kettle question

[larry78cj7]

I bought a 6 gallon SS turkey frier kettle. It has a SS gate valve at the bottom for drainging the oil. I have been using a racking cane on every batch since purchase. Does anyone know if I could use this to drain wort? I cannot seem to remove the valve, I have tried. I think I will damage the kettle if I try harder, I think the hole is notched?? The gate seems to be SS too, at least it is not magnetic. any Ideas? If you think it is ok how can I sanitize it? The gasket material is unknown, although it has held up well.

[Ozbrewer]

any chance of a photo of what your talking about

[bub]

if it is on your kettle it will be sterile by the time you are done boiling... use it as long as you can get a hose on it.
BUB

[seanhagerty]

Don't bet that it will be sterile.

I have a valve on kettle and an IR temp sensor, I check the temp from time to time on my valve, it NEVER gets above 160 F. I have no reason to assume the inside is any warmer. I take mine off from time to time and boil the valve, and i ALWAYS flush boiling wort through it 2-3 times as I near the end of the boil.

[beer_bear]

I have the aluminum version turkey fryer. I made my own valve for it with brass and a gascket made from those "silicone" bread pans. So far everything held together up to 220F. I boiled it for 45 min with no obvious problems. The best feature of this method is the ability to disassemble it and boil the living shit out of all of it. Im going to try the hot wort method too. Thanks Sean for that one.
If all else fails, try it with hot ass water and let it go as long as you can for a destruction test.

[seanhagerty]

Im going to try the hot wort method too. Thanks Sean for that one.

You are welcome...asshat!

[Dustin_J]

I'm thinking of putting a similar valve in my 7.5 gal turkey fryer pot and my plan was just to run some Star-san through the valve a few times prior to the boil. With the 30 sec contact time and the additional heat from the boil, I'd guess this process would be just fine. Does anybody see any problems with this?

[Techie101]

I'm thinking of putting a similar valve in my 7.5 gal turkey fryer pot and my plan was just to run some Star-san through the valve a few times prior to the boil. With the 30 sec contact time and the additional heat from the boil, I'd guess this process would be just fine. Does anybody see any problems with this?

...not sure, but seems like I heard/read star san and aluminumumuminumum was a no no...

*burp*