I just pulled off the valve (3 pc.) from my BK after 7 brews. Not that bad. I also let it set before a week before washing, aside from rinsing.
I take mine apart after every brew day and clean it. I don’t think my valve gets hot enough to sterilize it. I left it for 6 months when I first got it and had to dump 48 gushing bottles. Opened up the valve body and it was full of brown nasties and gunk.
It’s hard for your valve on a kettle that gets to boiling to not get to the minimum temp of 180F for sanitation. I’d suspect other things as a source of contamination before a valve on a boil kettle. We’ve placed thermocouples on a number of valves mounted on kettles and none were lower than 180F for any amount of time during the boil.
Ball valves on kettles, while they can be nasty, are never a prime source of contamination. If they were you’d see it in many expert publications. This isn’t exactly a new process you’re dabbling in 
It’s hard for your valve on a kettle that gets to boiling to not get to the minimum temp of 180F for sanitation. I’d suspect other things as a source of contamination before a valve on a boil kettle. We’ve placed thermocouples on a number of valves mounted on kettles and none were lower than 180F for any amount of time during the boil.
Ball valves on kettles, while they can be nasty, are never a prime source of contamination. If they were you’d see it in many expert publications. This isn’t exactly a new process you’re dabbling in [/quote]
Agreed. But I still think an annual break down of ball valves is a good thing to do.
[quote=“Wahoo”]
Agreed. But I still think an annual break down of ball valves is a good thing to do.[/quote]
Yep, exactly what I was saying back in this same thread where I posted the pic of the valves. Just a good practice. Just don’t want the folks newer to the hobby to think that kettle valves are just another time waster for each brew.
