Is brewing beer or cider dangerous for my kitty?

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BadgerBrigade

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I have an indoor cat and she hangs out in my room with the door closed, Sometimes the window is also shut. I have three 6 gallon carboys in there all gassing off carbon dioxide. Is this enough CO2 to harm her? She's a very small kitty, About 6 pounds. But she is totally the love of my life and I don't want to do anything that could even closely endanger her. Please help me with this because it's really on my mind and it's really hard for her to be in any other room in the house because we sometimes leave the door open for the dog and we don't want her to get out
 
If you have a large batch and very vigorous fermentation I see two ways the cat could be hurt.

1) You put a blowoff tube in the fermenter and duct tape the other end into the cats mouth, covering the nose so the cat can't breath anything but the C02 escaping.

2) You take the same blowoff tube and still duct tape it into the cat's mouth, but this time you have blowoff and the cat chokes on it.

Since I don't think you are going to duct tape the cat to anything, you're safe and so is the cat.
 
45_70sharps said:
If you have a large batch and very vigorous fermentation I see two ways the cat could be hurt.

1) You put a blowoff tube in the fermenter and duct tape the other end into the cats mouth, covering the nose so the cat can't breath anything but the C02 escaping.

2) You take the same blowoff tube and still duct tape it into the cat's mouth, but this time you have blowoff and the cat chokes on it.

Since I don't think you are going to duct tape the cat to anything, you're safe and so is the cat.

A cat lover I see..... Lol
Well if you were the dog sort I have dogs too and don't want them to be harmed or on the floor drunk because I put blowoff tubes in there mouths... Hahaha

So really? Three large carboys gassing off in a confined 8 x 10 room is not going to give any dangerous levels of CO2? You sure.....
 
Well, what you could do, like several breweries do, is capture that CO2 and use it to carb your beer... then you save your kitty AND some money, AND get to feel all green.
 
I'd be more worried that the cat would knock your airlocks off with a curious paw strike and open your brews to infection!

If the cat did succumb to CO2, at least you'd have delicious cider to drown your sorrow!!!
 
Cathedral said:
Well, what you could do, like several breweries do, is capture that CO2 and use it to carb your beer... then you save your kitty AND some money, AND get to feel all green.

How?
 
A cat lover I see..... Lol
Well if you were the dog sort I have dogs too and don't want them to be harmed or on the floor drunk because I put blowoff tubes in there mouths... Hahaha

So really? Three large carboys gassing off in a confined 8 x 10 room is not going to give any dangerous levels of CO2? You sure.....

Well I was being a little sarcastic..... BUT, seriously you would probably have to do those things I mentioned for the cat to be in danger.

Don't worry. CO2 can be dangerous but only by it displacing enough oxygen to suffocate you.
I'm not sure how many gallons you would need to brew in a very small room but it would be a lot, the room would be small and ventilation would have to be very bad.
Any indoor room is going to have air flow between rooms.

It's fine. It's good to think about potential problems, but you can stop thinking about this one.

Unless of course you duct tape a blowoff tube and the cat together. That might get the concentration that it would take to hurt him during vigorous fermentation.
 
I wouldn't worry about the CO2 at all - the room would have to be completely air-tight to be even close to a problem!

BUT Hops are toxic to cats and dogs if ingested! Please make sure your cat doesn't get into your hops and you'll be fine.
 
Just have to ask, are you sure you aren't confusing Carbon Dioxide (CO²) with Carbon Monoxide (CO)?
 
45_70sharps said:
Well I was being a little sarcastic..... BUT, seriously you would probably have to do those things I mentioned for the cat to be in danger.

Don't worry. CO2 can be dangerous but only by it displacing enough oxygen to suffocate you.
I'm not sure how many gallons you would need to brew in a very small room but it would be a lot, the room would be small and ventilation would have to be very bad.
Any indoor room is going to have air flow between rooms.

It's fine. It's good to think about potential problems, but you can stop thinking about this one.

Unless of course you duct tape a blowoff tube and the cat together. That might get the concentration that it would take to hurt him during vigorous fermentation.

No, I taped the blowoff to the girlfriend :)
 
devianttouch said:
I wouldn't worry about the CO2 at all - the room would have to be completely air-tight to be even close to a problem!

BUT Hops are toxic to cats and dogs if ingested! Please make sure your cat doesn't get into your hops and you'll be fine.

There's no hops in the house, I'm cider brewer but that's good to know if I ever do any beer
:mug:
 
WilliamSlayer said:
Grow a small tangarine tree in the corner of the room with the extra Co2...then use them in your Wit beers!

I love that idea and I love tangerines but I think Kitty would tear apart any plant I had in my room in a second....
Will a tangerine tree even grow in
indirect sunlight?
 
No one in my house will even go near the bathroom where I'm fermenting 10-15 gallons of cider. There's a constant smell of cat farts in there. (I just blame it on the dog)
 
I have an indoor cat and she hangs out in my room with the door closed, Sometimes the window is also shut. I have three 6 gallon carboys in there all gassing off carbon dioxide. Is this enough CO2 to harm her? She's a very small kitty, About 6 pounds. But she is totally the love of my life and I don't want to do anything that could even closely endanger her. Please help me with this because it's really on my mind and it's really hard for her to be in any other room in the house because we sometimes leave the door open for the dog and we don't want her to get out

What do you think is the real problem here, aside from the CO2?

Try human interaction and you won't worry about these things.
 
homebrewhaha said:
What do you think is the real problem here, aside from the CO2?

Try human interaction and you won't worry about these things.

That was dumb...
The real love of my life is my girlfriend, but my animals are very important to me and like members of the family.
Ease up on the homebrewed dude, I think you're overdoing it.
 
Pickled_Pepper said:
No one in my house will even go near the bathroom where I'm fermenting 10-15 gallons of cider. There's a constant smell of cat farts in there. (I just blame it on the dog)

Hahaha... Love it.
That's the other reason I love my pets they're wonderful scapegoats.. Lol
 

Honestly I'm not exactly sure; and I was kind of being facetious because I'm sure the cost (and size) of such a system would be well beyond what most homebrewers could handle. But I do know the system exists, and has for a long time (since 1912 or something.) Sierra Nevada and Alaskan Brewing Company does it--

In 1998, Alaskan Brewing became the first craft brewery in the United States to install and operate a carbon dioxide (CO2) reclamation system. The system captures and cleans carbon dioxide, a natural byproduct of the brewing process, and uses it to package the beer and purge oxygen from holding tanks, saving money and the environment. This system prevents over 800,000 pounds of CO2, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming, from being released into the atmosphere each year. That is equivalent to preventing the emissions from using more than 40,000 gallons of gasoline annually.

When I was stumbling the internet the other night I came across a forum of homebrewers discussing how to build a home system. I didn't read the whole thread but I'm sure a search could dig it up again if you're really interested. And this thread from here on HBT has some links you could check out:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/co2-recovery-169218/index2.html
 
I have an indoor cat and she hangs out in my room with the door closed. She's a very small kitty, About 6 pounds. But she is totally the love of my life and I don't want to do anything that could even closely endanger her.

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Almost right.
I have not researched this fully, but, in the interest of safety, here's what I believe to be true:
If a human gets exposed to a gas pocket which is about 10% or more CO2, he/she may lose consciousness. Then, if the gas concentration increases, you're in trouble. Also, and I just looked it up in The Merck Index, the density of CO2 is 1.527, air being 1.000. This is why it makes such a good blankety over our brews.
And, the gas will be heavier because it's wet. If you do not die, but are deprived of Oxygen, you may suffer brain damage. Why take a chance?
 
VegasJ
I was about to quote bubbles but you beat me to the tpb reference:)
 
Well I was being a little sarcastic..... BUT, seriously you would probably have to do those things I mentioned for the cat to be in danger.

Don't worry. CO2 can be dangerous but only by it displacing enough oxygen to suffocate you.
I'm not sure how many gallons you would need to brew in a very small room but it would be a lot, the room would be small and ventilation would have to be very bad.
Any indoor room is going to have air flow between rooms.

It's fine. It's good to think about potential problems, but you can stop thinking about this one.

Unless of course you duct tape a blowoff tube and the cat together. That might get the concentration that it would take to hurt him during vigorous fermentation.

I love cats. I also knew you were kidding, lol. That was hilarious!!!

I nearly spewed coffee on my work PC.

:mug:
 
There is a warning on the side of every ale pale that small children should be supervised around them because they can fall in and drown. I'm assuming the same can be said for cats?
 
There is a warning on the side of every ale pale that small children should be supervised around them because they can fall in and drown. I'm assuming the same can be said for cats?

A cat could get out of an ale pail faster than you blink your eye.


a child could be stuck in head down.
 
A cat could get out of an ale pail faster than you blink your eye.


a child could be stuck in head down.

And I would hope that while fermentation is going on the lid is on!

Seriously, what would you name a cider that had a couple hours with "dry catting".
 
45_70sharps said:
And I would hope that while fermentation is going on the lid is on!

Seriously, what would you name a cider that had a couple hours with "dry catting".

Carboys...
 
I have an indoor cat and she hangs out in my room with the door closed, Sometimes the window is also shut. I have three 6 gallon carboys in there all gassing off carbon dioxide. Is this enough CO2 to harm her? She's a very small kitty, About 6 pounds. But she is totally the love of my life and I don't want to do anything that could even closely endanger her. Please help me with this because it's really on my mind and it's really hard for her to be in any other room in the house because we sometimes leave the door open for the dog and we don't want her to get out

Your kitty will be fine, both my wife and I have veterinary backgrounds with cats as well as dogs.

Feeding the kitty some beer or cider is a different story.

I would see more harm possible if your cat could possibly knock a carboy down or whatever. Cats can be goody, and a bubbling airlock or blowoff tube could stir some curiosity.
 
a bubbling airlock or blowoff tube could stir some curiosity.

I've had to play hunt the airlock more than once or twice since I got me new kitty.

I've changed them all to 3 piece airlocks now and they no longer make enough noise to interest her.
 
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