What's your mason jar cleaning method?

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speedfreaksteve
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What's your mason jar cleaning method?

Post by speedfreaksteve »

As an example, let's say I'm cleaning out a dozen or so consumed mason jars to use for a spirit run. I feel like there must be something better or more efficient than what I'm doing.

What I normally do:

One by one, give the jar a quick rinse, then refill to around 1/8-1/4 full. Close lid, shake for 10 seconds, empty it. Then do the same one more time. Usually give it a sniff to make sure it doesn't smell too strong of anything.

What I've tried:

Filling my dishwasher full of jars then running it (sometimes get all funky smells and have to re-rinse them all)
Soaking in buckets of water with "sani brew" - the pink stuff used to clean bottles in winemaking and brewing. Works well making them super clean but still need to rinse each jar at least twice. Hard to do many at once.
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still_stirrin
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Re: What's your mason jar cleaning method?

Post by still_stirrin »

I use the "shake & sniff" method too, especially on brand new jars. Although clean, they stink when you open them up.

If the jars have had gin in them, I do run them through the dishwasher. Otherwise, the juniper smell lingers and will stink up a whiskey. Sometimes the panty droppers require a dishwasher cycle too.
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Truckinbutch
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Re: What's your mason jar cleaning method?

Post by Truckinbutch »

Dish washer for the ones that smell funky . Rinse and refill for the rest .
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Desvio
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Re: What's your mason jar cleaning method?

Post by Desvio »

We use Mason jars (all sizes) as our drinking glasses anyway, so dishwasher and the sniff test.
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Re: What's your mason jar cleaning method?

Post by Badmotivator »

Just a real good hot water rinse for me.

I usually use around 24 jars. I get the tap water as hot as possible and do 2 or 3 quick shaking rinse-and-dumps on each jar. One hand is drip draining one jar while the other hand is sloshing and dumping the next in line. I feel like this is sufficient for my needs, and it only takes a few minutes. My rationale is that hot water alone is going to get almost everything, down to tiny barely detectable hints of a whiff of a something. Then those jars sit until the next run, during which time presumably any contaminants (all of which have non-zero volatility) have more opportunity to go somewhere else. And of course if any organoleptically objectionable molecules somehow remain in the jar, I am going to dilute them by a billion times when I fill that jar with new distillate, which very likely has a much higher concentration of that objectionable molecule in it anyway.
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Re: What's your mason jar cleaning method?

Post by Swedish Pride »

I rinse with cold water just after doing the cuts, so it goes up on the shelf cleanish.
When the still is coming up to heat next time i run it I use the hot water from the RC to rinse them out again
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Bushman
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Re: What's your mason jar cleaning method?

Post by Bushman »

Truckinbutch wrote:Dish washer for the ones that smell funky . Rinse and refill for the rest .
This method unless I am lazy and the dishwasher is empty then I just stick them in the dishwasher.
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Re: What's your mason jar cleaning method?

Post by Pikey »

I don't use mason jars, but some old bottles and demijohns, which go into the bath with hot water and oxyclean to fill and cover. Any which are clearly dirty get scrubbed with a bottle brush and all are left to soak, taken out one at a time and given a good shake and inspection, brushed again if neccessary.

Then all emptied and refilled en-masse with hot water, left to soak and dealt with again as needed.

A final fill with cold water, soak and a final inspection.
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Ma Flodder
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Re: What's your mason jar cleaning method?

Post by Ma Flodder »

I always rinse them with cold and hot water after emptying them, normally reuse them without further cleaning action. If new or smelling funky add water and a bit of brewers cleaning product and let sit for half an hour. Empty, no need to rinse.

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Re: What's your mason jar cleaning method?

Post by HDNB »

if you use star san, rinse, rinse, rinse! if you leave even a hint of residue in there, i have found it can result in cloudy likker. (one of several tests on recent cloudy shit)

i'm of the shake and rinse persuasion myself. then into the box upside down. they dry real nice and no dust gets in.
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Re: What's your mason jar cleaning method?

Post by OtisT »

Mostly a few hot water rinses by hand and a full dry. Always smell just before using, and re-rinse if necessary.

If the jar had oily bottoms, fore shots, If I can't clear the smell, see oily residu, or I just have a lot to do I will run a washer using PBW by Five Star for cleaning and a LOT of rinsing.
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Re: What's your mason jar cleaning method?

Post by Reverend Newer »

Borax (12 Mule Team) works wonders in the dishwasher for cleaning and deodorizing mason jars.

Masons can also be "polished" with steel wool, works great for removing haze, rust or hard water deposits from glass jars.
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Re: What's your mason jar cleaning method?

Post by The Baker »

After washing glass I rinse with water, drain, and rinse with alcohol, drain (back into the alcohol container) and close the lid.

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jon1163
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Re: What's your mason jar cleaning method?

Post by jon1163 »

Rinse with warm water turned upside down to dry
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Re: What's your mason jar cleaning method?

Post by bluefish_dist »

I bought a brush from a lab supply to help cleaning the jars. Now it's dish soap and brush, then a hot water rinse. Seems to pull all the spirit smell out of them.
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