Clean out your boil kettle valve.

[Bytor1100]

From the consensus I have read around this forum, most everyone says that the boil will sterilize the valve on your boil kettle. Some of you run boiling wort through it to sanitize it before the end of the boil. After about 8 brews with my current kettle, I finally opened up the valve ( a 2-piece and found out it unscrew easily by hand) and found some nasty, smelly hop residue in there. I used to just run hot water through it while cleaning at the end of the brew day. And considering I somewhat doubt my valve is sanitized while boiling due to the heat shield on my brew kettle, I just want to to give a heads up to anyone that would be in my shoes.

As a side note, I had a buddy of mine claim to have an infection problem with some past beer that was from his valve. He has also been brewing much longer than myself as well.

 

[Bobby_M]

I added a bunch of various sized round nylon brushes to my last Mcmaster.com order just for that kind of thing. I now give my QD's and valves a quick scrub after use.

 

[WBC]

This kind of thing is easy to overlook and every one of us needs to be reminded to take cleaning very seriously if we want to prevent infected brew.