Gear Cheesecloth & ISO

[Frederick McGuire]

Hey FC, I wasn't sure if this should go here or in ask fc
I just wanted to check if there's any reason I shouldn't put cheesecloth into some ISO?

I figure it should be fine, but it can't hurt to check with all you fine knowledgeable folks

Basically, I'm gonna line a mason jar with cheesecloth, then fill with ABV, then fill with ISO.
After a minute or so, pull out the cheesecloth, squeeze out the excess ISO, and pour what's left through a coffee filter to get the finer stuff out.

Then ABV dabs here I come

 

[WatTyler]

Well I use it, so I hope there're no ill effects. The only thing I can think of is the potential for residue from the bleaching process. But there can't be much wrong with it- my logic being that cheese cloth is meant to be in prolonged contact with food, and there's a good chance you could eat some of it on old cheese rind.

I find a potato ricer really very handy for squeezing all the iso out of the puck of cloth covered avb- you can really squeeze every last drop out, leaving the avb pretty dry. I keep bending the thin steel handle of mine though by squeezing so hard, so I'm on the look out for a more solid one.

 

[Frederick McGuire]

Haha, I'll have to add potato ricer to my list of "repurposed" kitchen utensils.
Thanks for the info on cheesecloth, makes me feel a lot better about using it

 

[quentin123]

I was using a cheesecloth for a similar purpose when water curing my ABV, but I found that it really let a lot of particles through and was massively inferior to a set of tights, that being said there is probably a much higher chance of some chemical in the set of tights being dissolved in iso but the extract I made from it was really quite nice. Maybe some cheesecloths are tighter than others because the one I was using really had rather large gaps in it.

 

[WatTyler]

yeah good point quentin- I always use at least a double or triple layer of cheese cloth

 

[Frederick McGuire]

Yeah, I was gonna double it up.

I don't need it to stop everything though, just most of the big stuff that I don't want to leave in the coffee filter while it does its thing.

 

[Lo]

I played around w/ cheesecloth and several other things as filters but the cloth does eat some of your liquid since it's absorbent. The best method I've found after a few years of playing has been a nylon tea strainer. It is NOT absorbent at all, has really tiny holes and fits perfectly over small mason jars so I can use a spoon to squeeze the last of the goodies out of the herb. Works fantastically well

http://www.republicoftea.com/product.aspx?p=V00978

Found mine at a health food store in the tea aisle

 

[AGBeer]

You can also look at some of the homebrew shops for the dry hop bags. Obviously they are very small mesh, but they are alcohol resistant (at least in beer/bigger brews).