Brew Day Injuries

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Softailrider

Softailrider

Burnt Lava Brewing
Joined
Aug 26, 2017
Messages
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Location
SW Idaho
While I was brewing my last batch a couple of weeks ago, I was going about my day and keeping my poop in a pile, as they say, and went to lift one of my containers of water to fill the HLT. This was a 7 gallon water jug, so figure 56+ lbs. When I lifted the jug from the floor, I twisted and moved towards the HLT and heard a loud pop come from my rib cage. Never went to the doctor, as there is little they do for rib injuries, and powered through the rest of the brew day. So, here we are almost 3 weeks later and I’m still nursing this injury. Guessing I pulled a muscle, or something like that. The downside is the pain of a rib injury and the problems it has caused for my golf game. On the upside, the beer will be kegged this weekend and I will be taking my “medicine” later next week.

Curious if anyone else out here in brew land has experienced any interesting brew day injuries.
 
Your ribs are loosely attached to your vertebra. There is a good chance that you pulled a rib out of its socket part way. A good chiropractor (maybe even a poor chiropractor) can put that rib back where it belongs. It will still be a little sore for a day or 2 as the nerves settle down.
 
RM-MN said:
Your ribs are loosely attached to your vertebra. There is a good chance that you pulled a rib out of its socket part way. A good chiropractor (maybe even a poor chiropractor) can put that rib back where it belongs. It will still be a little sore for a day or 2 as the nerves settle down.
Click to expand...
I have had lower back issues for years, and while I never believed in them, I went to a chiropractor for about 2 years and man did it help. His hours didn't work well for me and I kinda lost the need, but I would recommend using one if there is one close by. But, they aint cheap LOL.
 
day_trippr said:
Lifting and twisting has been a recipe for physical disaster for me over my lifetime, accounting for tons of down time and three microdiscectomies that eventually led to a 3 unit/2 level lumbar fusion.

Don't do that!

Cheers!
Click to expand...
I certainly won't put a like on this post. That all sounds incredibly painful. Hope you have figured out a way to ease the pain and do what you enjoy doing. Rock On!!!!!!!
 
RM-MN said:
Your ribs are loosely attached to your vertebra. There is a good chance that you pulled a rib out of its socket part way.
Click to expand...
Your ribs are also attached to your sternum with cartilage. So it's also possible that you separated one of these anterior connections. I don't know if there are any good treatments for that kind of injury, but I do know that there are better diagnostic methods than reading an internet forum. ;)
 
Back when I was carrying full glass carboys downstairs to my garage fermentation chamber without even a carboy harness, as I crouched to place the carboy in, it slipped. I instinctively folliwed it down to try to regain control but it got the concrete floor and broke. Stout-pocalypse!

I stood up, howled I think, and looked at my injured hands and the day's work flowing across the floor. No spurting artery, but considerable blood from cut hands. My wife drove me to urgent care for stitches. Then we came home and hosed out the garage.

Could have been much worse. I healed up fine and bought a carboy harness. Nowadays my glass fermenters sit on a shelf.
 
day_trippr said:
Lifting and twisting has been a recipe for physical disaster for me over my lifetime, accounting for tons of down time and three microdiscectomies that eventually led to a 3 unit/2 level lumbar fusion.

Don't do that!

Cheers!
Click to expand...
That sucks sorry you had to go through that.

Yup, that's a big no no in the work place. They specifically tell you not to do that. Lifting and then turning your whole body as opposed to twisting to move something heavy is the safest way to go about it.

I became very cognizant of how I lifted things after giving myself a bulging disc in my neck from being stupid. I have recovered from that issue and am very aware of how I lift things now and my posture.
 
9 years ago I sprung a (small) abdominal hernia from lifting a full mash tun.
I was doing a step- and decoction mash for an 11 gallon batch of Belgian Witbier, lifting the main kettle up 4 inches from a knee-high bench onto the induction burner right next to it.
I only noticed it later that day, walking the dog, when a little bulge appeared.

Upon seeing the internist he ordered an ultrasound of that area as well as my gallbladder. He also sent for as a CAT scan. Seeing the results he vowed against surgery, saying it was a very small tear and would eventually heal itself. And stop lifting heavy things!!!

Now that colonoscopy was 4 years overdue, so....
And that CAT scan procedure earned its own story, and it wasn't medical.
 
Just a suggestion; Get an x-ray and take it to a reputable chiropracter...leaving an out of place rib can cause a number of issues, a particularly nasty one I can personally speak for is that you could end up with a collapsed lung...highly unpleasant!
 
I bought a Grainfather G40 last Christmas because I feared that one day soon I was going to injury my back lifting heavy water bottles, a stainless steel mash tun, and full conical fermenters. To mash and boil in the same container and then pump the wort to the fermenters on the shelf was meant to prevent an injury before it happened. However, on my third brew, I went to move the whirlpool/recirculation hose and it slipped out of hand and sprayed by foot with hot wort. I had shoes and socks on, but the sock absorbed the hot wort and I had to quickly remove it after I regained control of the hose. I ended up with a nice burn on the top of my foot. Ouch.
 
I would encourage anyone who is brewing anything but the smallest batches to use pump to transfer liquids as much as possible.

I would never get away with lifting my full conicle anymore, nor would I want to carry a full keg around much, let alone down the stairs to cellar. 20 ft of 1/2 food grade hose and a pump, work tables on wheels, makes my brew day possible, let alone safer. My back still feels it afterword, but no worse than a regular work day.
 
With my system there's no heavy lifting; I use pumps for moving wort/water around, and have a nice hoist for the grain bag. If something heavy has to move to another area, I've got two $20 furniture dollies that do great. My injuries tend to be the burny/cutty kind. I've burned my toes a couple of times because I WILL insist on wearing flipflops during brewday; and cut my hands opening various packages with old dull box cutters (all I can usually find in the garage). Worst I've ever done is a couple of nice burns on my b88bs; hose popped off and of course sprayed boiling wort right on my chest. Have a couple of interesting scars and couldn't wear a bra for about 3 weeks.
 
My brew partner and I were setting up ours systems in my garage one morning. He handed me a 6 back of HB golden ale to put into the refrigerator. About 1/3 way across the garage the bottom of the carrier gave way with 5 bottles hitting the floor. 2 bottles exploded and several pieces of glass hit my shins (I was wearing shorts) and cut me open. Fortunately no glass stuck in my skin but I did bleed for a while.
 
Dland said:
nor would I want to carry a full keg around much, let alone down the stairs to cellar. 20 ft of 1/2 food grade hose and a pump,
Click to expand...
I brew outdoors. My basement stairs are sketchy AF. I am this close to getting 20' of hose and pumping from the chiller, through the basement window and right into the fermenter. The only thing holding me back is the fear the hose would somehow come out of the fermenter while I was outside working the other end and pumping wort all over my basement floor.

That and the fact that my basement bulkhead is on the opposite end of the house from where I brew, so that's a lot of back and forth.
 
Cameronl said:
I brew outdoors. My basement stairs are sketchy AF. I am this close to getting 20' of hose and pumping from the chiller, through the basement window and right into the fermenter. The only thing holding me back is the fear the hose would somehow come out of the fermenter while I was outside working the other end and pumping wort all over my basement floor.

That and the fact that my basement bulkhead is on the opposite end of the house from where I brew, so that's a lot of back and forth.
Click to expand...

I also brew outdoors, and pump wort down to fermentor, which is on a table with wheels so I can move it out of the way after transfer. Valve on hose gives control and makes it easy to check connection before I send the wort down. I always used to worry something would go wrong, but I always double connection and it never has.

First picture is of wort getting pumped from hop step to fermentor, but sometimes I transfer directly from BK.

IMG_1315.JPG
IMG_1316.JPG
 
Speaking of transferring wort with a pump. I made a mishap at the end of a boil once where I had the hoses mixed up when attempting to transfer. I thought it'd be a great to pull the hose off without closing the valve and spilled boiling hot wort on my foot. This took forever to heal due to the fact that I had to stay on my feet, where socks and shoes.. you know, normal activity. The photo attached is probably 3 weeks after the initial injury

P.S. Sorry if the feet pic is disturbing!
 

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Cameronl said:
I brew outdoors. My basement stairs are sketchy AF. I am this close to getting 20' of hose and pumping from the chiller, through the basement window and right into the fermenter. The only thing holding me back is the fear the hose would somehow come out of the fermenter while I was outside working the other end and pumping wort all over my basement floor.

That and the fact that my basement bulkhead is on the opposite end of the house from where I brew, so that's a lot of back and forth.
Click to expand...
Clamp the hose onto the side of the fermenter.
 
Cameronl said:
I brew outdoors. My basement stairs are sketchy AF. I am this close to getting 20' of hose and pumping from the chiller, through the basement window and right into the fermenter. The only thing holding me back is the fear the hose would somehow come out of the fermenter while I was outside working the other end and pumping wort all over my basement floor.

That and the fact that my basement bulkhead is on the opposite end of the house from where I brew, so that's a lot of back and forth.
Click to expand...
Two very important words:

Cam Locks

Kettle to pump to fermenter. Done.
 
Been gathering my “old man brewing” equipment:
1)hand truck for moving fermenter from shop to utility room.
2) furniture dollies to move fermenters around.
3) carboy sling for lifting fermenters and carboys with…
4) deer hoist, which is also used to load kegs into keezer
 
I wish I’d thought of furniture dollies a few years ago. Originally I built a three tiered set of risers for gravity feed sparging that stacked inside each other like Russian nestiing dolls. The shortest two had 3” castering wheels with friction locks. Then I switched to an AIO brew system and no longer needed them.

I still use the shorter ones, which are quite sturdy, to relocate things around the brew space. But the tallest one is little more than a high-rise storage shelf anymore. The shortest one is the workhorse but would have better utility if it were wider, like a furniture dolly.

The deer hanger is a great idea for hoisting kegs into a beer refer. I may not get rid of my 7.6 gallon kegmenter after all. Coulda’ used one during my BIAB days.
 
Worst thing that happened (so far) is dropping a carboy during cleaning. A piece of glass shrapnel cut my big toe and it took almost a year to heal. Still has a nice scar right in front along the edge of the toenail; kind of like the toe is smiling.

As I age, I am thinking like many of you about a hoist for the wet grain bag and/or to lift kegs to put in the keezer.
 
Softailrider said:
While I was brewing my last batch a couple of weeks ago, I was going about my day and keeping my poop in a pile, as they say, and went to lift one of my containers of water to fill the HLT. This was a 7 gallon water jug, so figure 56+ lbs. When I lifted the jug from the floor, I twisted and moved towards the HLT and heard a loud pop come from my rib cage. Never went to the doctor, as there is little they do for rib injuries, and powered through the rest of the brew day. So, here we are almost 3 weeks later and I’m still nursing this injury. Guessing I pulled a muscle, or something like that. The downside is the pain of a rib injury and the problems it has caused for my golf game. On the upside, the beer will be kegged this weekend and I will be taking my “medicine” later next week.

Curious if anyone else out here in brew land has experienced any interesting brew day injuries.
Click to expand...

Softailrider said:
While I was brewing my last batch a couple of weeks ago, I was going about my day and keeping my poop in a pile, as they say, and went to lift one of my containers of water to fill the HLT. This was a 7 gallon water jug, so figure 56+ lbs. When I lifted the jug from the floor, I twisted and moved towards the HLT and heard a loud pop come from my rib cage. Never went to the doctor, as there is little they do for rib injuries, and powered through the rest of the brew day. So, here we are almost 3 weeks later and I’m still nursing this injury. Guessing I pulled a muscle, or something like that. The downside is the pain of a rib injury and the problems it has caused for my golf game. On the upside, the beer will be kegged this weekend and I will be taking my “medicine” later next week.

Curious if anyone else out here in brew land has experienced any interesting brew day injuries.
Click to expand...
 
The only thing heavy I am still lifting after switching to a Grainfather G4 with pump are the 5 gallon water bottles I use to carry water to the garage to fill the G40. I think it's time to buy a long enough hose that is drinking water safe (e.g. RV hose) to transfer the water straight from the tap to the G40.
 
pvpeacock said:
The only thing heavy I am still lifting after switching to a Grainfather G4 with pump are the 5 gallon water bottles I use to carry water to the garage to fill the G40. I think it's time to buy a long enough hose that is drinking water safe (e.g. RV hose) to transfer the water straight from the tap to the G40.
Click to expand...
I fill one gallon glass jugs with filtered water and just carry them one or two at a time. I’ve been working on reducing heavy lifting. Yesterday, I lowered my mash tun (after sparge & draining) to the floor; not too bad. I also lifted my fermenter with 5gallons to a stand about 3’ high. I’m going to install another deer hoist to handle both of these. The one I use to put kegs in the keezer works great, and at +/-$15, there’s hardly any piece of brewing equipment cheaper that will improve my brew day better!
 
RM-MN said:
Your ribs are loosely attached to your vertebra. There is a good chance that you pulled a rib out of its socket part way. A good chiropractor (maybe even a poor chiropractor) can put that rib back where it belongs. It will still be a little sore for a day or 2 as the nerves settle down.
Click to expand...
So to a real doctor or a licensed physical therapist. Chiropractors rank right below GED students ;-)
 
BrewZer said:
Clamp the hose onto the side of the fermenter.
Click to expand...
I've gone ahead and done it. Bought a long length of hose and run the wort from the kettle, to the pump, through the plate chiller and down to the basement. The hose is clamped to the side of the fermenter, but I still stick my head awkwardly through the window to triple check that the hose is still in place. It's working well.

I've also built a small dolly the fermenter's stand is attached to, so I don't even have to carry it across the room from the window to the fermentation area.
 
I don't want to necro the carboy thread, but in college I had a 3 gallon glass carboy full of cold water. I picked it up to put it in sink, and momentum kind of carried it into the corner of the refrigerator. Doesn't take much speed for the momentum of 25 lbs of water to just roll through the glass...

I miraculously avoided injury during the following explosion of glass-laden water. Not a scratch.

During cleanup, I thought the ragged bottom/partial side of carboy looked cool, so I took it to the sink to rinse off. It disintegrated in my hands and sliced my finger pretty good. Lesson learned.
 

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