Exploding Kegs!!!

I was sitting inside my LHBS and we had a few people brewing out back for national home brew day, and all of a sudden we hear an explosion from outside and people ran into the store saying a propane tank exploded!!! (Yes it sounded like a stick of dynamite went off)

So the owner and I went out back do do a damage report and to make sure everyone was ok and it ended up that it wasnt a propane tank but the bottom rim of a keggle. The only thing we could guess is that this was the first 90 min boil hes ever done with this keg, and the air pressure in the rolled bottom built up so much that a 3" piece of the keg blew out and seriously deformed his turkey frier. It also launched the keggle and the 10 gal batch that was in it off the stand and on to the ground. (We did hold a small prayer for the lost 10 gals.)

We looked at some of the other kegs around and noticed that this keg was the only one that had no holes drilled in that rolled seam and also it was the only one welded shut on the bottom. So as a warning to everyone, check the bottom of your kegs and make sure there are vent holes on the bottom rim.

Man, I wonder how many sh!tty underpants are getting washed tonight.

DAMN!

How much beer was lost?

they lost the 10 full gallons with 5min left of the 90min boil.

That piece of shrapnel could've been deadly, glad nobody got hurt (assumption, you didn't say). Thanks for the warning!

LouT said:

That piece of shrapnel could've been deadly, glad nobody got hurt (assumption, you didn't say). Thanks for the warning!

Click to expand...

Not too mention what 10gal of 212+ degree wort would do to you...
Thanks for posting it.
I wonder if the Moderator could flag this somehow so it is brought to everyones attention.

I'll add a link to this thread in my thread about keg conversion. The one I converted does indeed have holes around the rolled rim.

out of all the others this was the only one like this -- we had 8 people brewing out back with a total of 14 keggles.

It would be nice for this flagged beacause if there are more out there like this people can get really hurt.

Noone was seriously injured, one guy got hit by the peice of metal on his shin and got a nice bloody spot, and others had some bad ringing ears.

That must of been a serious amount of pressure... glad no one got hurt.. last time I heard of a keg exploding a teenager died.

I would not have believed this if I did not see the pics... WOW

Kind of

Last year, not too far from me, some idiot drunks threw an empty keg into a barrel they were using as a fire pit. Sure enough, a few hours later, there was an explosion... reports from 3 miles away of the noise. One person in their 20's was killed, and others seriously injured.

The kid who threw the keg in the fire was dismissed of charges.... based on a defense that there was no warning on the keg.

Keep your eyes open for a lawsuit on this one... guaranteed.