The Brew Bag vs. paint strainer bag efficiency

[valkommen]

I recently switched from using Home Depot paint strainer bags to The Brew Bag, and noticed a few percentage points drop in efficiency for the same amount of (light) bag squeeze.

The Brew Bag has a much finer mesh than the paint strainer bag, and I’m wondering if this is somehow the issue.

Has anyone else experienced a similar issue when switching over?

 

[Oginme]

I switched from paint strainer bags (from Amazon) to the Brew Bag a couple of years ago. Checking my records, the water absorption is pretty close to the same, maybe a hair lower for the Brew Bag. My efficiency has been steady. I do find that I get fewer grain particles and less fines coming through the Brew Bag.

In usage, I was going through a package of 5 paint strainer bags with an average of around 6 to 8 brews per bag. I've made 43 brews with my Brew Bag and just yesterday ordered a second.

 

[soccerdad]

I've never had a Brew Bag (use the Wilserbrewer bag) and I am not much of a squeezer, so my experience will be totally different, but it does seem to me that with time, any excess wort will escape the bag regardless of mesh size. I setmy bag in a large colander over a bucket as I do a few other things. I set a weight on it (cast iron bacon press .. actually a panini press, I think). By the time the wort in the kettle is about to a boil, the cooler wort in the bucket is ready to add back. The cooler wort in the bucket varies from batch to batch, but never by more than a cup or so (8 ounces)

 

[Gytaryst]

I recently switched from using Home Depot paint strainer bags to The Brew Bag, and noticed a few percentage points drop in efficiency for the same amount of (light) bag squeeze.

The Brew Bag has a much finer mesh than the paint strainer bag, and I’m wondering if this is somehow the issue.

Has anyone else experienced a similar issue when switching over?

Not that specific issue. I switched to the brew bag awhile ago. After 4 or 5 brews I noticed the brew bag was developing a lot of small holes, like runs in pantyhose. I contacted them and they weren't helpful. I threw the $30 bag in the trash and went back to the cheap paint strainers - lesson learned.
Education is a wonderful thang!

 

[soccerdad]

Not to favor one over the other (I have no experience with The Brew Bag), but in several years of using Wilser bags, I have never had any sort of fabric deterioration. Even with a therm probe in the kettle. That could be due to Mike using higher qualify fabric or maybe custom fitting to my kettle measurements. Either way, never an issue.

 

[Gytaryst]

My wife has been sewing since she could walk. She and her mother are as fanatical about sewing as I am about brewing. Their sewing machines cost like $10k and then they have to buy all this software crap that costs hundreds of dollars. It all seems a bit much for sewing to me, but they say the same thing about my beer brewing.

The point is, she has bought different fabrics and custom made me different bags for different things. I looked at "The Brew Bag" and liked the heavy duty straps cris-crossed. I showed it to her and she said $30 wasn't a bad price - it would probably cost her close to that plus time. So I bought one.

In the end I liked the nylon paint strainer bags because they didn't absorb anything like the natural fibers do. I got away from using bags altogether when I was doing large batch all grain. But I got rid of all my equipment and now I'm going to 1 gallon small batch BIAB. I'll probably just stick with the nylon paint strainers. They work fine and they're cheap.

 

[mirthfuldragon]

I have a Brew Bag that came used with some gear I bought, so no clue how many batches it already had on it, but it has about 20 more now, with no really noticeable deterioration. The strap handles are nice for lifting it out of the pot.

 

[MaxStout]

I'm not a Brew Bag user (I use Wilser bags), but perhaps this should be viewed more generally as "premium" bags (Wilser, Brew Bag, et al) vs. paint bags. The paint bags are much coarser. While this may allow wort to drain out faster it also allows more grain and hull fragments to pass through, resulting in much more trub. After mash is completed, I hoist the bag above the wort, and let it drain while I heat to a boil. In that 20 minutes or so, just about all the wort has drained into the kettle. A couple squeezes might net me another cup or so.

Paint bags are a great way for someone to give BIAB a try on the cheap. But if a brewer wants to continue BIAB, it only makes sense to get a custom-fitted bag. Take care of it and it will last years.

 

[4of7]

I use painter strainer outside inside some biab i got at hbs..i like two bags.,.I also like 3-4 hr brewdays..sorry i do not take any readings

 

[wilserbrewer]

Paint strainer bags are a very coarse mesh and pass a lot of fines to your brew, and my guess this is a gravity bump as well. But this all settles in the fermenter.

I suspect that your “higher efficiency” is just more particulate in your wort, and not really more sugar?

To know for sure you would need to look at brewhouse efficiency, or how much beer comes out of the fermenter.

I suspect a larger trub cake w a coarse mesh bag....this more suspended solids in your post boil gravity sample giving a slightly high false OG.

3 gravity points is not much....most don’t measure that accurately.

 

[Oginme]

Paint strainer bags are a very coarse mesh and pass a lot of fines to your brew, and my guess this is a gravity bump as well. But this all settles in the fermenter.

I suspect that your “higher efficiency” is just more particulate in your wort, and not really more sugar?

To know for sure you would need to look at brewhouse efficiency, or how much beer comes out of the fermenter.

I suspect a larger trub cake w a coarse mesh bag....this more suspended solids in your post boil gravity sample giving a slightly high false OG.

3 gravity points is not much....most don’t measure that accurately.

Yup, nailed it on this reply. I checked my records from using paint strainer bags vs. my Brew Bag. I used to get 0.96 liters of trub with the paint strainer and get an average of 0.77 liters with the Brew Bag. The next one I order will definitely be from Wilser, I just keep missing the sales