6 Best Nylon Cheese Bags For Small Farms Old Farmers Swear By

You’ve got a gallon of warm, tangy milk just beginning to separate into curds and whey. The difference between a beautiful, firm chevre and a frustrating, sloppy mess often comes down to the bag you use for draining. For years, we relied on flimsy cheesecloth that tore, stuck to the curd, and was a nightmare to clean, but the game changed with the arrival of durable, reusable nylon bags. Choosing the right one is a small decision that has a huge impact on your final product, your cleanup time, and your sanity.

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, this site earns from qualifying purchases. Thank you!

Why Nylon Bags are a Farmstead Dairy Essential

Forget what you know about single-use cheesecloth. Modern nylon bags are the secret weapon for consistent, clean cheesemaking on a small scale. Their primary advantage is reusability. A well-made nylon bag can last for years of daily use, unlike cheesecloth which often gets tossed after one or two messy sessions.

This durability translates directly into better sanitation and less waste. Nylon doesn’t harbor bacteria the way natural fibers can, and it rinses clean with just hot water and a bit of soap, drying quickly. You get a sterile straining tool every time, which is critical for preventing unwanted flavors or contamination in your cheese.

The consistency these bags provide is invaluable. Because the mesh size is uniform and doesn’t stretch or warp like cloth, you get predictable results batch after batch. Whether you’re making yogurt, kefir cheese, or a simple farmer’s cheese, the bag performs the same way every time, letting you perfect your recipe without worrying about equipment failure.

Pro Quality Bags: Durability for Daily Use

When you’re making cheese or yogurt multiple times a week, you need a workhorse. Pro Quality bags are built for exactly that kind of relentless use. Their standout feature is heavy-duty, triple-stitched seams that can withstand the weight of heavy curds and the stress of repeated squeezing and twisting.

Imagine hanging two gallons of yogurt to drain for Greek yogurt. A bag with weak, single-stitched internal seams is a blowout waiting to happen, potentially wasting hours of work and precious milk. The external seams on these bags not only add strength but also prevent curds from getting trapped in crevices, making them far easier to clean thoroughly.

While their mesh might not be the absolute finest on the market, their reliability is the key tradeoff. They are designed to prevent catastrophic failure, which is the number one concern for anyone producing food consistently. This is the bag you buy when you’re moving from occasional hobbyist to a dedicated producer.

Ellie’s Best: Fine Mesh for Clearer Whey

Some cheesemaking projects are all about finesse, and that’s where Ellie’s Best bags shine. Their signature is an exceptionally fine mesh, often around 75 microns. This tight weave is designed to capture every last bit of milk solid, resulting in a higher cheese yield and stunningly clear whey.

Why does clear whey matter? If you’re using your whey to make a second batch of ricotta, for lacto-fermenting vegetables, or as a nutritional supplement for other farm animals, you want it free of curd particles. A finer mesh bag delivers a cleaner, more versatile byproduct, allowing you to get the most value from every gallon of milk.

The tradeoff for this precision is speed and maintenance. The fine mesh can drain more slowly and is more prone to clogging, especially with very thick curds. It requires a bit more patience and diligent cleaning, but for tasks where purity is paramount—like making silky smooth Greek yogurt or crystal-clear consommé—it’s the right tool for the job.

iAesthete Bags: The All-Purpose Dairy Bag

If you could only have one cheese bag in your kitchen, this would be it. The iAesthete bags strike a perfect balance between durable construction and a versatile mesh size, making them a true all-rounder. They are tough enough for daily use but fine enough to strain yogurt without significant solids loss.

One of their best design features is the rounded bottom corners. This simple detail is a game-changer for cleanup. In square-cornered bags, cheese curds and yogurt inevitably get packed into the corners, becoming difficult to scrape out and clean. The curved shape of these bags means a quick swipe with a spatula gets everything out, saving you time and frustration.

This is the ideal bag for someone just starting their cheesemaking journey or for a farmer who makes a wide variety of products. You can use it for chevre one day, labneh the next, and even for straining fruit pulp for jelly. It’s a practical, efficient tool that handles most dairy tasks with ease.

GoNuts Bags: Large Capacity for Bigger Batches

There comes a point when your one-gallon cheesemaking pot starts to feel small. When you scale up to three, four, or even five-gallon batches, your standard-sized bag becomes a major bottleneck. The GoNuts bags are built specifically to solve this problem, offering large capacities that can handle the output from a family milk cow or a few productive goats.

Trying to drain a five-gallon batch of curds in a small bag means working in messy, time-consuming batches. A single, large-capacity bag with a wide opening simplifies the entire process. You can pour the whole pot of curds and whey in at once, hang it from a sturdy hook, and walk away.

With a bag this large, construction is critical. The weight of the contents puts immense strain on the seams and the drawstring. These bags feature reinforced stitching and a heavy-duty cord that won’t snap or slip. They are an essential piece of equipment for anyone looking to increase their production volume efficiently.

EcoPeaceful Bags: A Sustainable, Reusable Choice

For many of us on the farm, how something is made matters as much as how it performs. EcoPeaceful bags are designed with sustainability in mind, often using unbleached, organic materials or extremely durable nylon intended to last a lifetime. This philosophy of buying once and buying well resonates deeply with the farmstead ethos of reducing waste.

The practical benefit of this approach is a product you can trust. These bags are built to withstand years of use without fraying or shedding fibers into your food. This is a crucial consideration for anyone who values the purity of their homegrown products.

Choosing a bag like this is about more than just straining cheese; it’s an investment in a tool that aligns with your values. It’s a small but meaningful way to ensure your kitchen practices are as sustainable as your farming practices.

Scengs 12×12 Bag: Ideal for Hard Cheeses

When you graduate from soft, fresh cheeses to pressed, aged cheeses like cheddar or gouda, your equipment needs change. A standard U-shaped bag is poorly suited for lining a cheese press. The seams and bunched-up material create uneven pressure, resulting in a lumpy, poorly formed cheese wheel that won’t age properly.

The Scengs 12×12 bag is essentially a square of durable, food-grade nylon cloth. Its shape is perfect for neatly lining a cheese mold, providing a smooth, seamless surface against the curd. This ensures even pressure distribution during pressing, which is essential for expelling the right amount of whey and creating a solid, uniform texture.

This isn’t a bag for hanging and draining; it’s a specialized tool for a specific, advanced step in cheesemaking. Having one on hand signals a serious commitment to the craft and is a necessary component for achieving professional-quality hard cheeses at home.

Choosing Your Bag: Mesh Size and Seam Strength

Ultimately, the best bag for you depends on what you make most often. The two most important factors to consider are mesh size and seam strength. Everything else is secondary.

Mesh size, measured in microns, determines what gets through. A smaller number means a finer mesh.

• Coarse Mesh (200+ microns): Best for large, firm curds like paneer. Drains very fast but will lose a lot of solids with yogurt.
• Medium Mesh (~150 microns): The all-purpose sweet spot. Great for soft goat cheese, farmer’s cheese, and decently thick yogurt.
• Fine Mesh (under 100 microns): The specialist for Greek yogurt, kefir cheese, and any application where you want to capture every possible solid and get crystal-clear whey.

Just as important is how the bag is held together. Look for triple-stitched external seams. Internal seams are a fatal flaw; they trap food particles, are nearly impossible to sanitize, and are often weaker. A strong drawstring is also non-negotiable, as it will bear the entire weight of your cheese as it hangs. Choose a bag built for the job, and it will serve you well for years.

A good nylon bag is a modest but essential investment, one that pays dividends in higher yields, better consistency, and less time spent cleaning. It’s a simple tool that removes a major point of failure from the cheesemaking process, letting you focus on the art of turning beautiful milk into delicious cheese. Pick the right one for your dairy, and you’ll wonder how you ever managed with anything else.