Can this insert replace a grain bag?

[Mindset83]

Hello all! First time brewer here and nice to find such a wealth of information. I've had a 1 gallon all grain kit for awhile and finally getting around to using it. I've replaced all the grains, hops, and yeast as it has been sitting in a corner of the house for some time and now I am ready to brew.

Since I am only brewing 1 gallon batches for the first few times I am using a 3 gallon stock pot for everything. One of my nice stock pots came with a mesh insert as well as a mesh basket and I was wondering if I could use the mesh insert for both the wort and the sparge. This would allow me to just lift up the insert and place it in the other 3 gallon stock pot filled with sparge water for easy transferring.

My only concern is that the mesh may not be fine enough. I've attached a picture but not sure if one could tell by looking at it. Just wanted some thoughts as to if it would work just as well as a grain bag. I know grain bags are cheap but if I already have this strainer available then why not use it.

 

[unionrdr]

It doesn't look like a fine mesh in the basket in the pic. In my experience, fine mesh is needed to keep the floury part of the grains out of the kettle.

 

[MaltedBayerl]

I don't know, those paint strainer bags work OK for people and they have a pretty wide mesh. Maybe just get a five gallon paint strainer bag and line the mesh basket with it if it looks finer than the stainless steel mesh. I like that basket a lot. It could maybe be used in your boil for whole hops too.

 

[CGish]

Mindset83,

I think unionrdr is right - the mesh is too coarse. However, you could buy or make a bag to line that basket and get the best of both worlds. The bag would do the filtering and the basket would allow you to transfer it easily from one pot to another. If you cannot make or find a bag, wilserbrewer - a member on this site - will make custom bags. I think you can use the basket, but you are going to need a liner for the finer parts of the crush.

Good Luck,
Cody

 

[edroberts]

In a typical mash tun setup, this mesh would be fine as you'd usually use the grain bed itself to filter out the floury particles through vorlauf. In BIAB, this is typically not done because the bag is fine enough to hold much of this out.

If there was a way you can pull the mesh basket out and slowly run the wort through the grain bed again, you'd essentially be doing that same mash tun vorlauf to clear out the finer particles and you're good to go.

Like @CGish said though, if you could line the inside of this with a fine mesh bag, you would be golden! I wish I had a strainer basket to hold my bad for BIAB... and this would be awesome.

 

[Brauer]

If I make a 1 gallon test batch I use a 5 gallon paint strainer bag in my crock pot with my stc1000 to control temp. I pull the bag and sparge in my brew pot. The paint strainer bag is fine enough. I works great.