Cleaning Hop Sacks

Howdy folks,

Hey, just brewed my 1st batch using UME, so added my own hops for the first time, and used hop sacks.

I'm almost positive that I've been reading that the sacks are reusable, but now that I'm done, I'm wondering what most people do to actually clean them out.

Since they go into boils, is it really necessary to get carried away with making sure they are really clean? I turned them inside out to get the used hops out into the trashcan, and ran them under running water and rinsed and used my hands to try and get most of the leafy bits out, but there's still alot of crumbs.

The hanging over a pipe in the basement now to air-dry.

What do most people do?

You'll be fine just letting it dry and then using it in the boil, as you said it gets boiled. I'll usually rinse it under water then throw it in the wash, well I used to when I used hop sacks.

I turn them inside out like you mentioned and then air dry. When completely dry I just work the material a bit to get all the dried flakes out.

I've only dry hopped once, and when I did, I added pellets to secondary. Big mistake. So when I racked the beer to tertiary I wrapped the end of the siphon hose in the destination carboy with a hop sack (after sanitizing it). Worked great as a filter.

Agree. Would caution you against washing it with a load containing fabric softener or detergent containing oily fragrance. I don't buy that crap anyway but some people do.

MajorWoody said:

Agree. Would caution you against washing it with a load containing fabric softener or detergent containing oily fragrance. I don't buy that crap anyway but some people do.

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Good point, I also don't use that stuff. I've also heard you can just put them in the dishwasher.

Also when it dries if there are any particles left you can sort of wad it up and that will break them up and they'll fall out for the most part.

I just rinse them well and hang them up. I don't see the need for anything further, given that they are going to be boiled when they're used again. I'll re-use them 2-3 times before tossing them out.