I know that when I disassemble my rig, there is is junk caught in the threads.
If fact, I am getting ready to tear mine down now and do a thorough cleaning prior to brew day tomorrow.
Unscrewing threaded fittings and reassembling isn't really a big deal, and I would rather do it, than have an infection.
The three piece valves can be completely disassembled for cleaning.
Guys, you cant get an infection from anything that somehow leaks past the telfon tape which honestly should be plugging up the gap and not allowing anything in there in the first place. and anything in the crevice will have ZERO impact on the outcome beer as far as flavor or otherwise.
Do you think your grain has been sanitized? NO, Thats one of the reasons you boil it. your hops have all sort of nasties in them including the bugs (literally insects as well as bacterias) that were on them when they were pelletetized..
This is the common misconception that im talking about... everything on the hot side will eventually be boiled and see boiling temps so absolutely no concern here of some tiny amount of of a bug in a crevice...
Have you ever toured a real brewery? the brewing equipment and valves are down right disgusting to look at with buildup all over the outside in many cases... because they often do not use tri clover fittings or disassemble the whole brewery and clean this stuff between brew sessions... its pointless and costs money with no benefit so its just not done in most places. They do run caustic cleaners through them from time to time to flush things out.
I havent taken my threaded fittings and valves apart in over 3 years and my system has a lot of 3 way valves and hard plumbed stainless lines.... I do recirculate pbw through them every few brew sessions. I have pulled a few valves apart to check inside the valves for nasties since that the one place they have dead space and no flow to accumulate but actuating the valves with recircing pbw does a good job for me of flushing this area out.
I have brewed hundreds of gallons of beer in my system and only ever had an infection once and this was caused on the COLD SIDE. It was caused by the new no name stainless conical I bought used on craigslist at the time. There was a seam were it wasnt welded very well that I filled in afterwards with jbweld (which is food grade when cured) and Ive never had an issue since.
Anything from the chiller on needs to be clean and sanitized, The other stuff just needs to be reasonable clean! your really wasting your time and creating the potential for more problems by disassembling and reassembling all the fittings and plumbing.
