Who's injured themselves brewing

Okay I just made a bone headed mistake, and I was rewarded for it. I'm brewing a FranzisKanner Inspired Hefe right now, and wasn't paying attention.....I pulled the lid of my HLT which was boiling, and was Immediately rewarded with a painful steam Burn all over my left forearm. Could've been alot worse, but hurts none the less. Finishing up my brew day with a big zip lock of ice , on one arm.


Whose else has sacrificed themselves to the brewing gods, what did you do, and how bad was it.

I dropped my nice shiny new thermometer in a boiling pot of water while checking its accuracy. With out thinking I grabbed it with my bare hand and hauled it out.

My hand healed faster than the thermometer did since it never worked again

Does slamming the car door on your own finger while going to Lowes for Keezer materials. If so then I'm in. Last Monday..

Bottle bomb took out a nice chunk of my right forearm. The scar has healed better than I thought it would, but it was pretty grisly for a while.

I have a variety of light chemical burns from a couple of the cleaning and sanitizing agents we use, burned myself numerous times, bang my calf and knee regularly (you'd think I'd learn not to) cut myself now and again on various things.

All part of the game really, but I draw the line at almost getting boiling wort splashed on my back when the 3bbl system decided to do it's thing.

Prolly the "best" one happened when making a starter in a flask.

I was boiling the starter wort, wanted to swirl the newly added DME around, and picked the flask up around the neck with my left hand(with a oven mitt) and then I decided it would be much more stable if I put my right hand(no oven mitt) underneath the flask. Quite the ominous searing sound ensued, and now I have a few fingers that I could use to commit crimes which would leave no fingerprints for them to catch me with.

Kind of ashamed to admit this - but on HBT, I'm amongst friends...okay, amongst anonymous online acquaintances with whom I share a hobby...but I strained a ligament in my right hand putting caps on PET bottles of a Cali Common back in November.

I have a family history of arthritis, and was seriously worried that I might be seeing early onset symptoms...so I went to my GP.

A few manipulations, a few questions, and ten minutes later, I'd given the doc, in her words, "The best laugh of of the week." I was informed that though beer often contributes to injuries she treats, usually, her patients have to drink it first.

I burned my right calf pretty good when walking my full keggle from the garage to the driveway after the boil to hook up my wort chiller. Turned out I needed to boil for about another 30 min to get the right OG. Ended up burning the inside of my left knee doing the same thing. Pretty smooth huh?

Forgot to close a ball valve. Started to run strike water into the mashtun. Scalded the crap out of my sandal clad foot.

Grinder slipped and took a chunk out of my thumb while I was cutting the top out of a keg being converted to a boil kettle.

Sliced a hunk out of my finger on the lip/edge of my new plate chiller the first time I used it.

Hell i think i burn myself every brew day. haha

Does four stitches from coring apples for cider count?

Do hangovers count?

I've had mild chemical burns from star-san (and crap, if you have a cut on your hand it's better not to dip that hand in even the properly diluted star san--I knew this was not smart when I did it...anyway). Miraculously home brewing is probably the least dangerous hobby I partake in, in terms of personal injuries.

Each brew day brings it's own new "surprises". This weeks was running my hand along the edge of the perforated metal false bottom while putting on the slit plastic tubing I used to prevent scratching the inside of the MLT.

This one is now called Zombie Blood instead of Zombie Dust Clone.

I dumped hot mash-out water/mash on my hand. The super hot sticky liquid gave me second degree burns especially under my wedding ring. I couldn't wear it for a week.

first runnings out of my old immersion chiller right on top of my foot. 2nd degree burn. hurt real good. i also notched a good chunk out of the top of my left hand with a hole saw while punching another tap-hole in my kegerator.

comes with the territory...

I actually, about 2 hours ago took a nice chunk of flesh of my punitive finger trying to pull the hose off of my bottling bucket. I burned hand checking to see if the side of the kettle was hot. Stepped barefoot on a bottle cap I dropped today too.

Plenty of burns acquired here and there, but one time I did actually pull a muscle during a batch sparge.

Lifted 5 gallons of freshly boiled wort inside a keggle on top of an upside down pot on top of my table saw so I could gravity chill it.

No accident (sorry to disappoint), but struggling to lift that thing up so high reminded me that I really MUST finish putting my pump together, even if I don't have my brew stand built yet.

But imagine the horror if some DID happen!!

I got a Tom-Coughlin-at-Lambeau style windburn on my face last weekend. (Okay, not that bad but that's the image that was stuck in my head after I realized I had gotten a little windburned.)

I have several minor things, but the worst was when I lifted the lid on my MLT from the HERMS return and shot 190 degree water at my chest. I pulled off my shirt and put cold water on it right away, but I had a blistering burn that caused a scar on my left boob!

I dropped a 3 lb (when it was dry) bag of ginger into nearly boiling wort while trying to drain it after steeping.

The splash burned half my face, neck, hands...

I feel fortunate to say that after brewing for about 18 months and about 20 batches under my belt I have no real injuries to speak of associated with homebrewing! :knockonwood:

But then again I'm pretty safety conscientious, I wear safety glasses when handling carbonating bottles, leather gloves when handling glass carboys, power tools or hot wort kettles and I never brew in flip flops!

MalFet said:

Bottle bomb took out a nice chunk of my right forearm. The scar has healed better than I thought it would, but it was pretty grisly for a while.

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That's the first time I've heard of a bottle bomb biting someone. I had one go off on a counter about 10' from me and scared the crap out of me.

My liver takes a beating due to my brewing, not sure that counts??

I once got my left nut stuck in a carboy..........

I've worked in factories all my life so safety comes naturally to me. No injuries so far.

dstranger99 said:

I once got my left nut stuck in a carboy..........

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I feel like I should ask but then again probably not.

I got a big burn on my stomach when I turned on my wart chiller whilst it was in the sink and didn't hold the outlet hose, the hose whipped up and spat boiling water over me.
I did learn a good lesson, don't drink too much home brew when brewing!

Tried to pick up a 6.5 gallons of boiling wort before it boiled over. I wasn't wearing shoes and some of it sloshed out and onto my feet. Luckily it wasn't much and didn't leave any scars. I learned my lesson and convinced the wife I needed a new boil kettle.

I've burned my right arm with boiling wort, I was dumb and tried to carry outside to cool, slipped on the stairs. It hurt...a lot

I'm glad to see I'm in good company here.....I thought I was the only one

Whilst stirring the near boiling wort, with protective gloves on, somehow managed to get hot wort inside the glove! Still don't know how. It healed up nicely but left a scar about the size of an egg on my hand. :smack:

Hey! It looks like its filled with beer!

Only 1 brew so far, but I cut my self on the can of extract. I brewed an IBA, Indian Blood Ale

Numerous scalds and burns but the most painful injury was when I made the stainless worm for my cooler mash tun. I cut ends off of a water supply line and pulled the inner hose out with no problem. Then I managed to embed a few strands of stainless under my left thumb nail when plugging one end. Took tweezers, an xacto knife, and a camp lantern to pull all of it out.

Owwwww ... The under-the-fingernail stuff sucks. Ouch.

PtreeCreekBrew said:

I dropped a 3 lb (when it was dry) bag of ginger into nearly boiling wort while trying to drain it after steeping.

The splash burned half my face, neck, hands...

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Lol.....

BigJim_inFLA said:

Whilst stirring the near boiling wort, with protective gloves on, somehow managed to get hot wort inside the glove! Still don't know how. It healed up nicely but left a scar about the size of an egg on my hand. :smack:

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Gross bro......

While nowhere near as bad as the hand, I helped a buddy move his BK off the burner and into the driveway to start chilling. Was talking with someone else in the group and he drops the chiller in without turning on the water. Maybe 20 seconds later, turns the water on, and the unsecured end sent a stream of water that started close to my pants and went all the way up and hit me on the neck and left a clear burn mark.

That night take off my shirt and I had a straight red line that started from my hip and went all the way up to the other side of my neck.

Does getting stung by about a dozen bees while making mead count?? Little bas-terds!!

I think my worst brewing injury was when I was trying to brew a sophisticated Lithuanian beer for some intelligent connoisseurs. the whole brew day went off without a hitch. everything went so smoothly. so I chilled the wort, aerated, and pitched the yeast. I carried the carboy down stairs and stumbled, but never dropped the carboy! the next day I went to check on fermentation when it happened. it cut my face off & wore it all during primary. ferment temp never went over 65, even when it ate my tongue.

Billy-Klubb said:

I think my worst brewing injury was when I was trying to brew a sophisticated Lithuanian beer for some intelligent connoisseurs. the whole brew day went off without a hitch. everything went so smoothly. so I chilled the wort, aerated, and pitched the yeast. I carried the carboy down stairs and stumbled, but never dropped the carboy! the next day I went to check on fermentation when it happened. it cut my face off & wore it all during primary. ferment temp never went over 65, even when it ate my tongue.

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.........wait




what?



Did you at least put the lotion on its skin?