fluxcapacitor
Member
I recently built a new brew tower for my all-grain setup, mostly out of a need for a safer brew day. I was tired of climbing a shaky step ladder to lift my Igloo cooler full of 180 degree sparge water to a shaky shelf about 2 feet above my head. Luckily I managed to brew about 10 batches using this method without dumping it and giving myself a scald shower.
At the outset, I thought lifting the scalding hot sparge water to an eight-foot shelf tenuously anchored to drywall would be the most dangerous part of my brew day. Turns out, it was the innocuous plastic quick disconnects and rubber tubing I was using for the sparge water and hot wort transfer that was the weak link on my brewing safety chain. I neglected to consider how flimsy and flexible rubber tubing becomes when 150+ degree water is flowing through. When I went to adjust the flow rate valve on the sparge water, the tubing popped out of the quick disconnect on the cooler and sparge water began flowing out at an alarming rate onto the garage floor. Being the quick-thinking problem solver I am, I grabbed the rubber tubing and proceeded to insert it back into the disconnect, which proved to be quite difficult with the sparge water still pouring out. After fooling around with it for about 30-45 seconds, I had the tubing back in and was moderately victorious in managing to save about half my sparge water. After the panic of the situation subsided, I noticed quite a bit of pain radiating from my arms. Discovered I had mildly burned about 75% of my right forearm and both of my hands. Overall, it could have been much worse, but I learned a painful lesson and have since replaced all rubber tubing with 1/2" pvc.
So, in the interest of sharing best brewing safety practices, please tell us about your brewing injuries! Pictures would be great. Brewing tends to involve a lot of hot water and glass, and flesh and blood don't generally make good ingredients in a brew. Let us know what wen't wrong (or almost went wrong) with your brewing process so we can all avoid the same mistakes!
At the outset, I thought lifting the scalding hot sparge water to an eight-foot shelf tenuously anchored to drywall would be the most dangerous part of my brew day. Turns out, it was the innocuous plastic quick disconnects and rubber tubing I was using for the sparge water and hot wort transfer that was the weak link on my brewing safety chain. I neglected to consider how flimsy and flexible rubber tubing becomes when 150+ degree water is flowing through. When I went to adjust the flow rate valve on the sparge water, the tubing popped out of the quick disconnect on the cooler and sparge water began flowing out at an alarming rate onto the garage floor. Being the quick-thinking problem solver I am, I grabbed the rubber tubing and proceeded to insert it back into the disconnect, which proved to be quite difficult with the sparge water still pouring out. After fooling around with it for about 30-45 seconds, I had the tubing back in and was moderately victorious in managing to save about half my sparge water. After the panic of the situation subsided, I noticed quite a bit of pain radiating from my arms. Discovered I had mildly burned about 75% of my right forearm and both of my hands. Overall, it could have been much worse, but I learned a painful lesson and have since replaced all rubber tubing with 1/2" pvc.
So, in the interest of sharing best brewing safety practices, please tell us about your brewing injuries! Pictures would be great. Brewing tends to involve a lot of hot water and glass, and flesh and blood don't generally make good ingredients in a brew. Let us know what wen't wrong (or almost went wrong) with your brewing process so we can all avoid the same mistakes!
