Kettle Valve

[grainbrew]

Greetings,

I just installed a valve on my kettle. I was wondering what are the sanitation procedures you take with valves?

Thanks, J

[Jeff Lockhart]

If it is on you kettle, as you say, I just run clean water through it after brewing and some b-brite before the brew to make sure it is clean. The heat of boiling will kill anything that might be in there )assuming you brew on a turkey frier burner tho I guess the stove top will doi as well). Just make sure there is nothing in the valve that migh hide a nasty and you should be ok.

I may get slammed for this advice, but it has worked for me for some time.

Slainte
Jeff

[Fly Creek]

No slamming from me. I do pretty much the same thing and have not experienced any problems.

[Grog]

Me too!

[danno]

provided you got a full port valve, then everyone's advice is fine. if it's a reduced port valve (the round ball is smaller than the diameter of the pipe), then you may want to use a small brush to make sure nothing is settling where the valve reduces... every couple of months I take all my valves and QD's apart, soak them in PBW, and use my faucet brush to make sure everything is clean...

[brewmonkey]

If you can break it down even part of the way that is the best way to go. If you can take it off and soak it then do so.

However since this is on the kettle do the best job cleaning you can. This is hot side and the risk of any infections are slim to none.

[grainbrew]

I only have an immersion chiller, so the wort coming out of the valve is chilled. It sounds very risky to me. I'm considering building a CFC if I can get a pump.

J

[fretlessman71]

grainbrew, have you been having infection/cleanliness issues?

[grainbrew]

I have yet to use my kettle with the valve.

However, I recently had two batches go bad. I threw out my buckets and since then the batches have been perfect. So I'm a bit worried about infections.

J

[fretlessman71]

Never hurts to be thorough. It's probably the only place where RDWHAHB doesn't apply quite so much, you know?

Considering your newfound enthusiasm for cleanliness, I think you're going to be just fine. :)