Is beer making dangerous?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
C

cerberus9

Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2007
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
What's the risk of creating a batch of beer that is contaminated to the degree that is dangerous to drink? (I'm thinking botulism, or something similar).

I'm always hesitant to give out my homebrew, as I don't want to poison anyone.
 
I'm thinking that if a brew is so bad that it might hurt someone it would taste so bad that most rational people wouldn't want to choke it down. I'm assuming that you drink your own beer. If it doesn't make you sick, it shouldn't make others sick. At least not in moderate amounts.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-alcohol_beer#Small_beer

Before public sanitation, cholera and other water-transmitted diseases were a significant cause of death. Because alcohol is toxic to most water-borne pathogens, and because the process of brewing any beer from malt involves boiling the water, which also kills them, drinking small beer instead of water was one way to escape infection.
Click to expand...
 
Warning! The making and consumption of homemade beer is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS!!! Side effects of home brewing include: empty wallet syndrome, DIY fever, inability to focus on anything else, night terrors of running out of beer, compulsive buying, addiction to HBT, sexual dysfunction when you leave the kitchen dirty, and weight gain.


Welcome to the obcession...:mug:
 
oops,just read the title, skipped the post.... ignore me, listen to those other guys.

If its bad enough to hurt you, you wouldn't be able to choke it down, unless you are a pruno fan... Then anything is possible.
 
i remember watching a dcoumentary about the prohibition era... and when people made home brew alcohol this was considered dangerous. it said that many people died and some went blind due to the homebrew.
 
deathweed said:
Warning! The making and consumption of homemade beer is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS!!! Side effects of home brewing include: empty wallet syndrome, DIY fever, inability to focus on anything else, night terrors of running out of beer, compulsive buying, addiction to HBT, sexual dysfunction when you leave the kitchen dirty, and weight gain.


Welcome to the obcession...:mug:
Click to expand...
LMFAO So true So true
then once you think you have it all... youll be out a million bucks to build your own brewery.... I would STRONGLY recomend needle point.
JJ
 
olllllo said:
*sigh*

That was distilling.
Click to expand...

and not only distilling, but they cut it with nasty **** like turpentine to make it go further.

I think there are a bunch of threads on this, but basically when it comes down to it, beer is safer to drink than water.

Man this thread and the youtube vid of the cop thinking the guy could hurt someone with his "concoction".
 
deathweed said:
Warning! The making and consumption of homemade beer is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS!!! Side effects of home brewing include: empty wallet syndrome, DIY fever, inability to focus on anything else, night terrors of running out of beer, compulsive buying, addiction to HBT, sexual dysfunction when you leave the kitchen dirty, and weight gain.


Welcome to the obcession...:mug:
Click to expand...

Exactly the same symptoms...its a horrible thing when you wait for your yearly bonus check to buy 3 more 6.5gal carboys and enough ingredients for 5 PM batches lol
 
z987k said:
and not only distilling, but they cut it with nasty **** like turpentine to make it go further.

I think there are a bunch of threads on this, but basically when it comes down to it, beer is safer to drink than water.

Man this thread and the youtube vid of the cop thinking the guy could hurt someone with his "concoction".
Click to expand...

Youtube vid?

Link plz.
 
[ame]http://youtube.com/watch?v=CXTqCZi8iOM[/ame] not sure if thats the one hes talking about, but they claim his empty pepsi kegs were stolen property lmfao

"the one time you dont get your recipe right, you could at the very least blind someone, and in the worst case scenario kill somebody"

remember that the next time your friends want to drink all your homebrew!
 
Denny's Evil Concoctions said:
No pathogens harmful to humans can survive in beer.

Beer does not make people blind.

You have to use a still to concentrate enough methyl alcohol to do that and even then is isn't all that likely.
Click to expand...


Completely :off: here-

Denny- where have you been? You disappeared for a long time. Glad to see you back!

Even kids can make hooch and hide it under their bed, so it's definitely not poisonous. It might not taste very good, but it won't kill anyone.
 
terrapinbrewer said:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=CXTqCZi8iOM not sure if thats the one hes talking about, but they claim his empty pepsi kegs were stolen property lmfao

"the one time you dont get your recipe right, you could at the very least blind someone, and in the worst case scenario kill somebody"

remember that the next time your friends want to drink all your homebrew!
Click to expand...

That is worth a watch :) He was a homebrewer not a shiner
 
Whenever this comes up, it usually leads to the topic of distillation, which always makes me think of the tales of Absinthe. From what I have gathered (and I like to use this case) is that there is really no psychoactive component in normal Absinthe, but rather due to the demand in the time of its heyday ruthless manufacturers were putting very nasty ingredients into the mash, sometimes things like Copper Sulfate which is a poison. At any rate, my point in this whole aside is that you usually end up with good results when you use ingredients.

In Papazian's book he speaks of 'Cock Ale', a recipe he heard of from long ago that basically involved flaying a male rooster to death, smashing his bones up in a mortar and pestal, then fermenting him with some spices, etc. So even with seemingly, amazingly grotesque ingredients one could theoretically make something that is perfectly safe to drink (although I do shudder at this one!).
 
YooperBrew said:
Completely :off: here-

Denny- where have you been? You disappeared for a long time. Glad to see you back!
Click to expand...

Been really busy. Haven't brewed since July when I brewed 30 gallons over a day and a half. Then just as I was ready to brew again....hop shortage. I'm waiting for my hops. They were supposed to be here today. Damn fedex.

Oh..and back on topic.

The ONLY way beer will kill you is if you drink enough to get poisened by an excessive blood alcohol level... or if you fall in a vat and drown.. ie http://beerfestmovie.warnerbros.com/
 
to quote Charlie Papazian's book "Joy of Homebrewing". You can not make a beer that will harm anyone. SWMBO is still here, must be true!
 
zoebisch01 said:
(and I like to use this case) is that there is really no psychoactive component in normal Absinthe, but rather due to the demand in the time of its heyday ruthless manufacturers were putting very nasty ingredients into the mash
Click to expand...
:off:

Well I don't think anyone has determined as a matter of fact that there is no psychoactive component in normal Absinthe, but I do agree that some of the crazy things it has been attributed to wasn't caused by what's normally supposed to go into absinthe. All that aside, man that's one gross beverage :p

Cheerz for Beerz! :mug:
 
Yes, making beer is dangerous. Other potential hazards include: scalding, burns, glass cuts, crushed feet, mangled hands, divorce, brown lung from inhaling grain dust, etc.

Drinking homebrew is not.
 
terrapinbrewer said:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=CXTqCZi8iOM not sure if thats the one hes talking about, but they claim his empty pepsi kegs were stolen property lmfao

"the one time you dont get your recipe right, you could at the very least blind someone, and in the worst case scenario kill somebody"

remember that the next time your friends want to drink all your homebrew!
Click to expand...

Wow! that cop needs a promotion eh! Cleaning up the "streets" I think he has seen reefer madness one too many times!
Blinding, from what I understand was caused by distilling liquor that was derived from wood. Although there are sugars that can be derived from wood (and was probably used by some backwoods prohab brewers, who needed something cheap, and available everywhere) it did not take long to fig'r out that it was a good way to loose customers/friends real fast! lol:cross:
 
david_42 said:
Yes, making beer is dangerous. Other potential hazards include: scalding, burns, glass cuts, crushed feet, mangled hands, divorce, brown lung from inhaling grain dust, etc.

Drinking homebrew is not.
Click to expand...

This nearly got me the Divorce and Cut Hands.

IMG_0714_copy.jpg
 
bensyverson said:
Damn -- what happened there?
Click to expand...
I Gave that "Quick Mead" A try. 1 gallon Very light mead...ferment 48 hours, Bottle Condition 48 hours, Refrigerate 48 hours and drink...Just don't leave on the shelf in the kitchen cause it looks so good in the bottle. It Will turn into a bottle bomb and cover the kitchen in super sticky shards of glass.:mad:
 
BigKahuna said:
I Gave that "Quick Mead" A try. 1 gallon Very light mead...ferment 48 hours, Bottle Condition 48 hours, Refrigerate 48 hours and drink...Just don't leave on the shelf in the kitchen cause it looks so good in the bottle. It Will turn into a bottle bomb and cover the kitchen in super sticky shards of glass.:mad:
Click to expand...


Your hands or the SWMBO's. I'm guessing your hands or you wouldn;t have said almost divorced.
 
I always like to add a cup of AntiFreeze to my beer, as it gives it a cool color and some residual sweetness. Some would consider that dangerous.















DISCLAIMER: I made that up. Do not add AntiFreeze to your beer, it will kill you.
 
It has been speculated that brewing something more or less like beer went hand in hand with the first cultivation of grains to bake bread, for the reasons others have noted above - that the brewing process will make questionable water safe to drink. Pretty much the same ingredients in baking and brewing.
 

Similar threads

U
Slugs on grapes
Replies
1
Views
333
SoCalPlumber
SoCalPlumber
A
Drosophila
Replies
11
Views
491
JAReeves
JAReeves
chrispokey
Time for another round of "Is this beer infected?"
Replies
15
Views
428
IslandLizard
IslandLizard
A
Looking for guidance & opinions on what to buy for my setup.
Replies
4
Views
356
fluketamer
F
Ali01
All my beers have this overpowering off flavor after bottling
2
Replies
76
Views
4K
WesBrew
WesBrew
SSBrew 300

Latest posts

Back
Top