Sanitizing cheesecloth when straining

[PJ805]

I am about to make wine using real grapes and will be using a cheesecloth for straining. Since it's red wine, it would be strained after primary fermentation when sodium metabisulfite was added. Do I need to sanitize the cheesecloth before use? If so, what would be the best way to sanitize it?

 

[Brigitte]

I always sanitize everything that contacts my wine. We use star San and for quick easy use I keep it in a spray bottle. Works great. I have sprayed down cheesecloth and hung it up for a couple of minutes then used it to strain with. Cheers !

 

[BernardSmith]

Here's my response and it is a little different from Brigitte's. I make cheese for my own use and rather than use K-meta (or star san) to sanitize cloth I simply add the cheese cloth to the boiling water I use to sanitize my cheese making kettle. I am not sure that spraying the cloth would be really effective (if you then took a swab and tried to see how few (or many) bacteria, yeast and mold you could grow after a dose from a spray bottle I am not so certain that you would consider the cloth sanitized..

 

[CDrew]

Here's my response and it is a little different from Brigitte's. I make cheese for my own use and rather than use K-meta (or star san) to sanitize cloth I simply add the cheese cloth to the boiling water I use to sanitize my cheese making kettle. I am not sure that spraying the cloth would be really effective (if you then took a swab and tried to see how few (or many) bacteria, yeast and mold you could grow after a dose from a spray bottle I am not so certain that you would consider the cloth sanitized..

That is a really good idea. I'm going to do that with the strainer bag that lines my bladder press. I was wondering how to sanitize it prior to pressing. So thanks for posting that.