# Man loses arm in beer keg explosion



## catcher (11/10/14)

Has anyone heard of a keg exploding and seriously injuring someone?

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/2617586/gas-explosion-at-bar-beach-bowling-club/?cs=303


----------



## Edak (11/10/14)

This got me laughing " One witness said he saw several people rip their shirts off to help apply pressure to the man’s injuries." 

Remember this is at a bowling club, who's taking their shirts off?


----------



## TSMill (11/10/14)

Glad you can see the funny side of it.


----------



## Topher (11/10/14)

Yeah, critical injuries ain't funny. The bloke has lost an arm apparently.

What is the serving pressure at a pub?Could it be the coupler blowing off because of too much pressure? Something falling over and the gas bottle or keg exploding?

Edit: ABC says he was releasing pressure and the whole thing blew.


----------



## Moad (11/10/14)

I was there last week! First reports were gas now they are saying exploding keg?!


----------



## manticle (11/10/14)

There have been incidences of plastic kegs exploding, resulting in fatal injuries.
There was a member here with that name as a moniker - hope it's not him.


----------



## Cervantes (11/10/14)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-11/man-loses-arm-tapping-beer-keg-at-newcastle-bowls-club/5806528


----------



## sp0rk (11/10/14)

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/83117-exploding-keg/


----------



## warra48 (11/10/14)

Two topics on the same subject merged.


----------



## mb-squared (11/10/14)

jesus, someone must have seriously over-carbed that keg, especially since it appears to have happened in a cool room.


----------



## Cervantes (11/10/14)

My guess would be a faulty pressure relief valve.

You have to feel for the guy.


----------



## Adr_0 (11/10/14)

yeah I saw this today on my phone. have to feel for the guy. there are so many serious injuries caused from idiocy or blatant negligence (basically the people almost deserve it...) but this sounds bloody unlucky.

I'm keen to know more about what happened. My first thought was that a stainless keg is extremely tough and keeps its strength at low temperatures. Sometimes you can get brittle failure if you bleed high pressure off, due to cooling as the gas drops in pressure - but this is only valid for steel, plastics etc. I would have thought you wouldn't get near that sort of pressure in a keg, and stainless should be immune to it. What sort of keg was it, maybe not stainless?

As Cervantes said a faulty pressure relief valve would be a pretty likely cause too.

Poor bugger.


----------



## TSMill (11/10/14)

No way could you get brittle failure in stainless in this scenario, you would need much higher starting pressures for sufficient cooling, and then a source of repressurisation to cause the failure. I'd say a regulator has failed catastrophically, or a loose coupling has gone flying.


----------



## Bribie G (11/10/14)

Chinese keg?


----------



## Adr_0 (11/10/14)

TSMill said:


> No way could you get brittle failure in stainless in this scenario, you would need much higher starting pressures for sufficient cooling, and then a source of repressurisation to cause the failure. I'd say a regulator has failed catastrophically, or a loose coupling has gone flying.


Yeah exactly - stainless is fine to -200°C or so. So I wonder what it was actually made of.

That's another good point thought, "explosion" is a great word in the media and can mean 50 different things. It could have just been an unrated component going flying. It may have torn through his arm and destroyed muscle/bone and they have had to amputate.


----------



## Dave70 (11/10/14)

Theres something fishy here, I mean, even a scabby old PET will cop about 180 PSI or around 11 bar. How the living **** did a (pressure tested) stainless steel keg accrue enough pressure to fail catastrophically? Ever seen the Mythbusters episode where they boil one till it pops? ******* scary.

Pressure is scary. A tire fitter down the road from us spent nine months eating through a straw and endured a whole bunch of re-constructive facial surgery when the bolts holding together the split rim of a forklift wheel he was inflating let go at around 65 psi. 

Sorry for the bloke, horrible.


----------



## catcher (12/10/14)

My vote would be a fitting or the like on the coupler shooting off under pressure like a bullet and causing significant injuries. Could sound like an explosion. I'll speak to some people


----------



## Martrix (12/10/14)

need more info. Was the keg empty or full of liquid? Im thinking its a pressure related accident. Maybe keg was empty, newbie not shown how to change kegs has a go at at it. Turns pressure waaaay up or reg fails, keg explodes. Considering he lost his arm he was probably doing something to the keg when it went, IE releasing the excessive pressure. Worksafe are investigating, there will be reasons for what happened. Things like that don't just happen on their own.


----------



## pk.sax (12/10/14)

I hope the findings are made public.

As for the keg exploding, could've been a damaged keg, dropped too hard on some occassion, with how they are treated, left out in the sun and then near frozen, pressurized and de-pressurized over and over again, a defect introduced can cause fatigue failure seemingly out of the blue.
Remember those rubber coated kegs that came from Europe? They discontinued that stuff because it was impossible to tell if the internal steel layer was damaged.
Feel really sorry for the guy, losing his arm for doing his job.


----------



## wide eyed and legless (12/10/14)

Pretty useless to surmise what happened, but I would imagine that threaded fittings would give way before an actual keg exploded under pressure.


----------



## Moad (12/10/14)

The guy was experienced, doubtful it was his fault...


----------



## HBHB (13/10/14)

My guess would be one of the cheap arse plastic kegs. There's been at least one fatality and several serious injuries from them going off at pressures as low as 33psi (documented cases).

google - plastic keg explosion

Dangerous stuff especially in confined spaces.


----------



## wide eyed and legless (15/10/14)

A warning had been sent out to all the clubs regarding the tapping of beer kegs after a similar incident in Sydney.


----------



## Dae Tripper (15/10/14)

Anyone have a link to the warning?


----------



## wide eyed and legless (15/10/14)

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2014/10/13/4105617.htm

I'm afraid it doesn't tell what the warning was about, just that a warning was sent out, I would imagine any one in Newcastle would be able to ring Work Care, saying they are concerned about tapping a keg and I would hope they may give more info.


----------



## /// (15/10/14)

So, as the story goes, the incident involved a major brewers keg and and a magic box.

The magic box would not pour properly and the young fella, not a club employee but with a familial link, stepped into help.

From here it gets abut squishy how the fella got the keg to pour, but things obviously went bang. The keg went thru the roof of the area it was in.

Failure would be on the gas reg side, but questions about how and when are not known.

Not a fun situation at all..


----------



## Phoney (16/10/14)

All this time I thought pressurized kegs were armless.


----------



## Online Brewing Supplies (16/10/14)

Must have been some very able gas line if it didn't blow first, doesnt add up ?


----------



## klangers (16/10/14)

Without knowing what sort and the state of the equipment, we can only guess what happened and why.

Any stored energy can be dangerous, treat it with respect and be careful. Maintain your equipment, and if it looks dodgy it probably is - don't take chances on pressure equipment.


----------



## spog (16/10/14)

Online Brewing Supplies said:


> Must have been some very able gas line if it didn't blow first, doesnt add up ?


Agree with your comment on the gas line,I was thinking that somehow the keg kept building up pressure until it failed but then the gas line surely would have popped will trying to gas the keg to such a high pressure level ?
A sad story,but strange all the same.


----------



## catcher (16/10/14)

After reading clubs NSW had issued a warning I contacted them and requested a copy. It would appear the warning they issued is not the same kind of incident as this thread is discussing. Still a useful read.


----------



## Mr. No-Tip (17/10/14)

catcher said:


> After reading clubs NSW had issued a warning I contacted them and requested a copy. It would appear the warning they issued is not the same kind of incident as this thread is discussing. Still a useful read.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


A good lesson for anyone use bracton, caustic, or anything similar to clean in the brewery. No one wants to be the one eyed Homebrewer.


----------



## Topher (17/10/14)

Mr. No-Tip said:


> A good lesson for anyone use bracton, caustic, or anything similar to clean in the brewery. No one wants to be the one eyed Homebrewer.


I'm already a one eyed home brewer. Good reminder for me to be extra carefull. 

As Shaun Micaleff says: "Its all fun and games until someone loses an eye........then it's still fun and games, but with a slight loss of depth perception."


----------



## Adr_0 (17/10/14)

Phoney said:


> All this time I thought pressurized kegs were armless.


Too soon... 

It might not seem to cause any 'arm, but before you know it people will be blowing off kegs after 12 beers and end up legless...


----------



## Blind Dog (17/10/14)

Adr_0 said:


> Too soon...
> 
> It might not seem to cause any 'arm, but before you know it people will be blowing off kegs after 12 beers and end up legless...





Phoney said:


> All this time I thought pressurized kegs were armless.


Seriously?

Imagine its your kid thats just lost his arm. Respect costs nothing.


----------



## sp0rk (17/10/14)

Like Joan Rivers said "Life is tough, so you better laugh at everything"
Just because you make a joke about something, doesn't mean you're belittling the gravitas of the situation


----------



## Cervantes (14/11/14)

Did anyone ever get to the bottom of what caused the keg to explode?


----------



## spog (15/11/14)

These things seem to take forever to be finalised,I imagine it will be a while yet before the full report etc is released.
All the info would be going all over the place to various departments,experts etc .


----------



## Lemon (15/11/14)

Remember that with such a serious disabling injury, there WILL be legal action, probably workcover and civil damages, these will take years to resolve and the technical information will be under legal privilege for all that time.
The best we can hope for, info wise is some generalised warning or guidance note from workcover.
Lemon


----------



## lmccrone (15/11/14)

This all gets me thinking about the safety of my methods, I some times force carb a sanke keg at 400 kpi when I'm in a hurry to get fizzy beer. Maybe i should turn the reg down a bit and enjoy a couple of alcohol free days...


----------



## Edak (16/11/14)

lmccrone said:


> This all gets me thinking about the safety of my methods, I some times force carb a sanke keg at 400 kpi when I'm in a hurry to get fizzy beer. Maybe i should turn the reg down a bit and enjoy a couple of alcohol free days...


Holy moly that is high! Do you not have a prv on the reg or the keg? Mine on the Rev would kick in somewhere in the 300s. I force Carb at 280.


----------



## zooesk (20/11/14)

lmccrone said:


> This all gets me thinking about the safety of my methods, I some times force carb a sanke keg at 400 kpi when I'm in a hurry to get fizzy beer. Maybe i should turn the reg down a bit and enjoy a couple of alcohol free days...


 a lion Nathan keg is only rated to 450 kpa the regs in the pub I work in only go to 300 kpa for this reason I assume. Any one know the what a corny is rated to? Also we received this today


----------



## Online Brewing Supplies (20/11/14)

If you read between the lines they appear to be getting at the wrong use of a regulator or one not being used at all .
Nev


----------



## wombil (20/11/14)

CORNIE KEGS,
Just checked 3 0f mine,All have stamped on the lid,
"maximum working pressure 130 P.S.I."
Thats 910 kpa.----SHIT ????


----------



## Weizguy (20/11/14)

lmccrone said:


> This all gets me thinking about the safety of my methods, I some times force carb a sanke keg at 400 kpi when I'm in a hurry to get fizzy beer. Maybe i should turn the reg down a bit and enjoy a couple of alcohol free days...


400 PSI or KPa?

Makes a big difference.


----------

