Boiling Boiler Ball Valves

[Rubes]

Do you ever need to remove ball valves from boilers to sanitize? Have read a few posts around elsewhere that the ball valve is a nice trap for wort and some recommended that they should be boiled prior to every brew.

What do you do?

 

[JasonY]

During clean up of my boiler I always open the valve and blast water from the hose through it. Aside from that it gets bloody hot during the boil so I can't see anything surviving in it.

I never take it off .... more than likely you will have more problems with leaks if you do.

 

[Justin]

Nope. Never remove it. As said above, it gets pretty hot. The thing you have to remember is when you put things away after the brew you need to leave the taps open if they are not dry. I've never had a problem but you can trap things in the tap when you turn them off. It wouldn't be good to turn your tap on after the boil of your next brew when transferring into the fermenter and have this big furry ball of mould plop in there, even if it did get nicely heated up.

I sit. I wait. And I watch my Munich lager starter bubbling away. Lager brew this weekend.

JD

 

[sosman]

On top of the above recommendations, I always have a plastic household spray bottle with dilute phos acid on hand and usually squirt some up taps (after cleaning them).

For me the biggest dirt trap worry is the fermenter tap which can get mucky from SG samples, this is the same path my beers exits the FV to the keg so it is a risk.

 

[Doogiechap]

Just thought I would dust off a very old thead with some nice piccy's .
On my last brewday I thought I would pull down my 3 piece ball valve off my kettle and give it a clean.....
Eeeeeeewwwww.....


Ok, I pumped hot sodium percarbonate through that at the end of my last brewday and zapped it with the hose...



Hmmm I wonder what my three way valve mounted on my March Pump is like :blink: . can't get that apart to clean....



Glad I wasn't pumping my wort through that at the end of my boil .

Just some food for thought.
Cheers
Dirty Doug

 

[afromaiko]

The two piece valves look they are also able to be disassembled for cleaning. Has anyone successfully tried this with them?

 

[yardy]

Do you ever need to remove ball valves from boilers to sanitize? Have read a few posts around elsewhere that the ball valve is a nice trap for wort and some recommended that they should be boiled prior to every brew.

What do you do?

occasionally i pull the pick-up out and give it and the tap a scrub with a bottle brush, i've found that a soak in iodophor after clean up keeps it pretty sanitised, i seal up both ends from the pick-up pipe to the outlet with expandable earplugs after squirting some iodophor down the pick-up.
keeps the bloody mud wasps out as well......

cheers

 

[Kai]

I'll echo dirty doug, It's worth taking those puppies apart and cleaning them every now and then.

Continuing the theme, here's a photo of how many pieces my old kettle bulkhead fitting broke up into:

 

[randyrob]

Just thought I would dust off a very old thead with some nice piccy's .
On my last brewday I thought I would pull down my 3 piece ball valve off my kettle and give it a clean.....
Eeeeeeewwwww.....

Ok, I pumped hot sodium percarbonate through that at the end of my last brewday and zapped it with the hose...


Hmmm I wonder what my three way valve mounted on my March Pump is like :blink: . can't get that apart to clean....


Glad I wasn't pumping my wort through that at the end of my boil .

Just some food for thought.
Cheers
Dirty Doug

Hey Doug,

do u wiggle your valve when u run the sod percarb and hose through? i.e left to right?

also do u have a hop stopper kind of thingy?

Rob.

 

[Screwtop]

A retailer recommendation on a recent US brewing podcast was to regularly remove your ball valve crack it half open and boil it in a pot of water (can't remember how long for).

Screwy

Edit: Just had a listen, it was Chris Graham of More Beer and the time for boiling was 5 min.

 

[ausdb]

The two piece valves look they are also able to be disassembled for cleaning. Has anyone successfully tried this with them?

I have tried in the past but found that they are screwed together that tight that they actually distort when you try and undo them (thus knackering them). I am of the school of Doogiechap and disassemble a 3 piece one every few brews, I leave one of the flanges on the outlet of my kettle then take the rest off and pull it apart and give it a good soak in napisan or caustic. If I am not tearing the valve down then I will have it closed partway when I blow the hose through it or recirc cleaning solution but pulling it apart is the safest way.

 

[DonMac]

Yes ,I agree pull apart now and again for a good clean. During every boil 20 mins. from flame out I run off through the tap about 4lts.,of boiling wort into a container and pour back into the boiler . I open and close the tap several times and if any muck was present it would be dislodged and then boiled out.

 

[olskoolsoulja]

One thing to remember is that stainless doesn't really like to be tightened and undone to many times, youll find it strips if over tightened.