boilmeimirish
Active Member
First off, I'll say that this board has helped me immensely, and that while this is my first post, I'm a long-time lurker.
So onto the horror story:
A friend and I recently brewed an extract 5 gal red ale, in which, through no fault of our own, 8 lead pellets (.177 cal., airgun pellets) were added sometime during the first 60 min. boil, into 3 gals of wort.
We didn't notice that they had entered the boil until we were tall-pouring from the BK into the primary bucket, as we watched and heard several pellets 'clink!' into the bottom of the bucket.
You can only imagine the horrified look that was shared at this point in time.
After nearly 3 hours of carefully sanitizing the kitchen and all supplies, carefully measuring every AAU of hops and ounce of DME, after setting timers and thermometers and steeping grains to perfection, we had learned that something, somehow, had gone very, very f*cking wrong.
I know what you're thinking--how the hell did they get in there in the first place? I'll tell you! My next door neighbor's 10-year old daughter stuck them in as I was taking a quick toilet break. She was playing with my kid in the living room, and had only moments to act, but she found a way. This kid is like something straight out of a Stephen King novel, or Dante's Inferno-- She's Rosemary's Baby itself!
But let's not focus on my pure and unbridled hatred for a poorly parented kid or her pill-popping, Darwin-defying predecessors.
Never mind how the pellets got into the BK, the question is now this: Do I drink this stuff?
The pellets came out looking more copper-colored than 'lead silver', and the US dept. of health says that anything over 18ppb, yes, that's parts per BILLION of lead in a regular diet can be toxic in the long run.
What do YOU think?
~Mike
So onto the horror story:
A friend and I recently brewed an extract 5 gal red ale, in which, through no fault of our own, 8 lead pellets (.177 cal., airgun pellets) were added sometime during the first 60 min. boil, into 3 gals of wort.
We didn't notice that they had entered the boil until we were tall-pouring from the BK into the primary bucket, as we watched and heard several pellets 'clink!' into the bottom of the bucket.
You can only imagine the horrified look that was shared at this point in time.
After nearly 3 hours of carefully sanitizing the kitchen and all supplies, carefully measuring every AAU of hops and ounce of DME, after setting timers and thermometers and steeping grains to perfection, we had learned that something, somehow, had gone very, very f*cking wrong.
I know what you're thinking--how the hell did they get in there in the first place? I'll tell you! My next door neighbor's 10-year old daughter stuck them in as I was taking a quick toilet break. She was playing with my kid in the living room, and had only moments to act, but she found a way. This kid is like something straight out of a Stephen King novel, or Dante's Inferno-- She's Rosemary's Baby itself!
But let's not focus on my pure and unbridled hatred for a poorly parented kid or her pill-popping, Darwin-defying predecessors.
Never mind how the pellets got into the BK, the question is now this: Do I drink this stuff?
The pellets came out looking more copper-colored than 'lead silver', and the US dept. of health says that anything over 18ppb, yes, that's parts per BILLION of lead in a regular diet can be toxic in the long run.
What do YOU think?
~Mike
