Strainer bag cleaning

[kl.CarolinaBC]

Greetings, If someone touched on this subject before I must have missed it.  Anyway after repeated uses my strainer bag gets a kind of kava funk going that at times can bother me.  A little background-I make kava every night and usually after a week or so the bag (one of those colorful Fiji silk bags) starts to get a little clogged from resin build up.  It also gets a smell that at times (generally the morning after) can repulse me.  I do rinse it out real good after I'm done squeezing at the end of the night or the next morning.  What I have been doing is spraying it down with Shout fabric cleaner and then washing it with my clothes.  This does work fine but I was wondering if anyone else had a trick for keeping their bag clean.  Maybe I should just buy more bags and just get over it but figured I'd ask here before I wasted the money on more bags instead of some new kind of kava.

Many thanks, Ben

 

[Nihilist]

I have a muslin bag. I usually turn it inside out and run it under hot water add a little soap.

Once you get the kava off it it turn it around again and make sure you get all the soap out.

After this you should try to let it dry out. I think letting it dry out helps with the smell.

 

[Vekta]

I turn the bag inside out and run it under hot water. I squeeze the water out real good and repeat until the water comes out clear. I squeeze it one more time really hard and then let it try. I never had resin build up problems this way. YMMV.

 

[kl.Gray Owl]

I do the first strain with a jelly strainer bag, they're cheap, they're nylon, it's a coarser mesh and keeps the coarser grind from clogging up the finer mesh bag. They're similar to the paint strainer bags that some people use, but I feel better using something that is intended for food, not sure what chemicals or filth there might be on something that was intended for paint and not food.



Mirro Jelly Strainer Bag

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000CFLI5/ref=wms_ohs_product

 

[kavalover]

I know exactly what you're describing, I usually just buy a new strainer when that happens and use the resin-clogged strainer for the second strains. Also, does that resin from the bag stain your hands too CarolinaBC? lol I remember once I looked at my hands after squeezing some kava and thought my liver was failing, my hands were bright yellow. hehe.



The best way to wash that out though I find is just to turn it inside out, run some very hot water and soap or a light detergent in a bowl and let the bag just soak there... then rub the resin out with your hands as much as you can. Works charms, but after a few weeks I find my Fijan strainer bag needs to be replaced anyway... I'm pretty rough with them.