[erockrph]

I drain my wort through a spigot and hose. I attach a sanitized lady's leg stocking to the hose with a zip tie. I drain into a bucket and then pour the bucket through a funnel into a carboy. It is very effective and cheap. I just bought 20 pair at WalMart for 18 cents a pair.

doesn't the ladies leg get sticky? She doesn't mind?

Another nice thing you can do is put some whole cone hops in the strainer or funnel and drain through them. they will act as a filter bed and give you some great hoppy aroma

I gotta figure that one out. When I've tried that in the past the hops float and swirl around. I don't get a filter bed. What am I missing? Thanks,

perhaps let it drain through more slowly so it doesn't float the hops? or press them gently between the funnel and a strainer. When I do it the strainer doesn't fill up with liquid so the hops don't float.

I use the pantyhose method when I'm doing this. I stuff an ounce or so of whole cone hops in the pantyhose then ziptie it to the end of my tubing. Then I rack to my fermenter through the hops. The hops help catch the trub and you can potentially extract some extra hoppy goodness on the way.

[joe_feist]

Thanks. Yeah, sounds like I've been overly aggressive with flow rate. I've always liked that idea as a simple hop back. Just couldn't make it work. Does it get better or act more "filtery" as it begins picking up stuff?

Sorry if I took the thread down a different road a ways...

[gymrat]

I kept getting clogged bottling wands and finding hop matter in my beers until I got one of these.


As an added bonus it helps oxygenate my wort.

I strain using 5 gallon paint strainers. That's a great strainer, anything special about it and where did you find it?

I got it at midwest supplies. It is stainless steel. I throw it in the dish washer after each use.

[69franx]

I know this is a couple months after the last post, but I am wondering about the shelf life of said paint strainer bags. Are you using as single use and dispose This would make "buying every time I go to Lowe's" understandable. Are they beat up too much after 1 use, or just too difficult to clean? I just want to know, have not used or even tried to use, but I like the idea a lot as the biggest PITA I have found on my brew days is getting cooled wort through my funnel without it backing up constantly. I seem to have a lot of break material and hop particles at end of boil that clog like crazy, even using muslin bags for hop additions. I currently do not have a kettle with a hose, so I am hand pouring 2-4 gallons through my funnel with no regular help: big PITA. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[morticaixavier]

I know this is a couple months after the last post, but I am wondering about the shelf life of said paint strainer bags. Are you using as single use and dispose This would make "buying every time I go to Lowe's" understandable. Are they beat up too much after 1 use, or just too difficult to clean? I just want to know, have not used or even tried to use, but I like the idea a lot as the biggest PITA I have found on my brew days is getting cooled wort through my funnel without it backing up constantly. I seem to have a lot of break material and hop particles at end of boil that clog like crazy, even using muslin bags for hop additions. I currently do not have a kettle with a hose, so I am hand pouring 2-4 gallons through my funnel with no regular help: big PITA. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

I use the nylon  bags on occasion and I find they work just fine for several (many) uses. I wash them out as best I can, even going so far as to put them through the laundry once in a while, and soak them in sanitizer in the fermenter until I'm ready to run off from the kettle. then line the bucket and let 'er rip.

[Joe Sr.]

I use paint strainer bags as grain bags and treat them much the way Mort does.

[69franx]

Thanks to you both. Just added to my list of brewing supplies.Cant wait to try them out!

[klickitat jim]

I'm lazy. I use one gallon paint strainer bags for my hop spider and dry hopping, and five gallon paint strainer bags for transfer to fermentor. I just toss them cuz their cheap. But I'm certain you could clean and reuse multiple times.

[hopfenundmalz]

Wash them out, turn them inside out an wash. A good way to get more gunk out is to boil them, which also sanitizes if you do right before use.

Been using them for a couple years.

[HoosierBrew]

Wash them out, turn them inside out an wash. A good way to get more gunk out is to boil them, which also sanitizes if you do right before use.

Been using them for a couple years.

Same thing I do. Occasionally on a big IPA where there is a ton of hop gunk I'll toss it, but otherwise I do the same.