Brewery Disaster Story

[Zizzle]

So we did a good brewery trip to San Diego and southern LA last week. 26 breweries in 8 days.

Great fun, well worth it, I might write a big of a guide for the best places to hit later.

I talked to quite a few commercial brewers on the trip and one thing I try to always ask is "What has been your biggest screw up?"

I think this one takes the cake.

So the bloke was on his first couple of weeks on the job at probably the most famous SoCal micro (I'm not naming names, but their logo may have demon in it). They have nice glass walls so every tourist can see into the brewery.

His boss came along and asked him to remove and clean the fittings after the bottom tap on one of the 650 barrel bright tanks. It sounds like he didn't explain it well and asked at the end "you know what I mean right?". Well the apprentice didn't really, and probably wasn't thinking too much, but immediately undid the tri-clover on the tank side of the tap!

So the pressure of 650 barrels of beer shoots the lot across the brewery. Luckily no one was hurt. Now expensive high gravity beers is flying out.

He said it took them 30 minutes to get something on to stop the flow. In the mean time the whole brewery was filled up to above the knees in foam from the carbonated bright beer. Probably 10's of grand worth of beer gone.

Quite a sight for the punters in the bar that day.

He figures he is fired for sure. Gets marched into the office that arvo. Sits down, looks up and everyone is smiling. The head brewer had done the same thing before.

That bright tank was the last one with a wing-nut that could be undone by hand. All the rest had been converted over to a bolt so you had to think a bit more about what you were doing.

So he ended up keeping his job.

Anyone have any similar big brewery screw up stories?

 

[beerbog]

No, I'm not a big brewery. :beerbang:

 

[RobW]

This is part of a thread about disaster stories and I reckon it takes the prize:



http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...ost&p=14677

 

[Snow]

I once opened the beer fridge and one of my homebrews rolled out and broke on the floor. Devastating. I'm on my last warning from SWMBO.

 

[Bribie G]

True Story.

Newcastle on Tyne, early 1950s. Dad was a home brewer (when I got into my 20s we would brew together - interesting the father and son teams in HB, heaps around when you look for them)

HB was almost unknown then - Dad got into it when he was in the Air Force as the lads would do it on base during the War when beer was often rationed. He would bottle in 2 pint Cider Flagons with stone/rubber screw stoppers and still had a collection in '83 when he died.

Anyway in those days it was common for the Vicar to call round once a week to say hello, as everyone was Church of England or Methodist whatever and few Catholics and no Muslims or Buddhists, so that's what they used to do. Mam was diving under the kitchen bench to get something from the cupboard. Dad above was doing a bottling session out of plastic dustbin with jug, funnel and flagons. The bottom of a flagon sheared and fell out and the beer went all over Mam, completely soaking her hair and pouring down over her.

Ding dong.
Of course Mini-BribieG darts for the door
"Vicar's here Mam" (Mam Shrieks) :huh:

Being a tiny council flat - post war land of heroes model - the Vicar stepped just about straight out of front door and into the kitchen which reeked of ale, Dad with a bottle in his hand and Mam sitting on floor totally drenched in 6% ABV
Took some explaining B)

 

[Malted]

I'm on my last warning from SWMBO.

So Snow, what are you expecting she'll do WHEN you have your next 'incident'?

True Story.
Took some explaining B)

Tell us another one Uncle, we like em!



I've only had a small incident apart from a keggle liquid burn that took two layers of skin off part of my pinky (I was expecting three).

I dedicate my incident to my stupidity and poor judgement, may they be happy together. Fool hardy was an innocent bystander who happened to get caught up by accident.

I was doing a gas stovetop K&K boil and wasn't as attentive as I should have been. Naturally it boiled over with lovely sticky foam all over the pot and pooling on top of the stove.
Stupidity said, why don't you leave it there and clean it up when you have finished. Poor judgment said, yeah that's a good idea, it's too hot to clean it up now and we're busy making beer.

As you could imagine this occured at hot break and I did a 60 minute boil after that. Apparently this was plenty of time for the foam to evaporate the liquid component and to caramelise the remaining sugars. You should be aware that 'caramelise' is basically a swanky term for 'burn'. Ok so maybe carmamelising something is partially burning it. In this incident, perhaps 'incinerated' may be a more appropriate term.

Fool hardy then suggested that since the sugars were baked on, the advice of Poor Judgment still held and that I should go have a beer on the couch since it was not foaming anymore and I'd probably just get tired by standing around. Accident was still waiting to happen.

Shortly into my beer on the couch, my temporary verbal brewing assistant started screaming fevourishly at me from the passageway nearest the kitchen (AKA the smoke alarm). I ran into the kitchen and Accident had arrived. Not only were there copious amounts of thick smoke in the kitchen but there were naked flames coming from the stove top. Ok I already established it was a gas stove, so I had ought to explain it a bit better. It kind of looked like gas burners surrounded by molten black lava with flames dancing all over it.

SWMBO tried to enter the kitchen, I think she wanted to see if the flames really were naked. I said, you really don't want to see this, I have it under control, go back to the loungeroom dear. So me and my mates had quite a bit of a working party to clean up; after we finished making our beer. I've not been allowed to make beer in the house again, not since "you set fire to my stove".

EDIT: if it is "her" stove, how come she's not chained to it? Oh come on don't get all upset, it's only a joke. Truth of the matter is, I probably do more of the cooking than she does.

 

[DJR]

So do you have a fire blanket now? Those are essential equipment in any house with a gas cooktop or any cooktop in fact... saved my bacon at least once

 

[Nick JD]

I was in a student flat back in the Uni days many moons ago. Four bedroom house. Four teenage guys in one house - dump central.

You can imagine what the toilet ended up looking like after a few months with no one wanting to be the one to clean it. Not to mention we didn't have anything to actually scrub it with.

After the first 2 week break me and my flattie got back and the loo was freaking disgusting - just wrong - so we rockpaperscissored for it and I lost. I grabbed the scrubber brush thing from the kitchen sink that we used for washing dishes and had at it. Got it clean and left the dishes scrubber brush on the windowsill of the toilet. It was officially demoted from anything but toilet duties by us two.

Came back from Uni on the first day back and my flatmate (who'd only just got back) was scrubbing his homebrew barrel. With the dishes scrubber I'd done the toilet with.

He asked me why it was in the bathroom. I never told him.

 

[haysie]

This is part of a thread about disaster stories and I reckon it takes the prize:



http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...ost&p=14677

:icon_offtopic: from a likeable AHBer, GOLD

Saturday 24th March was to be a big day for Rook in doing his first AG, something like man landing on the moon.

This was to be my first serious attempt at making beer since my last K&K 3 years ago

I should have realised at 5:30am that morning when i tapped the missus on the shoulder and before i even had time to take a breath, i hear the words i'm to tired and its to early, go back to sleep.

back to sleep i go dreaming of the adventure ahead of me

Get out of bed at 8:00am, put the strides an t-shirt on and are about to head out to the shed when i hear " where are you going "......out to start my new adventure i tell her..." dont forget i'm going to yogalates at 9:00am and you have to look after the baby.....i cant repeat what went through my mind but it wasn't nice.

These was the good things so far ....lets skip ahead a couple of hours.

1. okay, got the HLT, Mash Tun out sitting on the bench.....good start

2. take 25lt jerry can out to tank to fill with water....start filling, bloody tap falls off...no worries just screw it back on, only wasted 10 - 15 litres of water....were only in a drought

3. Pour the water into the HLT......****, forgot to tighten the element after playing around with it last week....were are the bloody shifters.....phew, tighened up okay, no leaks even though i havn't wired this 3000kw element up yet i have installed it.

4. The mashmaster heating thingy with my hand held immersion element is working a treat and after 40 minutes i am ready to mash in at 76c..... i figure after adding the grains it will drop about 9c and i will be around 67c......great....WRONG.....WTF.....the temp gauge is reading 47c . **** ****, put in 4 litres of boiling water from the house kettle, up to 55c .....were is the immersion element....here it is, put it in the mash tun and no temp rise....what the hell....after 5 minutes of shitting like a big Rottweiler i realise i havn't plugged the immersion element in, ok temp is rising...phew.....get to my 67c target after about 25 minute.

5. The good lady sticks her head in and asks " Are you having fun ".........FUN i yelled, i havn't had this much fun since my last root canal.....with that she went inside.

6. after 50 minutes i have calmed down and am getting the sparge water ready......i get ready put the 85c sparge water in and decide to test the water.......if thats 85c then i'm either stupid or i have no feeling in that finger.....yep i'm right......no were near 85c so i up the temp to boiling and then add it......ok good temp.........all this time i keep reminding myself that my good buddies on the AHB forum keep saying " making beer is so much fun ". i let the grain bed settle and then sparged away.

7. Were is that 1300 BEER help line

8. After that things sort of went to plan...... i have 21 liters in the fermenter...should have been 25 but i lost count of how much water i used in the caos


9. Next day i say to myself, self lets go and do a test, i set up my HLT with 35 litres of water and heat to 80c...start running it into the mashtun and read the temp....60c....WTF

QUESTIONS

1. How can i loose 20c from the HLT to the mash tun ( Converted keg with 1/2 inch ball valve and 1 meter of 12 mm silicone hose connected via plastic garden snap lock conector )

2. I am using braid in the mash tun as my manifold and it floated, therefore i dont think i got as much out of the Sparge as i should have, how do the braid brewers deal with this.

What did i learn......CHECK YOUR TEMP BEFORE ADDING YOUR GRAIN....Screwtop told me to do this and i knew i had to do this but i didn't do this.....the adrenalin was pumping and i was to excited....bit like my first kiss behind the shelter sheds at Pascoe Vale primary school


Apart from that i had a ball....finished of drinking a Du Pont saison



Next week i think i might try something easier like shitting in the queens handbag

I want to thank

Screwtop - for the many PM's ( very helpful and knowledgable person )
PistolPatch - for his AG/Sparge thread....most informative and helpful post i have seen
Wazza - got to thank a paco boy
Batz - for his help on the HLT
Ross - for his gear
Devo
T.D for the recipe ( JS Amber Ale )

AHB for telling me how much fun this is


Recommendation

1. A 1300BEER helpline with 20 CSR's

Sorry for the PP type thread

The missus came up with a name for my brewery

" The Nagging Wife brewery "

Rook
Forum: All Grain (AG) & Partials Post Preview: #195912

 

[fcmcg]

I was in a student flat back in the Uni days many moons ago. Four bedroom house. Four teenage guys in one house - dump central.

You can imagine what the toilet ended up looking like after a few months with no one wanting to be the one to clean it. Not to mention we didn't have anything to actually scrub it with.

After the first 2 week break me and my flattie got back and the loo was freaking disgusting - just wrong - so we rockpaperscissored for it and I lost. I grabbed the scrubber brush thing from the kitchen sink that we used for washing dishes and had at it. Got it clean and left the dishes scrubber brush on the windowsill of the toilet. It was officially demoted from anything but toilet duties by us two.

Came back from Uni on the first day back and my flatmate (who'd only just got back) was scrubbing his homebrew barrel. With the dishes scrubber I'd done the toilet with.

He asked me why it was in the bathroom. I never told him.

That is magnificent !
Can't help but asking...did the beer turn out shit ? :lol: :icon_vomit:
Cheers
Ferg

 

[DU99]

I

was in a student flat back in the Uni days many moons ago. Four bedroom house. Four teenage guys in one house - dump central.

You can imagine what the toilet ended up looking like after a few months with no one wanting to be the one to clean it. Not to mention we didn't have anything to actually scrub it with.

was the colour of the beer a bit darker than normal... :super:

 

[_HOME_BREW_WALLACE_]

I once opened the beer fridge and one of my homebrews rolled out and broke on the floor. Devastating. I'm on my last warning from SWMBO.

I think everyone on AHB has done that atleast once.... I'm a repeat-offender of getting pissed and leaving tallies in the freezer overnight.... Not pretty!

 

[Yob]

He asked me why it was in the bathroom. I never told him.

Lost opportunity there man... I woulda told him after he'd drunk the brew.. and politly declined while he did :lol:

Do you still leave the sponge in the toilet?

 

[browndog]

I think this one probably takes the cake.

beer flood

cheers

Browndog

 

[Braumoasta]

The wave of beer destroyed two homes

Possibly one of the most glorious ways for a house to be destroyed...

 

[stux]

I think everyone on AHB has done that atleast once.... I'm a repeat-offender of getting pissed and leaving tallies in the freezer overnight.... Not pretty!

I had a dodgy shelf in my fridge door...

i just finished maneuviring a keg at the back when I bumped the shelf... crash bang crash...

6 bottles... broken... glass... beer everywhere...

doh... oh well... it was only the dry dock. The good stuff is on tap

So I swept it up a bit... and continued with the freshly tapped keg...

...

Funny thing is I've done this about 3 or 4 times now... i think i'm going to fix that shelf one day.

 

[sirhendo]

So we did a good brewery trip to San Diego and southern LA last week. 26 breweries in 8 days.

Great fun, well worth it, I might write a big of a guide for the best places to hit later.

I talked to quite a few commercial brewers on the trip and one thing I try to always ask is "What has been your biggest screw up?"

I think this one takes the cake.

So the bloke was on his first couple of weeks on the job at probably the most famous SoCal micro (I'm not naming names, but their logo may have demon in it). They have nice glass walls so every tourist can see into the brewery.

His boss came along and asked him to remove and clean the fittings after the bottom tap on one of the 650 barrel bright tanks. It sounds like he didn't explain it well and asked at the end "you know what I mean right?". Well the apprentice didn't really, and probably wasn't thinking too much, but immediately undid the tri-clover on the tank side of the tap!

So the pressure of 650 barrels of beer shoots the lot across the brewery. Luckily no one was hurt. Now expensive high gravity beers is flying out.

He said it took them 30 minutes to get something on to stop the flow. In the mean time the whole brewery was filled up to above the knees in foam from the carbonated bright beer. Probably 10's of grand worth of beer gone.

Quite a sight for the punters in the bar that day.

He figures he is fired for sure. Gets marched into the office that arvo. Sits down, looks up and everyone is smiling. The head brewer had done the same thing before.

That bright tank was the last one with a wing-nut that could be undone by hand. All the rest had been converted over to a bolt so you had to think a bit more about what you were doing.

So he ended up keeping his job.

Anyone have any similar big brewery screw up stories?

I have personally seen the exact same thing happen with the tank side tri-clovers - though on a much smaller tank (and this wasn't me for the record). Whilst we were initially devastated at the loss of beer, we were heartened that nobody was hurt. So we laughed it off, learnt from the accident and improved our processes so it would never happen again....we now have cable ties on the tank side tri-clovers to prevent them from being removed.

Commercial breweries have many, many hazards that need to be continually managed. Only a fool would blame a person for any accident.

Stay safe all

Hendo

 

[petesbrew]

Shelf fell down in my brewery the other night - Almost landed on 1/2 case of Oettinger. No breakages as far as I can see just yet. I'll have to use better anchors for the brackets next time.
Then last night playing Call Of Duty:Modern Warfare, there was an almighty bang next door in the brewery. Checked the damage and at least one went off in my cupboard. Gotta get in there tonight and do a massive cleanup. I seem to have bottle bombs every summer now. Obviously the heat is a major factor.
Yep, summer is a good month for disaster stories.