There’s something relaxing about drinking a beer after a long and hard day at work, or on the deck with our buddies. But, that feeling of relaxation ends quickly when we spill our refreshing beverage on our clothing. Beer can stain clothing, but the good news is that it can just as easily be removed completely, as if it never happened in the first place.
Even better, you don’t need to run out and grab harsh, toxic chemicals in order to get your clothing back to its pre-stained glory. With some all natural cleaning products already lying around your house, like your favorite non toxic laundry pods and eco friendly dish soap, your garments will be as good as new.
Treating a Beer Stain
With some eco-friendly cleaning products that you already have lying around at home, you can take care of a beer stain without worrying about lasting discoloration. Of course, the darker the beer, the tougher the stain, but it still won’t be anything that a little bit of soap and vinegar can’t remove.
Step #1: Time to Blot
The longer you wait to address the stain, the harder it will be to remove it as the beer will have gotten deep into the fibers of your clothing material. So, remove the garment as soon as you possibly can, and grab a clean cloth or sponge to start blotting. Blotting will soak up a lot of the beer to make the cleaning process much easier. DO NOT rub or scrub the stain with your cloth or sponge, as this will make the stain much worse. Blot until you’re no longer getting any liquid.
Step #2: Soak the Garment
Now, you can use some household non toxic cleaning products to create an effective soaking solution. Place the garment in a bucket or basin and fill it with cold water and a few squirts of a natural dish soap formula that’s also a non toxic dish soap like Grab Green Liquid Dish Soap, which is a natural dish soap that cleans effectively. Also, throw in a couple shakes of baking soda to help break down the stain during the soaking process. If you need to, weigh the garment down, and allow it to soak for about a half hour.
Check the stain after 30 minutes. If it’s looking faint, then you can go ahead and rinse the garment and move onto the next step. If it’s still looking pretty unsightly, repeat the soaking process for another half hour.
Step #3: Wash on Cold
At this point, you can throw the garment into the washing machine, which should finish up the process for you so that you’re off the hook. We always suggest choosing natural laundry pods that contain enzymes to remove stains effectively. If you can, choose non toxic laundry pods like our 3 in 1 Laundry Detergent Pods or Stoneworks Laundry Detergent Pods. Each are eco friendly laundry pods with natural stain-fighting powers.
Once the washing cycle is complete, go ahead and throw the garment into the dryer along with your favorite natural dryer sheets like Grab Green Classic Laundry Dryer Sheets, sustainable dryer sheets like Stoneworks Dryer Sheets, or even Grab Green Dryer Balls.
If the Stain is Dried
The above process works great for a fresh beer stain. But, if that stain has been sitting on your clothes for a while before you get around to noticing it, it’s going to be dried, and so you can skip the blotting process and move onto the next step of soaking, followed by the remaining steps.
If the Clothing is Delicate
In the event that you’re dealing with delicate clothing, which can’t go through a typical laundering process, then you can reach out to your local dry cleaner and let them know ahead of time that you’re attempting to treat this particular type of stain. They will likely know exactly which methods to use to remove the stain completely. If your clothing item can go through the wash but not through the dryer, then you can just air-dry the item as you normally would.
To summarize:
- Cotton clothing will offer the most stain removal options.
- Wool is more delicate than cotton and cannot endure repeated washing and also needs to be spread flat to dry.
- For silk clothing, it’s recommended you take it to a professional dry cleaner, due its extreme delicacy.
Beer Stains Happen, But They Don’t Need to Ruin the Party
