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Author Topic: How do you clean and reuse your grain and/or hop bags?  (Read 16290 times)

Offline beerrat

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How do you clean and reuse your grain and/or hop bags?
« on: January 24, 2010, 10:06:20 am »
I soak mine in PBW and then rinse after use. There is still some "hop green/wort brown" discoloring and a little debris in the seams/stitching. 

Does it matter?  I'm assuming so miniscule that the reuse in boiling wort makes this all irrelevant, but figured I'd ask as only brewing for 2 years.

Offline a10t2

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Re: How do you clean and reuse your grain and/or hop bags?
« Reply #1 on: January 24, 2010, 10:08:57 am »
I always turned them inside out and ran them through the dishwasher.
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Offline denny

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Re: How do you clean and reuse your grain and/or hop bags?
« Reply #2 on: January 24, 2010, 10:58:29 am »
I just rinse 'em off.
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Offline mr_jeffers

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Re: How do you clean and reuse your grain and/or hop bags?
« Reply #3 on: January 25, 2010, 08:37:12 pm »
I just rinse 'em off.

+1  I usually turn it inside out and do my best at rinsing it out in the sink.  I relax, I don't worry about what little bits I may have missed, and have a homebrew or two.
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Offline makemehoppy

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Re: How do you clean and reuse your grain and/or hop bags?
« Reply #4 on: January 26, 2010, 08:26:34 am »
I just rinse them out turning inside out. I let them air dry and sometimes there is some powdery substance on them that I just shake off. They are discolored, but the mesh holes are the same as when they were new. I'm about 18 months using the same hop bags and grain sparging bag.

Offline kuphish

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Re: How do you clean and reuse your grain and/or hop bags?
« Reply #5 on: February 07, 2010, 08:53:09 am »
I rinse them off and toss them in the laundry. 

Offline babalu87

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Re: How do you clean and reuse your grain and/or hop bags?
« Reply #6 on: February 08, 2010, 05:47:31 am »
I just rinse 'em off.

+1 to this.

Boiling does a great job on sanitizing.

and I just rinse out the mash tun too
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Offline hamiltont

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Re: How do you clean and reuse your grain and/or hop bags?
« Reply #7 on: February 08, 2010, 07:02:38 am »
Turn inside out. Rinse.  Dry.  Hit it with the air hose. Sanitize in the next boil. Repeat....  ;D
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Offline denny

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Re: How do you clean and reuse your grain and/or hop bags?
« Reply #8 on: February 08, 2010, 09:40:58 am »
Turn inside out. Rinse.  Dry.  Hit it with the air hose. Sanitize in the next boil. Repeat....  ;D

Pretty much the same for me.  Once a year I toss 'em in the washer.
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Offline bluesman

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Re: How do you clean and reuse your grain and/or hop bags?
« Reply #9 on: February 08, 2010, 10:40:16 am »
If your talking about muslin bags. I don't reuse them. They're cheap enough to just replace. My time is worth more than the bag cost. Unless I am making an IPA with a pound or more and in that case I just hang a paint strainer bag. YMMV.  8)
Ron Price

Offline beerrat

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Re: How do you clean and reuse your grain and/or hop bags?
« Reply #10 on: February 08, 2010, 05:18:23 pm »
Thanks all - I'm cheap and like to use things until they have holes in.. just my nature  ;D.  

So I chose to relax, rinse and shake the dust out and realize that the minute amount of stuff that may actually cling to these suckers will boil off and not do a dang thing to a 5gal batch.  Hey, if it didn't tint nor flavor the lager I made, then not going to impact anything else I make.

Offline yugamrap

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Re: How do you clean and reuse your grain and/or hop bags?
« Reply #11 on: February 09, 2010, 06:55:30 pm »
I have some towels and cloths that I use only for cleaning and drying my brewing gear.  So, after emptying the bags (paint strainer type) I give them a rinse.  Then, at the end of a brew day, I toss them in the washing machine with the towels and cloths and wash all of it with OxiClean only.  The towels and cloths go in the dryer, and I hang the hop bags to drip dry.
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Offline toastedman

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Re: How do you clean and reuse your grain and/or hop bags?
« Reply #12 on: February 10, 2010, 09:10:20 pm »
       i use only 5gal paint strainer bags, cheap at the hardware store, i hookem on a piece of copper wire an hang over side of keggle, when i'm done i turn inside-out over a cornie an hit them with my power washer, clean as new, cept for off color, sanitize in the next brew-boil.

Offline tfries

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Re: How do you clean and reuse your grain and/or hop bags?
« Reply #13 on: February 17, 2010, 02:12:58 pm »
What ever you do, do not put them into a bleach solution and forget about them for a few days like I did once.  When I remembered about them, they had dissolved to the point of being useless.
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