Being the typical suburban handyman, I like to do around-the-house chores myself. For example, I drain and winterize my sprinkler system, instead of paying somebody $40 to do a half-hour job . This involves shutting off several valves, opening others, and draining the water out of the sprinkler lines. For those of you from warmer climates, we do this so things don't freeze and break over the winter.
Anyhow, a couple of years ago, I did the usual winterizing schtick. However, in the process, I neglected to re-open a particular valve on the vacuum breaker after I closed it. This mistake trapped water inside the valve, which froze and broke over the winter. Whoops.
What does this have to do with brewing?
Well, a while back, a poster on Homebrew Talk remarked that he'd had an infection that he traced back to the same problem. He'd drained his boiler through a similar valve, then stored the kettle with the valve shut. The wort trapped inside the valve got a nasty case of "teh funk", and caused him troubles in a batch of beer.
So, just a reminder to my brewing friends: When you clean up, make sure to wash your valves out, and store them at least halfway open, so you don't get funky balls. At least all I had to do was buy some new stuff at the hardware store and sweat a couple of pipe joints. That's less painful that having to say sayonara to a ruined batch of beer and five hours of weekend brewing.
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