I was wondering if anyone has tried to use a 5 gal paint strainer bag in their primary. What I mean by this is to place the bag in the fermentor and then slowly submerge the bag. once it gets to the bottom, everything above the bag will be filtered, below will have the particulates. Does this make sense?
Paint Strainer Bag Question
- Thread starter dgoldb1
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Yes, that's why the sell 5 gallon paint strainer bags in most homebrewshops these days. 
dgoldb1
Well-Known Member
Just to clairify, beer has been in the primary for a month. I dry hopped last week. The hops have yet to settle to the bottom. I was thinking about getting the 5 gal bag and submerging it. Do you think the hops floating on top will allow the bag to act as a filter or will they clog the bag? This method seems like it may work better than wrapping it around the siphon.
Oh I thought you meant filtering on the way to the primary.
In your case all you need to do is rack carefully to your keg or bottling bucket. All the surface floating hops will just ride the top of the beer as the volume decreases in the fermenter and you will just leave them behind. You really don't want to get all freaky and fussy with already fermenting beer, you can do more damage, like oxidyze the beer while trying to do something that really doesn't need to be done.
Just take it slow and you shouldn't have too much trouble racking.
In your case all you need to do is rack carefully to your keg or bottling bucket. All the surface floating hops will just ride the top of the beer as the volume decreases in the fermenter and you will just leave them behind. You really don't want to get all freaky and fussy with already fermenting beer, you can do more damage, like oxidyze the beer while trying to do something that really doesn't need to be done.
Just take it slow and you shouldn't have too much trouble racking.
Yes at this stage it would hurt, you run the risk of oxydizing your beer.
Many of us just dump ALL our stuff into the fermenter everytime we brew. It all settles, and like I said, anything not settling tends to just float down as we rack over to the bottling bucket or keg and gets left behind.
Many of us just dump ALL our stuff into the fermenter everytime we brew. It all settles, and like I said, anything not settling tends to just float down as we rack over to the bottling bucket or keg and gets left behind.
dgoldb1
Well-Known Member
Against Revvy's recommendation I bought a 5 gal paint strainer bag, soaked it in Starsan for 5 min, then placed it in my primary. Conveniently, the bag had an elastic band around the top that fit nicely around the top outside of my primary bucket, holding it in place. I then slowly submerged the bag into the beer with the inlet of my auto siphon. WOW!, this worked better than I thought it would. The beer inside the strainer bag had no particulates at all, so clear. I saw no signs of possible oxidation/bubbles in the beer as a result of submerging the bag into the beer. I don't think this is much different than placing the bag around just the siphon, like many other people do. I think this method is better then placing it around the siphon because that method clogs very easily.
Any way, my first bottling experience went well.
I bought a 5 gal paint strainer bag, soaked it in Starsan for 5 min, then placed it in my primary. Conveniently, the bag had an elastic band around the top that fit nicely around the top outside of my primary bucket, holding it in place. I then slowly submerged the bag into the beer with the inlet of my auto siphon. WOW!, this worked better than I thought it would. The beer inside the strainer bag had no particulates at all, so clear. I saw no signs of possible oxidation/bubbles in the beer as a result of submerging the bag into the beer. I don't think this is much different than placing the bag around just the siphon, like many other people do. I think this method is better then placing it around the siphon because that method clogs very easily.Any way, my first bottling experience went well.
Don't worry about using any kind of strainer. Just let it sit in primary for a few weeks and all the crud will settle out and drop to the bottom. Then, as Revvy said, if you are careful about keeping the racking tube above the crud when you transfer it (and, naturally, not stirring it all up), all of that stuff will be left behind in the primary.
Nuggethead
Well-Known Member
I've tried racking under whole hops after wraping my cane with hop bags and always plug up constantly. Now I just rack carefully with my cane only from underneath and don't have any problems, so I side with Revy on this. Also, try not to move the fermenter at all before racking or more particles will fall from the surface and give you problems.
dgoldb1
Well-Known Member
I think the $1 for the strainer bag was worth not having particulates in my bottle, even if it was just for my peace of mind. I didnt even have to touch the auto siphon on during racking. I'll be doing this method again.
But the point is, you run the risk of oxydizing your beer at this stage by interjecting air into it. It's not too far to say that doing something like that could let some o2 in the mix since one of the ways folks intentionally aerat their beer is to pass it through a strainer type filter, which causes little bubbles....It's far better to do what you propose BEFORE you put the beer in the fermenter when it is just wort, than to do at THIS stage.
You may not agree with me, perhaps because you don't understand yet, about oxydation risks to already fermented beer,but I'm actually trying to prevent you from ruining your beer.....
But hey, if you like 5 gallons of liquid cardboard, it's your money......
Did you happen to notice the number of brewers who agreed with me?
Maybe we actually KNOW something you don't.
dgoldb1
Well-Known Member
There were zero bubbles rising to the surface of the beer when lowering the bag into the bucket. How can something oxidize if it does not come into contact with oxygen?
I totally agree with you Revvy and next time I'm going to place my IC inside the bag and rack that way, but this method appears to have worked for me this one time.
I totally agree with you Revvy and next time I'm going to place my IC inside the bag and rack that way, but this method appears to have worked for me this one time.
Sorry to bring up an old thread, but I'm curious how the bag would aerate the beer? I'm not saying I don't agree, but I guess I don't get how it introduces oxygen? I am only on my 4th batch, but I brewed an American Wheat that is way too cloudy. I know cloudy is the style, but I'm the one drinking this and it is just nasty cloudy.
Do little bubbles form in the holes in the bag or something like that? Seems like soaking it in StarSan and then putting it in while still wet might fill some of those holes?
I am not trying to be condescending or contradictory, I am just curious
Do little bubbles form in the holes in the bag or something like that? Seems like soaking it in StarSan and then putting it in while still wet might fill some of those holes?
I am not trying to be condescending or contradictory, I am just curious
smokewater
Well-Known Member
I think Revvy and the OP were having communication issues. Pouring the wort through the strainer would surely aerate it. Gently submerging a 5 gallon paint strainer into it with the tip of a racking cane not so much. Its really a pretty good process and would disturb the wort little more than gentle stirring to dissolve sugar does.
jjones17
Well-Known Member
If I may answer your question directly:
No.
It does not make sense to me. While I am sure to sound like knob, personally, I despise doing anything that is pointless. I read your previous comments about the "$1 bag worth it" in avoiding particulates in your beer. I have bottled many many batches, and if I have 'particulates' in my beer I call them yeast and hops. From what I know about beer, these are typically expected in bottle conditioned beers. Sometimes there is a bit more particles, sometimes less. Fact is, you will not notice any difference in taste or clarity in your beer whether you do this or not. I would put money on that, providing you are not racking poorly. You do not need every last drop of beer. Your beer will flocculate with or without the odd chunk of trub material.
If you care that much about not seeing 'the yucky stuff in your bottle', you need to use finings or filter and keg and forcecarb.
bovineblitz
Well-Known Member
IMO, good luck getting the strainer bag to behave how you want it to.
Use a 1 gallon bag, and tie it on the end of the siphon. It's a lot easier to manage that way. It can definitely help keep hop pellet particles out of your finished beer, especially when dry hopping.
gomb
Well-Known Member
Yup sanitize the bag and whatever you use to tie it off, tie it around the end of your autosiphon and rack away. I dont have to mess with trying to hold the cane at the right level to get the most beer and least junk this way. Just drop it in and go. No crap in my beer and it comes out pretty clear, outside the devil that is chill haze.
wolverinebrewer
Well-Known Member
I tried this method and it did not work very well. I was getting a slower flow and would see small air bubbles at the top of the auto-siphon where the racking cane bends. Plus I didn't like having all of the extra bag material getting in the way when I'm trying to manuever the auto-siphon down through the beer with little disturbance.
What worked 10X better was putting the bag on the other end of the outlet hose in the bottom of the bottle bucket. The flow is much better.
I think a key to having clear beer is beeing very careful and not disturbing the trub. Before I start, I set the bucket on the counter and prop up the back of the bucket about an 1". When racking, I hold the AS perpendicular tight along the wall of the low side of the bucket and keep just the black part of the AS below the surface. I follow it down as it get lower and virtually leave no beer in the bottom. It was a PITA when the bag was on this end of the hose as it was always getting in the way as well as ef-ing up the flow.
I like to dry-hop most of my beers so there is always suspended particles that you cannot avoid and will inevitably get into your bottle bucket but the bag gets 100% of that.
IMO, this method just seemed to work so much better.
