paint strainers for grain bags?

[bobbrews]

Is anyone else considering using these fine mesh bags (or other fine mesh strainers) in a different way than holding the grain during the mash? It seems much easier to stir and prevent clumping when mashing unbagged grain. We are essentially relying on the bag for it's filtering ability. You don't necessarily have to mash in the bag in order to keep the grain and particulates out of the boil kettle.

The bag does help if you are dunk sparging, but not so much anything else. Cleaning a kettle that you mash in with loose grain is just as easy, if not easier, than cleaning a kettle that you mash in with bagged grain. You don't need a bag to keep the grain out of the main kettle, and you will still be cleaning and reusing the bag if you choose to mash in it.

What do you guys think? I believe most BIAB'ers are mashing in a kettle (instead of a cooler) with the bag wrapped around the kettle brim if it fits. Other ways to use the bag and not necessarily BIAB??

 

[BetterSense]

I myself am a bit worried about mashing and/or boiling these bags. They are either made of nylon or polyester, and not labeled for food use, and we boil them for an hour in our beer...it seems a bit dangerous. There's all this discussion about which buckets are food safe and so on and then people go buy something sold as a paint strainer and use it in their beer...thoughts?

 

[NivekD]

The bag is removed before you start the boil. I sanitize my bag before using.

 

[eluterio]

I plan on using the bags to place grains in. Pull them out dump in a bucket and sparge and drain. Dump the left over wort into the keggle and boil.

 

[BetterSense]

The bag is removed before you start the boil. I sanitize my bag before using.

Lots of people use them for hops bags, though.

 

[eluterio]

Lots of people use them for hops bags, though.

Yes i plan on getting a 1 gallon one amf doing that.

 

[RM-MN]

Stretch a paint strainer bag (sanitized) over your fermenter bucket, pour the wort in, pull out the bag with nearly all the hop particles so you don't have it in the yeast that you save.

 

[DirtyOldDuck]

Is anyone else considering using these fine mesh bags (or other fine mesh strainers) in a different way than holding the grain during the mash? * * * Other ways to use the bag and not necessarily BIAB??

I use the paint strainer bags for three things: 1) dry hop in primary; 2) hop bag in boil kettle (I clip a 5 gallon bag to the keggle and add hops to the same bag as required); and 3) to cover my manifold in the mash tun. I use a cpvc manifold in my cooler mash tun and I put it in a paint strainer bag for the mash. It keeps almost everything except the wort from entering the manifold to be drained. None of the small particles of grain that would otherwise get in the manifold get past the strainer. It is so effective that it is not really necessary to vorlauf if you batch sparge like me. Yes, it is one more thing to wash but worth it to me.

 

[CPORT546]

Those paint pump bags look perfect to put over the end of the siphon inlet when racking to the bottling bucket after dry hopping when you have little hop particles that aren't covered by the yeast cake. I use a 5 gallon paint strainer bag held onto my autosiphon with a rubber band but it is a bit large.

You might still need the rubber band to hold it up but it should work the same as a paint strainer bag. They are made from the same material.

 

[Hawkeye11]

I myself am a bit worried about mashing and/or boiling these bags. They are either made of nylon or polyester, and not labeled for food use, and we boil them for an hour in our beer...it seems a bit dangerous. There's all this discussion about which buckets are food safe and so on and then people go buy something sold as a paint strainer and use it in their beer...thoughts?

You don't boil with the bag in place, just Mash at 150 or so for an hour, then remove.