Drew Beechum recently commented on Facebook about the satisfaction of opening a bag by unzipping the treads property. That morning I had failed.
Today another new bag, Simpson’s Golden Promise. I went to open, and said “what is this tape doing here?”. I gave it a pull, and the bag started to open! Unzipped it quickly. Will try and post some pictures.
Top is the partially opened bag. Bottom is a close up of the tape, only one sting as far as I can see.
The “opening” tape on the bags is an improvement! (the birdseed bags I get from a farm supply store have been using them for a long time now). If you are still dealing with only strings, look for the side that has the shortest end. That is the side that will (in most cases) unravel fairly easily when the colored and white strings are pulled. Just cut the string at the edge of the bag and pull the two pieces. Sometimes they get a bit persnickety and you will have to unknit them on the bag for a row or two, but they eventually unravel.
I learned this when I was a kid on the farm many years ago!
Goose, the tape was new to me. Just opened a bag of Durst Pils, failed. By comparison this was so easy!
I have an unopened Bag of Briess, and that still has the strings.
Seems like most of the bags I get these days are glued, not sewn.
I do like the tapes. Weyermann is mostly what I use, and they’re all sewn with no tape. Weird thing is, they’re not all the same. Some unzip right away if you cut one thread at the end. The other day one did, the next bag fought me for ten minutes, stitch by stich.
Been there, done that!
I was going to say the same thing. I learned to open supplement bags and chicken feed and everything else in a bag on the farm. The trick only works from one end of the stitching. The other end will fight you all the way.
I’ve also run into bags that it doesn’t work on at all.
Paul
Noob 
Here’s a tip: It’s always the shortest string. The longer string won’t work.
Weyermann has two strings. Anybody else have single string. Well may be Castle have two strings as well.
Don’t you take this away from me! Who will I be mad at now?
Here is a video Weyermann made to show the correct way to open their bags:
https://vimeo.com/32900472]https://vimeo.com/32900472
and printed instructions:
http://www.weyermann.de/downloads/pdf/Bag_Opening_Instructions_Weyermann_english_02_2014.pdf
Thank you! Nice to have a new clue to the puzzle. That, however, doesn’t entirely resolve the situation for me. I’ll have to watch a few more times, but it looks to me like he’s cutting from the long end, not the short, as advised above. And if they’d just sell the tool demonstrated with instructions (I know, it’s just a standard letter opener) it would help. And if they’d just put the damn tapes on the sacks…
I haven’t watched the video but it’s definitely the shorter end for cutting. on weyermann they have a nice red string too. Makes it easy to find it.
So it’s, cut the red wire on the short side to defuse the bomb, is that right, 007?
“But before you do that”… (Obscure reference to MASH episode defusing a propaganda bomb.)
I’m hanging by a thread to see how much longer this post goes on…
Has anyone tried scissors?
C’mon…that’s too easy. It’s not the homebrew way! 
Six pints and a box cutter?
