Anyone get sick as a dog from homebrew before?

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ericd

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So I've got fever, chills and an awful belly ache. I figure it's something I ate yesterday, which could either be fish or homebrew. It's a blackberry wheat and no signs of infection or anything. I used some rocks (i soaked them in bleach and rinsed them off) from outside to weigh down the bag of blackberries. I noticed the rocks had gotten definately smaller when I got them out. Could it be anything disolved from the rocks? What do you all think, probably the fish?
 
Hrm... I'm betting on the fish too, but, the rocks were smaller when you pulled them out? What did they look like?
 
I'm intrigued by the rock part of the story but seriously.... Fish?

I got soooooo sick on sushi once that I think I dry heaved (with a ranging fever) until the very last tiniest bit of rainbow roll was pulled back up from the very end of my small intestine. That was horrible.

Come to think of it.... I did have a home brewed blackberry wheat that night that had been weighed down with some rocks from my yard...
 
You put yard rocks into your beer? That is not a practice I would endorse. I understand wanting to weigh the bag down, but I would not use something off the ground covered in acid rain, various animals urine and feces, and what ever else.

Although I am betting fish also.
 
Nothing pathogenic can live in beer, including botchuism.....so if you want to blame something, blame the fish.....

I came across this from a pretty well known and award winning homebrewer railing against a fellow brewer (it was on one of those "color coded" brewboards where they are a little less friendly than we are.) I just cut and pasted it and stuck it in a file...here it is.


Can you get a PATHOGEN from beer. No. NO *NO* Did I make that clear? You have a ZERO chance of pathogens in beer, wine, distilled beverages. PERIOD!

Pathogens are described as organisms that are harmful and potentially life threatening to humans. These are some 1400+ known species overall encompasing viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and helminths. Of that group, we are only interested in those that can be foodborne. Quite simply, if it can't survive in food, it isn't in beer. That knocks out all but bacteria and fungi. Viruses need very specific circumstances to be passed around... like on the lip of a glass or bottle, not the beer in it. **Ahhh...CHOOO!**

Pathogens as a rule are very fastidious beasts. Meaning that they want very specific temperatures, acidity, nutrients and other conditions to thrive.

Bacteria that *could* live in wort, cannot survive even a little bit of fermentation. There are several reasons for this. One is in the 'magic' of hops. It is the isomerized alpha acids that provide a preservative effect to the beer, which happens to inhibit pathogens! Good deal for fresh wort!

Another reason is the drop in pH from fermentation. Next, yeast emit their own enzymes and byproducts, all in an effort to make the environment hostile to other creatures. The major one is alcohol, of course, but their enzymes will break down less vigorous organisms and they become sources of trace nutrition. Now the latter is very minor compared to the effect of alcohol, but it exists! Most of the time these enzymes work on the wort, not organisms until late in the process. Good deal for beer! ...uh, wine too.

Oh, Botulism specifically... did you know that this is an anaerobic pathogen? It's toxin is one of the few that is broken down by boiling. Did you know tht it is strongly inhibited by isomerized alpha acids, even in water? Since fresh wort has a healthy amount of oxygen in it, the beastie cannot even get started, then once the O2 is used up, it doesn't have a chance against the hops or the yeast.

All that is left are a handful of acid producing bacteria that'll ruin a batch of beer. Overall, there are less than 200 organisms that can survive in beer and lend flavor effects. None of these for very long, or very often. Lambic being the sole exception, and if pathogens *could* survive, that'd be the style where you find 'em.
Click to expand...


It's important to remember that one of the reasons we have beer today (one of the oldest beverages in existence) is because it was made to be drunk in places where drinking the WATER was deadly....By boiling the wort, adding hops (which is an antiseptic), changing the ph, and pitching yeast, you killed of any microorganism that good be harmful.....in fact the third runnings of the brewing process was fermented at an extremely low gravit 1-2% ABV, and it was called "table beer" or "Kid's Beer" this is the stuff that people drank with meals...it was their water replacement, like Iced tea or soda pop...because again the fermentation process insured thatit was safer than the water.

Not to mention fever, chills....there is a flu going around as well...another thing to look at beyond your beer. :D

Get well soon....
 
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Not the "Did the beer kill me" thread again!

:D


Seriously.

Some people get some gas from the nutrients in yeast (and yes it is dead by the time it hits your intesines) until their body gets used to it, but you canlt get sick from beer.

You can get really wasted and hungover though or perhaps some other alcohol related medical problem as per any alcoholic drink.
 
Denny's Evil Concoctions said:
Some people get some gas from the nutrients in yeast (and yes it is dead by the time it hits your intesines) until their body gets used to it, but you canlt get sick from beer.
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But he said fever and chills.....

And even after my biggest benders (some of which have been tied into visits by HB_99, fyi) I never had fever and chills...

:D
 
I've hear that the same thing can happen if you eat fish and drink home brew that has been exposed to rocks from your yard.

Rocks are generally porous and washing probably won't ensure they are sanitary. It most likely was the fish, but could be something completely unrelated like the bird flu or ebola. The rocks may have been radioactive or possibly even meteorite fragments from outer space carrying who knows what kind of alien spores. If we don't hear back from you we will know that you have succumbed to the infection. I would not venture too far from the toilet for the next 24 hours or so.
 
Catt22 said:
I've hear that the same thing can happen if you eat fish and drink home brew that has been exposed to rocks from your yard.

Rocks are generally porous and washing probably won't ensure they are sanitary. It most likely was the fish, but could be something completely unrelated like the bird flu or ebola. The rocks may have been radioactive or possibly even meteorite fragments from outer space carrying who knows what kind of alien spores. If we don't hear back from you we will know that you have succumbed to the infection. I would not venture too far from the toilet for the next 24 hours or so.
Click to expand...

Oh Shi.t! Are those the rocks that cause zombieism??!!
 
Fever and chills generally means an infection or intoxication (not the alcohol kind). Since it was so long since you ate the suspect food, I would lean towards infection. I'm not so sure about the whole putting bleach-sanitized rocks in beer thing (you should probably have boiled them) and it is suspicious that they shrunk, but chances are it was something you ate, but it doesn't have to have been the fish. Did you eat at a restaurant? What else did you have?

There are two main types of food-borne illness: infection and intoxication (actually there are 3... the 3rd is a hybrid of the two, e.g. E. Coli). Infection is when your body is infected directly with a microorganism and usually occurs ~24-72 hours after you eat it. Salmonella is an example. Intoxication is when the bacteria multiply in the food (contaminated, held out of proper temperature) and produce a toxin. You then eat this and become ill from the toxin... usually not too long after you eat (hours). Staphylococcus aureus is a common example of this as well as botulism (although infants can become infected by Clostridium botulinum). This is the true "food poisoning".

If your symptoms don't subside soon, you should see a doctor. If you suspect a restaurant, you should call your local health department because the restaurant could be making other people sick with an infected worker and/or poor food handling practices.

All of that said, it could be anything. You could coincidentally have gastrointestinal issues unrelated to your fever/chills. In which case, you could have a mild case of West Nile Virus (happens more often than realized) or a tick-borne infection or anything. Not trying to be dramatic, just throwing out all of the possibilities.

OK, I'll shut up now.:)
 
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoBTsMJ4jNk]YouTube - Monty Python-The Meaning of Life-Death[/ame]
It was the salmon mousse!

stevea1210 said:
You put yard rocks into your beer? That is not a practice I would endorse. I understand wanting to weigh the bag down, but I would not use something off the ground covered in acid rain, various animals urine and feces, and what ever else.

Although I am betting fish also.
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As opposed to the grain that was out in the fields where any bird could crap on it? What about the mice in the elevator who **** in the grain? You probably do not want to know what the USDA allowable limits for insect fragments in grain are. I think we'd all worry less if we got just a little bit less squicked by where our food comes from and what it's touched before we cook it.

Although, if the rocks get smaller in the fermenter, are you, OP, sure it wasn't deer poop? Even then, it probably wouldn't do much more than make the beer taste like ****. Literally. :cross:
 
menschmaschine said:
Infection is when your body is infected directly with a microorganism and usually occurs ~24-72 hours after you eat it.
Click to expand...

I'm no microbiologist or anything, but I do watch the Discovery Channel and I also stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night...

Anyway, years ago I found out that "food poisoning" can happen days after the offending item was ingested. So, now when people tell me they're feeling sick and it must have been the menudo they had for lunch I nod knowingly and inform them that the pork tartar they had yesterday is just as likely a candidate.
 
pork tartar now thats way more risky than a rock,,
really thoe I have to wonder if steava knows that saying a rock covered in acid rain will make you sick, makes him sound like a total moon bat, do you even know what acid rain is ? how much do you supose can stick to the out side of a rock? there is more "acid rain " in a cut onion, most acid rain it is made by vocanos
and its that sulfur acid that combines with iron in the soil to make your blood red and plants green
 
stevea1210 said:
You put yard rocks into your beer? That is not a practice I would endorse. I understand wanting to weigh the bag down, but I would not use something off the ground covered in acid rain, various animals urine and feces, and what ever else.

Although I am betting fish also.
Click to expand...

Those are in your beer anyways.

acid rain != a strong acid falling from the sky. Come on man. And even then all rainwater is acidic. Everywhere.
 
Shooter said:
Anyway, years ago I found out that "food poisoning" can happen days after the offending item was ingested. So, now when people tell me they're feeling sick and it must have been the menudo they had for lunch I nod knowingly and inform them that the pork tartar they had yesterday is just as likely a candidate.
Click to expand...

The term "food poisoning" is often incorrectly used to refer to both food borne infection and food borne intoxication, when in fact it only refers to intoxication (or "poisoning").

However, you are correct in that even food borne intoxication can take several days to manifest the symptoms, depending on which type of bacteria produced the toxin. One of the most common, Staph. aureus, usually occurs in about 1 to 6 hours after eating the contaminated food. The bottom line is that your body reacts more quickly to a consumed toxin ("food poisoning") where as a food borne infection has an incubation period (when the bacteria/protozoa/viruses multiply in your body) and typically takes longer to manifest the symptoms.
 
I would not use rocks unless you heated them up in the oven to 300 or so, and making sure they are the kind of rocks that don't explode under heat. Stainless nuts and bolts are preferred for weight. If they got smaller they may have dissolved. No telling what kind of rock you used and rocks are very porous.
It must have been the fish, dude.
 
Silverware makes for a good weight. Spoons have nice smooth nonporous surfaces, went through the heat of the dishwasher, and you can give them a rinse in sanitizer on top of that.
 
Coastarine said:
Silverware makes for a good weight. Spoons have nice smooth nonporous surfaces, went through the heat of the dishwasher, and you can give them a rinse in sanitizer on top of that.
Click to expand...

cool idea...I know some folks on here also use glass marbles....again, they are smooth and can be sanitized easilly.
 
Hey everybody, I ate raw pork with a homebrew, now i'm sick as hell. Was it the beers fault?;):D
 
I'm just starting out...this post will definitely keep me from including yard rocks in my first batch this weekend. This could have been a close one. Yard rocks really should be mentioned in the FAQ.
 
For the 1000th time, you don't need to weight the bags! Hops, fruit, whatever....try it without weights! Due to laziness, I did that many years ago and found that the results were identical.
 

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