Couple die after drinking homemade beer in South Africa

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NightFlight

NightFlight

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The below is a copy paste, news posted today.

Anyone have any ideas on what could have gone wrong besides pathogens or contaminants? IMHO home brewing is very safe! But, I'm a new home brewer and would like to know if there are any pitfalls that could lead the below? This has me shaking my head in a total WTF. South Africa appears to have an anti-alcohol agenda right now, so the results of the analysis will never see the light of day. Especially not in the news.


https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12330853https://7news.com.au/travel/coronav...ound-tough-coronavirus-restrictions-c-1027341
The couple died after drinking one bottle of their homemade beer each. File image, right.


The couple died after drinking one bottle of their homemade beer each. File image, right. Credit: CEN/Getty

A couple who made a batch of home-brew beer have died during lockdown after drinking just one bottle each.
Tony Hilliar, 54, and Alida Fouche, 42, had run out of their own supplies of alcohol and decided to make their own brew with no end of South Africa’s tough alcohol restrictions on the horizon.
South Africa has banned the sale during the pandemic’s lockdown period.
It’s understood that the couple collapsed at their home in the Northern Cape province after consuming the homebrew and that real estate agent Tony made a desperate call for help.
Emergency service workers arrived at the home to find Alida already dead, and Tony writhing on the ground in agony next to her.
Tony Hilliar, 54, and Alida Fouche, 42, died after drinking beer they made.

Tony Hilliar, 54, and Alida Fouche, 42, died after drinking beer they made. Credit: CEN
He was said to be clutching his stomach in pain.
Tony was rushed to hospital, but died a few days later.
More on 7NEWS.com.au
Police investigators sent the two empty bottles away for forensic testing, as well as the rest of the unopened carton.
Close friend Tommy Cockcroft, 52, said: “They both liked a drink at the end of the day which is typically South African but thanks to this poorly thought out government ban there is no alcohol.


Like many South Africans, Alida Fouche, 42, loved a drink at the end of the day.

Like many South Africans, Alida Fouche, 42, loved a drink at the end of the day. Credit: CEN
“This alcohol ban is just beyond total belief and there is no sense whatsoever in it and the sooner people are treated like grown-ups the better”.
Many South Africans have resorted to brewing their own beer, due to the country’s hard-line ban on all alcohol sales.


Tony Hilliar, 54, lost his life after drinking his own beer.

Tony Hilliar, 54, lost his life after drinking his own beer. Credit: CEN
South Africa has also banned the sales of cigarettes, since entering lockdown on March 26.
 
I would say the first thing is what their procedures and ingredients were. If they just decided to make their own, I tend to doubt they did the research like most of us did.
 
There is no mention if they ever brewed before. There is no mention what ingredients they used. Ingesting a poisonous plant used in the brew could be another cause....
 
They had to have added something that isn't normally used in beer. People only brew their own because it has a good safety record.

Or maybe the whole story is just a hoax.

Edit: Line from the NZ Herald story that seems totally whacked: "It is feared that the pair died from alcohol poisoning, police said." It is not possible to ferment something with enough alcohol to kill you from a single 12 - 22oz bottle.

Brew on :mug:
 
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I tend to dislike how death by home brew stories are reported in general.
The story comes out, "PEOPLE DIE FROM HOMEMADE BEER!!!!!" and it's weeks or months before the actual cause gets written.
Most everyone on this board knows home brewing by normal methods is completely safe. Any home brew that is bad is going to smell and taste wrong.

A while back there was a story about people getting sick and dying from "home brew" at some gathering. It turns out someone that didn't like somebody had poisoned it.

Apparently in India beer can't be sold during elections because someone could bribe voters with it so "beer" with gasoline (to give it a "kick") and other nasty stuff is sold illegally.

I'm gonna guess the "home brew" in the article was not actually "brewed". The couple probably got some crazy recipe that suggested adding methanol or something equally bad perhaps claiming that something in the process made it "okay". Check methanol poisoning : Abdominal pain (severe).

One hope people would know better than this but recently "someone" suggested somehow ingesting bleach would cure covid-19.......no one should think about actually doing that.
 
The story is completely insane. In high school I've seen people leave fruit, sugar in I can only guess to be natural yeast infested water. The fruit flies were a nice touch. They drank it and basically suffered a good hangover the next day, but nothing close like the the death of these two.

I don't know about hoax... Fear mongering? To what end? I think maybe they should just get nominated for a darwin.
 
But I get the impression this pair got sick like immediately, and the wife was gone before the responders even arrived if I got the story right.
I'm assuming the husband lived longer due to weight-based dosing considerations, but could mycotoxin exposure/ingestion work that quickly?

Cheers!
 
I feel sorry for the couple, like them I too like to have a drink or two. I think they used questionable ingredients and not malts & hops and didn't brew any beer. The malts & hops are only available from Home brew shops in SA and there are many of those. Some of them also deliver home. Due to lockdown, no delivery was possible so probably they scrounged up whatever they could get their hands on. Also, media is irresponsible these days, only looking for shock factor, no mention of ingredients, what type of alcohol was made & from what (maybe tried to distil something). In SA, they have a traditional brew made from Sorghum, which is available in supermarkets in powdered form. You just add warm water to it to ferment it. Though it's not something I'd drink regularly, this would have been a safer option to buy.
 
Here in South African people have been experimenting with lots of different ways of "making alcohol". Unfortunately the media and government seem to report this all as "home brew" when it often has absolutely no relation to brewing beer. We are waiting to hear on the toxicology/lab results on the "home brew".

We have even had people trying to "clean" methylated spirits by straining it through bread and mixing it with flavoured soda/cool drink and calling it home brew - go search facebook, insta, you'll find the videos and recipes.

As a club we get numerous requests/contacts and we direct people to how to brew beer safely and tell them to avoid the other stuff.

Please help us stop unsubstantiated "news".
 
The_Professor said:
I tend to dislike how death by home brew stories are reported in general.
The story comes out, "PEOPLE DIE FROM HOMEMADE BEER!!!!!" and it's weeks or months before the actual cause gets written.
Most everyone on this board knows home brewing by normal methods is completely safe. Any home brew that is bad is going to smell and taste wrong.

A while back there was a story about people getting sick and dying from "home brew" at some gathering. It turns out someone that didn't like somebody had poisoned it.

Apparently in India beer can't be sold during elections because someone could bribe voters with it so "beer" with gasoline (to give it a "kick") and other nasty stuff is sold illegally.

I'm gonna guess the "home brew" in the article was not actually "brewed". The couple probably got some crazy recipe that suggested adding methanol or something equally bad perhaps claiming that something in the process made it "okay". Check methanol poisoning : Abdominal pain (severe).

One hope people would know better than this but recently "someone" suggested somehow ingesting bleach would cure covid-19.......no one should think about actually doing that.
Click to expand...
While it is true that during elections, free booze is given to poor people, it is usually good stuff. After all you don't want your potential voters to turn sick or worst - dead. The people who die are always victims of adulterated stuff. They add methylated spirits to increase the volume & ABV. In 2015, about 100 people died in Mozambique, turned out this was the reason.
 
day_trippr said:
but could mycotoxin exposure/ingestion work that quickly?
Click to expand...

i doubt one drink or instantly, from my guess it took me a day of drinking a gallon, then another, then my liver hurt so bad, i could barley crawl out of bed.....like big panties, don't drink the gushers......lol....but in my case i wasn't cleaning my malting tub, and it was a dark red...i'm assuming fusarium...and it still took 2.5 years for me to get sick from it.....

edit: and everyone knows i drink, so that's just my guess...i cleared it up in a month though, and i only had to cut back to twelver a day....;)
 
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Cameron Gray said:
Here in South African people have been experimenting with lots of different ways of "making alcohol". Unfortunately the media and government seem to report this all as "home brew" when it often has absolutely no relation to brewing beer. We are waiting to hear on the toxicology/lab results on the "home brew".

We have even had people trying to "clean" methylated spirits by straining it through bread and mixing it with flavoured soda/cool drink and calling it home brew - go search facebook, insta, you'll find the videos and recipes.

As a club we get numerous requests/contacts and we direct people to how to brew beer safely and tell them to avoid the other stuff.

Please help us stop unsubstantiated "news".
Click to expand...

Yeah, I somehow had a story on South Africans "brewing" during the alcohol sales ban show up in my Google News feed, and clicked on it.

It brought up distilling, so I immediately knew they were conflating many different things in their definition of brewing.

When I saw this story I figured it was something similar. This couple didn't die from homemade beer, at least not as any of us would define it. They did something extra. And heck, it might not have even been "beer" at all--I've heard stories of people there fermenting pineapple... Is that a common thing there, @Cameron Gray ?
 
I've got a couple cans of pineapple juice and some various packets of yeast. Not certain if that would make a good product... but I'd bet my life on the result being safe enough to drink.
 
They are suggesting that the couple drank pineapple beer. Here is a write up on that. The recipe is in the article. Suggestion is only ferment for one week. Then put in plastic bottles so you can keep cracking the cap to degass. Seems like they are not letting fermentation complete. Plus I put the recipe in Brewer's friend, and the sugar/water ratio gets 20% abv. Don't think the wild yeast could get it that high, but still pretty toasty.
https://www.sapeople.com/2020/05/01...south-africans-continue-making-homemade-brew/
 
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The only thing I can think of that makes any kind of sense is that they used some sort of highly caustic cleaner and left it in the beer by accident or methyl alcohol used to boost the ABV

there was a case of caustic cleaner that caused severe burns to a person's throat and stomach in the US a couple years back, but that was industrial grade caustic cleaner that was accidentally left in a 50' restaurant beer line.
 
I've found leaving starsan too long will leave a film - guessing that is the surfactant settling out? Best to rinse clean with water and then sanitize again briefly.
The recipe/method listed by CoreyD seems a lot like the ginger beer methods circulating on youtube.
 
NightFlight said:
I've found leaving starsan too long will leave a film - guessing that is the surfactant settling out? Best to rinse clean with water and then sanitize again briefly.
The recipe/method listed by CoreyD seems a lot like the ginger beer methods circulating on youtube.
Click to expand...

You can drink diluted star san - it won't hurt you. I've never had mine leave a film, I wonder if you have hard water and it's a mineral residue?
 
TheMadKing said:
You can drink diluted star san - it won't hurt you. I've never had mine leave a film, I wonder if you have hard water and it's a mineral residue?
Click to expand...

Leave something soak in a bucket of starsan for a week, like a bung.
 
RPh_Guy said:
Here's a story:
Click to expand...

The article calls the "brew" imbamba.
Both Google and Youtube link the terms imbamba and mtshovalale.

A Google link states, these brews are sometimes laced with anything from common household products to battery fluid and methylated spirits.

A YouTube video shows mtshovalale being made with water, brown sugar, and yeast. I didn't see any adulteration just skimming through it.
 
This was a fun one. Several people in my social medias started passing this one around, and I kept having to step on it.

“Ooh homebrewing can be so dangerous, be careful or you can make methyl alcohol and die”
 
Whilst looking up that earlier Mozambique reference....

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/12/contaminated-beer-at-funeral-kills-56-in-mozambique
... oops. Edit: I made a funny earlier thinking the traditional drink included the crocodile bile... my bad. This was in fact, just a plainly sad story.

Reading further, Forbes magazine reported that a study done by Professor Nyazema (University of Zimbabwe, Central African Journal of Medicine in 1984 and 1985) shows croc bile is not so toxic as anecdotally assumed by 20th century colonial medical literature.
 
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Still no real follow up article with the results of any investigation but surprise there is an article about another couple dying from homemade beer.

One comment below the article says, "The previous couple did NOT die from homemade beer, rather from ingesting household spiritus with their tea............". Not sure if that is anything more than rumor/fake news.
 
And someone also died from drinking fish cleaner.
There are no toxic ingredients in making beer. There are no combinations of those ingredients that can create such a lethal toxin that kills you after one drink. Most poisons can't do that unless you ingest copious amounts of it.
It is a bogus story. I don't mean that it didn't happen, I mean that what they made isn't beer.
Fermented pineapples is not homemade beer.
You can call it that, but it isn't.
There are a LOT of articles out there talking about the dangers of making pineapple alcohol drinks.
It is not beer
 
Even if there's some pseudo-toxic compound underlying in homebrewing that someone stumbles upon on accident and causes one to writhe in pain and die, I'd still 1) take chances with my homebrew and probably all of your guys' homebrew and 2) prefer it over meth. If you've never looked at the ingredients to make meth, it's frightening (not a great idea to google it on a work/government computer though).
 
A better article about both couples.

In the article:
It is believed both couples died after adding almost pure 97 per cent alcohol in the form of ethanol into their home brew.....
A relative, who asked not to be named, told IOL Media: ‘They drank home-made ginger beer which apparently had pure alcohol mixed into it.....
It added that in Kenya the locally brewed Chang’aa beer can include jet fuel or embalming fluid or battery acid......
 
The_Professor said:
A better article about both couples.

In the article:
It is believed both couples died after adding almost pure 97 per cent alcohol in the form of ethanol into their home brew.....
A relative, who asked not to be named, told IOL Media: ‘They drank home-made ginger beer which apparently had pure alcohol mixed into it.....
It added that in Kenya the locally brewed Chang’aa beer can include jet fuel or embalming fluid or battery acid......
Click to expand...
Thanks for finding this. Ignorance+desperation=tragedy.
By the way, how exactly is a ban on alcohol (assuming it's normally available in stores that are allowed to be open) supposed to combat COVID?
 
Stormcrow said:
Thanks for finding this. Ignorance+desperation=tragedy.
By the way, how exactly is a ban on alcohol (assuming it's normally available in stores that are allowed to be open) supposed to combat COVID?
Click to expand...
It doesn't. In my opinion, the reason the retail and distribution networks are closed is because they don't contribute significant sums of money back into the right pockets of whomever regulates the racket. A petty crook like Al Capone didn't get rich all by himself.
My local stores all stayed open. In one location they were advertising $39/bottle distilled products as an acceptable ingredient for alternative hand sanitizers.
Can you imagine wasting a bottle of Patron or Grey Goose for this? In NJ where I reside a "price gouging" law was instituted and stated any item or service sold to the public for profit couldn't exceed a 10% sales value when compared to retail.
 
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