Clean your fittings!!!

BrewHound · Post by **BrewHound** » Wed Mar 28, 2012 1:52 pm

Alright, so the other night I drilled the holes on my new mash tun for the valves. Since I have the expensive 3 peice valves on my old mash tun. I figured I would use the ones from my old equipment and transfer them.

So I took the valve off my system. OH MY GOD! The crap that was gunked and kegged on the inside of the valve was just plain gross. Now, I realize since this is prior to the boil that it would not cause infection in the beer, however, there is no way in hell, that this has not caused an off flavor in my beer. Maybe not a huge yuk flavor, but certainly enough to take an A beer to a B beer, or B to C, and so on.

Moral of this story is clean your valves on a regular basis. Possibly after so many brews or on an anniversary date (not your wedding stupid, your brewing anniversary date).

I do think correcting this issue will elevate my beer a notch or two!

Matt F · Post by **Matt F** » Wed Mar 28, 2012 2:03 pm

I can second this. I have taken apart my one three-piece valve and my two-piece valves and they were nasty inside. I find it is good practice to do these as part of an annual cleaning. If you don't do an annual cleaning, consider it. I do a deep clean once a year and replace nasty hoses and clean eveything very thoroughly.

prieff · Post by **prieff** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 8:33 am

Had you been running PBW or some other cleaner through the fittings and valves or some kind of CIP? Were the valves cycled during the CIP?

I have experience in food manufacturing and the accepted practice is caustic CIP with a rinse and then a sanitizer rinse. Valves are cycled in each step.

I have never seen a disassembled valve that had anything in it at all. All have been stainless ball or 3 piece valves. I have seen junk in my own personal brass valve and have gone to stainless since then. You can tell that the brass valves aren't made as well or designed to seal as tightly.

I think a proper CIP and valve cycling should eliminate any worry about gunk in the valves. Part of why I want to go electric is so that I have a permanent set up that will allow me to do proper CIP. What I am concerned about is weldless (and even the welded) fittings. I can see how wort can migrate on the threads or around the washers/shims and be untouched by a CIP. Luckily heat is our friend.

Hope this helps. Was curious if you did a CIP or just a gravity spray/rinse.

Paul

Matt F · Post by **Matt F** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 9:21 am

I run cleaner and sanitzer through and teh stuff gets on the inside of the valve I assume from opening and closing the valves. As you open and close I imagine something must get in there because they were nasty on the inside.

tompb · Post by **tompb** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 6:33 pm

I do an annual cleaning on my system. The valves always have some gunk. They're s/s three piece and I do a hot pbw recirculation after each brew. I've never used caustic though.

BrewHound · Post by **BrewHound** » Fri Mar 30, 2012 10:06 am

tompb wrote:I do an annual cleaning on my system. The valves always have some gunk. They're s/s three piece and I do a hot pbw recirculation after each brew. I've never used caustic though.

Nor should you, caustic is extremely nasty stuff, it works wonders as it eats all organic materials including fingers, hands, wrists, or any other organic compound it comes in contact with.

When I was young, I worked in a soft drink bottling factory that we used caustic to clean the bottles (back in the days of glass). Regulations required us to wear rubber suits, gloves, boots, masks to work with the caustic (however, there is probably weaker solutions available).