles? Is this a bad idea?

 

[aiptasia]

As long as you aren't disturbing the finished beer too much, it should be fine. I'd probably use a hops bag and rubber band it over your racking cane. Once the beer is finished fermenting, you need to be careful about exposing it to too much oxygen. If you oxidize the beer, it will develop cardboard/wet leather off flavors.

 

[D_Nyholm]

I also don't feel that the paint strainer bags are fine enough to really catch that much. It will most likely catch most of the hops but not all. A hop bag may work slightly better, but something in the 300 to 400 micron range will work better.

 

[terrapinj]

they work great for stopping hop debris - i've used them numerous times and never noticed any hop debris in bottles or kegs

the small muslin hop sacks tend to get sucked into the siphon and clog IME

if you can cold crash for a few days before racking it will make it even easier