Julohan

Recipes 

Dear Northern Brewer Customer,

We received an email this morning from John Blichmann of Blichmann Engineering indicating that some of the three-piece ball valves shipped from his company between Jan 01, 2010 and March 20, 2010 may have had some lubricating oil present upon shipment. The timing of your order means it may have been affected, although it is not certain. If you did not wash the ball-valve with warm, soapy water prior to use, we recommend that you do so at this time. We have created a video walkthrough to assist with the process; it should only take a few minutes. You can find it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRd6pPEU_ko

At this point, we have no reason to believe there is any kind of health risk due to this oil and the effects, if any, are probably minimal. John, however, is a careful individual. I have quoted his email to us below.

"We just discovered that some recent shipments of BoilerMaker kettles and NPT Fermenators may have had oil used as a seal lubricant in the valves by our supplier. Please disassemble any valves you have in stock that were shipped from Jan 1 through March 20 and remove the oil with detergent. In addition, please notify any customers that may have received products from Jan 1 through March 20 to do the same if they have not already done so. We have resolved this issue with our supplier and have reworked all products in-house and this check has been added to our inspection procedure. This issue does NOT include the tri-clamp valves.



We apologize in advance for the trouble this has caused.





Sincerely,



John Blichmann

Blichmann Engineering, LLC"


If you have any comments or concerns, please feel free to contact us.

Lance Erickson
Northern Brewer, Ltd.
1945 W. CR C2
Roseville, MN 55113
651-289-4746

Cliff897

Recipes 

I can't imagine not disassembling and cleaning a valve I got new from the factory.

Displaced MassHole

Recipes 

That sounds like a lot of work for Blichmann to ask his vendors to do on his behalf. Is there any type of compensation for this from Blichmann?

Not that it's a lot of work but if I was the guy working at NB that had to dissasemble a butt-ton of valves, clean them, and them put them back together, I'd be pissed.

__________________
Worthless Brewing Co.
The name says it all

Irrenarzt

Recipes 

Oh c'mon that's insane to ask for compensation. It's not like they were dipped in cyanide.

__________________
In Queue: Raspberry Melomel, Black IPA, Rye IPA, Colonial Porter, Wee Heavy, BoPils, Dubbel, Hefe, GF IPA

Fermenting/Lagering: Rye Barleywine, Best Bitter, Brett Saison, Tripel, Single IPA, PtY Clone, BGSA, Berliner, Quad, Apricot pLambic, Flanders Red

Kegged: English IPA, American IPA, Marzen, Black IPA, Milk Stout, Schwarzbier, Bourbon Barrel Milk Stout

2012 Medal Count: 11

Montanaandy

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"That sounds like a lot of work for Blichmann to ask his vendors to do on his behalf. Is there any type of compensation for this from Blichmann?"

They will cut them a deal on their next order. Montanaandy

pickles

Recipes 

Its not about the chemical of concern, but it would simply take a ton of man hours to clean their entire stock. That could be thousands of valves. The video is over 8 minutes long!

Irrenarzt

Recipes 

Well as the end user, you should be willing to clean your own parts I reckon. If something is wrong, John will right it as that's the kind of guy he is. But to ask for compensation for one dirty valve is pretty lame.

__________________
In Queue: Raspberry Melomel, Black IPA, Rye IPA, Colonial Porter, Wee Heavy, BoPils, Dubbel, Hefe, GF IPA

Fermenting/Lagering: Rye Barleywine, Best Bitter, Brett Saison, Tripel, Single IPA, PtY Clone, BGSA, Berliner, Quad, Apricot pLambic, Flanders Red

Kegged: English IPA, American IPA, Marzen, Black IPA, Milk Stout, Schwarzbier, Bourbon Barrel Milk Stout

2012 Medal Count: 11

diatonic

Recipes 

I've bought six in the past 2 months and I'm not looking forward to this. I ran BKF through all of them... but disassembling all my new valves is going to be a pain in my ... hands.

__________________
.:diatonic:.

1° - Ed Wort's Apfelwien (2/28/2010) — Chico Pale Ale (7/15/2011) — Atomic IPA (7/27/2011)
2° - Nuthin
Aging in a wine barrel - En Perpetuum—Solera (1/23/2011) - Club Barleywine (4/23/2011)
Kegs - Dirty Hippie Hefe (5/7/2011) — Cream of Three Crops Cream Ale (7/12/2011)

My new rig is pretty much done :)
You should follow me on Twitter - My Brew Logs - My PM box is always full, email me instead at chris@webboise.com. 123 gallons in 2011

Irrenarzt

Recipes 

I have over 8 of these 3 piece type of ball valve. Take your time and get busy and you'll be done before you know it.

__________________
In Queue: Raspberry Melomel, Black IPA, Rye IPA, Colonial Porter, Wee Heavy, BoPils, Dubbel, Hefe, GF IPA

Fermenting/Lagering: Rye Barleywine, Best Bitter, Brett Saison, Tripel, Single IPA, PtY Clone, BGSA, Berliner, Quad, Apricot pLambic, Flanders Red

Kegged: English IPA, American IPA, Marzen, Black IPA, Milk Stout, Schwarzbier, Bourbon Barrel Milk Stout

2012 Medal Count: 11

Displaced MassHole

Recipes 

I might be an @sshole but not that big of one, I was talking about compensation for vendors, not myself.

__________________
Worthless Brewing Co.
The name says it all