What’s first? Strainers! In this video, I’m reviewing the three most common types of strainers you’ll find behind the bar, and when and how I recommend using each.
The Three Most Common Bartending Strainers:
Here’s a quick overview of these three strainers and my recommendations.
Note – Some are Affiliate Links.
Hawthorne Strainer
This Hawthorne strainer was custom designed (from scratch) by Chris, to solve all his frustrations with other strainers on the market. It has a compact, ergonomic design, a high density spring, and is made with high quality SS304 so it will last!
Fine Mesh Strainer – 10cm Stainless Steel Reinforced Fine Strainer
We worked directly with the factory to make this fine strainer perfect for the bar. It’s bigger (10cm) to strain faster, has a comfortable handle that’s easy to grip, and most importantly built with reinforced welds so you can tap it against your shaker all you want – this handle will never break off!
Julep Strainer – Top Shelf Bar Supply
I recommend a julep strainer with an oval shape (not scalloped) and simple, straight handle. This is the one we sell and it’s a classic, trusty option.
What are you using?
Let me know in the comments what your favorite strainers are – I’m always on the lookout for the best tools out there. If you’d like to see all of the tools I recommend, check out the Resources page!
Click Here to view the Transcript
The three types of strainers that we have here are: the Julep strainer, the Hawthorne strainer which is characterized by having a spring that you can press, and the fine strainer here which we’ll use with shakes and cocktails. Great, so now let’s take a look and see how they all fit together and how to use these tools properly.
So let’s start off with our Julep strainer. The Julep strainer is actually designed to fit in these three glasses. So if you use a mixing glass behind your bar, it’s meant to go rather across the top, strain out any of the solids, the ice pieces and stuff like that. Also if you’re using a Cheater Tin, just put it right inside and you can pour very nicely out of it. And if you’re accustomed using glass, just put it nicely right on top of it and once again it separates all your big pieces.
Now for the Hawthorne strainer, this is designed to go over the large part of your Boston shaker. It also has this metal piece so you can control the tightness of the strainer. Since it does have all these springs in it, they can press and it will fit very snuggly over all of the other mixing glasses and Cheater Tins and everything else, which is kind of handy if this is all you have and you need to separate some of the finer stuff. It kind of compresses the coils down and enables you to do that.
Now with the fine strainer, this is meant specifically for any kind of shaking cocktails that you use. So it’s going to be in combination with either the Julep strainer or the Hawthorne strainer. And you’re basically just going to be using it to strain out any ice fragments that will get into your cocktails or any juice pulps if you’re using any freshly squeezed juices. I’ve been in a habit of using this and so just a demonstration: it should fit nicely over any of the glasses you’re using and you just pour it straight over like that
So there you have it. The three different strainers and how we utilize them behind mixology bars. So thank you very much. I hope you guys have a great shift and cheers!
