Food Poisoning From Beer

[Jagungal]

Beer will not give you you food poisoning/

Thanks for all the replies, they are echoing what I was thinking but I was just not sure.

The the beer is an all grain and all of the other bottles are fine.

I was guessing too that it might have been something the adults ate - or maybe their lack of hygiene.

I suppose the good thing is though, that I get to drink the rest of the batch without being pestered for more tastings.

 

[delboy]

more likely the food was out for to long and was the culprit.
kids usually eat first at a barbie cause dad usually gets the kids out the way first so the adults can sit back a bit .

i would be betting they had dips out on the table for a few hours or a rice salad, maybe an egg salad.

one thing to remember about food is if it has been at a temperature higher than 5degrees C every 20 minutes nasties will double .

i went to an italian wedding once and they had beautifull cold meats out on the tables ready when you arrived but the ting is it was a warm day 26 degs with a breeze they were put out about an hour or so before the guest turned up so all 100 tables were ready and it was covered with cling wrap and it was a bit sweaty but i told my wife not to eat it and neither did I and we were the only ones on our table who did not get sick.

del

 

[drsmurto]

Best case scenario is to remove the hot plate/grill after it's cooled down and wash in warm soapy water- and general area in and around the plate (drip plate if any, etc.) A rinse with hot boiling water should suffice.

I would do a bleach or better a grill-cleaner solution (a bit like soaking a chopping board overnight) every 6 months or so, depending on usage of course. Or just use the commercial bbq cleaners (I believe most have a bi-carb base). Thing is, most guys don't want to do this because they're afraid the plate will lose it's seasoning. It's really no big deal. Just get the plate back on as high of heat as you can to burn off any residue, scrape as required, and throw down a generous amount of fine salt- it will lift any rust or junk left behind, as well as season the plate. You can also use an oil that's tolerant to heat (like peanut oil) and burn it off, alternating with salt.

Sorry for slight thread hijack but....

I copped a lot of shit when living in the UK when i told them we use gas bbqs. They were appalled that we would effectively use the inside method of cooking outside and call that a bbq. I argued that we dont 'clean; our bbq plates as such, just heat them up, add a bit of salt, lemon or beer and away you go meaning that the flavours of previous bbqs build up. And for that reason you can taste the difference in food cooked on the bbq compared to in the frypan inside.

If you are saying we should clean the bbq with soapy water then i will have to side with the poms. You may as well cook inside on a frypan. No difference.

And HB has never caused me to be sick, even an off tasting one!

Cheers
DrSmurto

 

[danbeer]

Jagungal, I reckon you should defend the honour of your beer.

Grab half a dozen bottles of your stout, take them round to your aforementioned mate's house, and proceed to drink them, preferably while watching the footy. Although your coherence may decrease over this period, your confidence in your sanitation and brewing ability will improve in leaps and bounds.

I recommend you finish with giving yourself a pat on the back, possibly adding in a couple of aerobatic maneouvres if you feel inspired to do so, get your friend to dial SWMBO, stagger out to the car and have a little nap on the way home. The following day you mightn't feel all that flash, but you'll know it wasn't your stout.

Oh, I dunno about that...

I had (have) a flatmate that decided to get stuck into one of the kegs I had in the fridge some months back... He thinks he got food poisoning from it.
Consequentially, he no longer drinks my homebrew.

I drank the remainder of the keg - nothing wrong with it apart from some chill haze.

More beer for me! :beer:

 

[quigley]

It was the salmon mousse

I agree with the above. It's highly unlikely that the beer was the cause of your friends' illness.

However, you CAN get sick from HB. Especially if your grains are stored in the wrong way and allow the growth of molds and fungi, such as fusarium. These can transfer mycotoxins right through to the finished beer. Sure, its rare, but it has happened.

If you use extracts, no problem, but its something to think about.

WJ

 

[tangent]

it's a shame the HB is the first thing to get accused of being the culprit.

a mate of mine was an Ambo officer and still won't eat chicken unless it's JUST been cooked.

speaking of italian weddings delboy, i heard about the bloke who popped a champagne cork right at the start of the reception. it hit the flouros above the food tables and showered all the food in broken glass. ohmygodican'tbelieveit

remember the days when people would use ice? big heaps of ice with the cold meats and prawns kept cold nestled amongst them.

 

[brettprevans]

Can beer that is maybe off make you sick, as in giving you some kind of food poisoning ?

It sounds to me like these people got off their faces and rather than admit they were hungover they decided to blame the HB. If Im playing funny buggers with the missus after Ive written myself off, I always blame it on food poisining. While you can get sick form any food product (and HB is a food product - this is hy you must have a food handlers certificate in Vic if you work with alcohol) I doubt it was your brew that made them sick

 

[delboy]

yes tangent people today are a bit lax when it comes to food hygeine i would agree with the above they were probabely just pissed and sick .if it was home brew caused ther bodies are used to MEGASWILL not naturally brew fine ale.
if they had severe food posioning they would have ened up in Hospital.
so it was more like the spews and shits and a tum tum ache .
may be before they try and blame it on the beer your mates might want to re think THEIR hygeine habbits and cooking methods and food preparation and storage methods .AFTER ALL THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE FOOD AT A BARBIE EXPOSED THAN A SEALED BOTTLE OF BEER.

sorry to shout the point but i see it all the time in CAFE'S and deli countres at supermarkets people have no Idea.
"yes it good to ware plastic gloves when serving your ham from the deli counter but then they go and get a hot chicken out of display and then serve another customer cold meats again .
now these people are tought to change there gloves everytime on the hygeine courses but the supermarket management say NONONONONO STOP THROWING AWAY PERFECTLY GOOD GLOVES . SO WHERE DO I START.
Also whant to see how many time the kids that work at Maccas change their gloves on a cooking shift.
YOU WILL BE HORRIFIED "BUT THATS WHAT MACDONALDS IS ALL ABOUT BEING SICK"

DEL

 

[Bobby]

Do you have to selectively SHOUT your words delboy? It is a nightmare to read.

 

[simonl75]

"yes it good to ware plastic gloves when serving your ham from the deli counter but then they go and get a hot chicken out of display and then serve another customer cold meats again...

Or they handle coins/notes with the rubber gloved hand.... I see that all the time.

 

[Kai]

WJ, do you have a reference for this?
Berp.

Hey berp,

I don't have a reference for this and don't have any micro textbooks on hand, but I can tell you that it was present in my university food micro notes.

Now... burn the witch!

 

[xtrabyte]

Hey berp,

I don't have a reference for this and don't have any micro textbooks on hand, but I can tell you that it was present in my university food micro notes.

Now... burn the witch!

Here is a bit of info from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycotoxin
Fusarium toxins are produced by several species of the genus Fusarium which infect the grain of developing cereals such as wheat and maize. They include a range of mycotoxins including the fumonisins, which affect the nervous systems of horses and cause cancer in rodents, the trichothecenes, including deoxynivalenol, and zearalenone, the last two of which are very stable and can survive cooking. The trichothecenes are acutely toxic to humans, causing sickness and diarrhea and potentially death.

 

[berapnopod]

Thanks to WJ, Kai and Xtrabyte for their responses. I don't doubt that you can get mould growing on grains. I was unaware that resultant toxins could get through the mashing and boiling process unscathed, but you all show some evidence that this can happen.

I lesson for all-grainers: if you see mould on your grains, don't brew with them!

Berp.

 

[Guest Lurker]

I lesson for all-grainers: if you see mould on your grains, don't brew with them!

Berp.

Yeah, I actually posted that when the mouldy batch of Powells was around but I think it got lost in the noise. Did anyone brew with that batch and did they survive?

 

[Darren]

Years ago I asked a maltster if there were Fusarium sp. on aussie malt?

It was sure one good question to stop them selling to me 8(

The answer was yes, but each batch is monitored to ensure it did not exceed acceptable limits.

cheers

Darren

EDIT: For what it is worth, home drying of chillies etc. are also very good sources of aflotoxins. Especially if you live in areas with high humidity

 

[lucas]

speaking of italian weddings delboy, i heard about the bloke who popped a champagne cork right at the start of the reception. it hit the flouros above the food tables and showered all the food in broken glass. ohmygodican'tbelieveit

and showered in mercury too... or is that only in compact fluros?

 

[newguy]

and showered in mercury too... or is that only in compact fluros?

No, there is mercury in the big tubes too.

 

[user 384]

Yeah, I actually posted that when the mouldy batch of Powells was around but I think it got lost in the noise. Did anyone brew with that batch and did they survive?

Hi GL

It don't go anywhere near my mash tun or any other Adelaide brewer I know. This wasn't a little bit of mold, it was easy to see it as you poured the grain from the sack.

Powells was good enough to replace the moldy grain.


Cheers
MAH

 

[stillscottish]

Now... burn the witch!

How do you know she's a witch?

 

[reVoxAHB]

Sorry for slight thread hijack but....

I copped a lot of shit when living in the UK when i told them we use gas bbqs. They were appalled that we would effectively use the inside method of cooking outside and call that a bbq. I argued that we dont 'clean; our bbq plates as such, just heat them up, add a bit of salt, lemon or beer and away you go meaning that the flavours of previous bbqs build up. And for that reason you can taste the difference in food cooked on the bbq compared to in the frypan inside.

If you are saying we should clean the bbq with soapy water then i will have to side with the poms. You may as well cook inside on a frypan. No difference.

I totally agree with you.

Your mention of Poms giving you shit for gas BBQ'ing, got me wondering how do they bbq? I emailed a friend in the UK inquiring to such who replied, "It doesn't stop raining long enough to cook a sausage all the way through, so we don't bother!"

Not exactly helpful, but funny enough to make mention of it here. Or at least, I thought so

Next time you get ripped into, tell them this:


is all an elaborate national cover for how we really bbq in Australia, which is:

-we soak a combination of mesquite and oak wood chips in 20 year aged tawny port, for a period no less than a week before bbq.
-we use hot charcoal and gumtree coals (not gas, as suggested)
-whereby throwing the soaked chips into the coals, generally inclusive of wild rosemary
-the fat and oils from our seasoned meat drip into the coals, creating further smoke and flame searing the meat to perfection

Ok, but seriously, I think you'll probably get a hundred differing opinions on whether or not to clean, season, how to season your hot plate, and so on.

This Wikipedia article offers some insight to cleaning seasoned cast iron, including several methods that don't involve soap.

and some more banter on hygene and bbq.