Safety

[ballantynedewolf]

Caught up with an old brewing friend who lives in Darwin. He told me of a BIABer up there who spilled the whole boiling kettle on himself, spending 3 weeks in hospital with 3rd degree burns. An injury like that will lead to a lifetime of disability.
This has given me a hell of a pause for thought.
I'd be interested what measures members of this forum have implemented to prevent this kind of catastrophic spill.

 

[BrockHops]

I had the same thoughts, now, I did just knock this frame up quickly on brew day, the plan is to build a good 3v system.
So, yes I know the build is a bit rough, but the idea was to have a frame with a removable bar at the front so I didn't have to lift the kettle up too high.
I certainly don't want to wear 40 odd litres of boiling sugary water on my legs.
Brock.

 

[Coalminer]

I fail to see the need to have to lift/carry a large amount of boiling liquid

 

[BrockHops]

I fail to see the need to have to lift/carry a large amount of boiling liquid

Agreed.
To be clear I'm lifting an empty vessel.
Let the magic of gravity and pumps do their thing!

 

[FarsideOfCrazy]

2 months ago I smashed the end of my second toe to the size of a 20c piece.

I was lifting a 60l plastic fermenter in the fridge, foolishly by the black handles, as I nearly had it in I was thinking 'these handles might break with 40 litres of wort' crack, crack fermenter hits my toe.

Looking down there's my toe all smashed, blood pissing out everywhere, the lid popped off so wort has gone everywhere.

So next day trip to Dr he says go to hospital, spent the day in there, xrays, iv antibiotics and about 25 stitches.

Definitely not on my list of things to do again.

Never lift one of those fermenter by the black handles always use the molded ones in the side walls.

 

[ballantynedewolf]

So, not lifting or miving full vessels is an obvious first step. But what about one that topples off the stand for some reason?
I have set up under a verandah so I can pull the bag with a block and tackle, so I'm wondering about adding a chain up to an anchor from each handle?

 

[ballantynedewolf]

View attachment 110218

I had the same thoughts, now, I did just knock this frame up quickly on
Snip
Brock.

I like the shopping trolley shape - you could run a member up from bottom rear via the other diagonal to fix the top of the keg. Your base is very narrow tho, even 25% larger footprint would massively increase your tipping angle.

 

[ballantynedewolf]

Also, how effective/wearable are rubberised aprons?

 

[wereprawn]

 

[ballantynedewolf]

Your bum looks big in that

 

[BrockHops]

I like the shopping trolley shape - you could run a member up from bottom rear via the other diagonal to fix the top of the keg. Your base is very narrow tho, even 25% larger footprint would massively increase your tipping angle.

Haha, there's actually a step ladder behind that, not really a shopping trolley shape.
[emoji23]

 

[Black Devil Dog]

Handling near boiling liquid is potentially very dangerous.

I tend not to drink until I've finished transferring my hot wort into cubes and if I do drink during my brew session, I limit it to 1 or 2.
My transfer hose gets clamped onto the ball valve outlet when transferring, because that would be the most likely point where there could be a failure.
Use silicone mits when handling hot cubes etc. I put my boots on during wort transfer usually too.
Keep my dogs away from hot liquid.
There are also lifting issues to keep in mind. I use a tripod and pulley system to lift my malt pipe out of my 50 litre Braumeister.
Lifting fermenters into or out of fridges can be awkward, mine are only 26 litres and my fermenting fridges are quite narrow, so it can be a bit tricky. I imagine that 50 - 60 litre fermenters would be much more difficult.

As with everything in life, a little common sense will go a long way.

 

[mondestrunken]

No. one rule is no drinking while brewing. I had a couple of near misses when I used to do half boils outside, and ever since I started full boils don't drink at all while brewing (hot side stuff at least...) It helps that my normal brew day start is around 5am on Sundays.

 

[manticle]

I'm very safe at work and try and encourage that culture (without requiring ladder licences or biro rail guides - let's not get silly).

However, at home I do a lot of potentially dumb stuff. Not drinking while brewing offends the beer gods and means the beer tastes like wee. I lift my final volume (steaming hot keggle full of wort) onto a plastic trestle, leaning on an angle before whirlpooling and leaving for 20 mins.

I have no kids to knock it and my partner is almost always working when I brew so I don't have those considerations to worry about.

Only safety tip from me that I actually follow is wearing sturdy shoes (in my case steel caps). I may get burnt but my toes should survive intact.

 

[droid]

pumps and silicone hose are a good investment, don't carry hot liquid or move it about in a bulk manner if poss

water, electricity and gas are other things to look at, danger is everywhere!!! sensible is good advice to me and the other message coming through seems to be to hold off on the frosty libations

and brewing with other peeps on other systems

 

[mondestrunken]

I'm no killjoy and obviously everyone on this forum by definition enjoys a coolin'.
But seriously, at a certain scale, drinking too much while brewing is just stupid.

Having said that, work would never let me do half the **** I do at home on the weekend, but then again they're not liable here so why would they care?

 

[Black Devil Dog]

Many weekend warriors end up in emergency because they choose to ignore safety when doing stuff around the home.
Safety doesn't take the weekend off.

 

[bradsbrew]

But seriously, at a certain scale, drinking too much while brewing is just stupid.

I prefer Captain Risky. Alot of the times i am half pissed before i start. One time i started brewing when i was pissed. Woke up at 2am with music playing and the brew cubed. I remember sparging.
Another time, had a stand go from under my 170L kettle and drop 150L of boiling wort, made a mess.

 

[spog]

I'm very safe at work and try and encourage that culture (without requiring ladder licences or biro rail guides - let's not get silly).

However, at home I do a lot of potentially dumb stuff. Not drinking while brewing offends the beer gods and means the beer tastes like wee. I lift my final volume (steaming hot keggle full of wort) onto a plastic trestle, leaning on an angle before whirlpooling and leaving for 20 mins.

I have no kids to knock it and my partner is almost always working when I brew so I don't have those considerations to worry about.

Only safety tip from me that I actually follow is wearing sturdy shoes (in my case steel caps). I may get burnt but my toes should survive intact.

+1 , not drinking while brewing?
Pigs arse it’s half the fun.

 

[Stouter]

Potential splashing is what worries me, like if the BIAB bag I have strung up draining over the urn gave way and fell back in...
I should start putting a hose clamp on my urn to cube transfer hose again too, last few brews I've just pushed it on, she'll be right.
Other than that, I'm not carrying around any hot stuff or dealing with pumps etc. It's usually a sticky thongs, no shirt, and a beer on the go sort of scenario.