How to get a quick buzz without drinking...legally!

[smarek82]

I am trying my second lager attempt and I just invested in a chest freezer with temp controller. I brewed a German Pils saturday and after I got home from work today the fermentation lock was bubbling away nicely. Here's where I learn from mistakes:

I undeniably have very little common sense and decided to smell the inside of the chest freezer to see what kind of aromas are coming off the fermentation.
Outside of some sulfur it wasn't bad, but little did I know there was a wave of CO2 just waiting in the fermentation cooler.

I got so dizzy for 5 seconds I nearly fell.

At least I know there is a tight seal on my fermentation cooler.

Disclaimer: S.M. is not responsible for anyone inadvertantly or purposely huffing CO2 gas from their fermentation cooler!!!

 

[mullenite]

helping out after my local i opened the door on one of the unitanks and not thinking i stuck my head in right away to see how much trub was still in there and it nearly knocked me out. co2 is crazy.

 

[onemanlan]

Yeah that's a lack of oxygen. Be careful with that or you could seriously fall and hurt yourself. Not to mention ruin your batch!

 

[Edcculus]

Ha, I did that once. A batch of Witbier was fermenting in my temp controlled chest freezer. The aroma coming from that thing was so amazing, I stuck my head down in it and nearly passed out.

 

[wildwest450]

Yeah that's a lack of oxygen. Be careful with that or you could seriously fall and hurt yourself. Not to mention ruin your batch!

You may fall, but it will hardly ruin the batch. Huff away.



.

 

[HalfPint]

This happened to me a while back, but not with a chest freezer.

I had washed some yeast probably about 8 months ago, so I wasn't sure how good it was. I made a starter, starter smelled ok, so I pitched when the starter was at high krausen. Despite my 2 liter starter, the beer took 2 days to take off (WTF??). After it did begin to bubble away, I opened it up and took a big whiff to make sure it wasn't contaminated. BOOM, instantly dizzy.

 

[BendBrewer]

I prefer NO2 but to each his own.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

If David Carradine had been a homebrewer instead of a thrill seeker, he might still be alive today. Maybe the trick is to squeeze out a quick one before closing the door and breathing oxygen again.

 

[Mischief_Brewing]

You may fall, but it will hardly ruin the batch. Huff away.
.

Ahhh, but if you fall into your batch, that could ruin it. I doubt if anyone sanitizes their head before passing out and falling headfirst into their fermentation bucket...

 

[QuixoticDevice]

This is where the English word, "Barmy" (meaning crazy) came from. Barm is the term for the foam on top of anything fermenting, what we tend to refer to as kreuzen. When they'd send guys in to clean the "barm" out of the fermentors after they were drained, in some of the big distilleries and breweries these fermentors were as big as rooms, they'd start getting dizzy, acting strangely, and sometimes passing out. In fact, they used to tie ropes to themselves so they could be pulled out! Since this was before people knew about things like CO2, they figured it was somehow caused by the foam, hence "barmy".

See? Distillery tours are awesome even before you get to the free hooch!

 

[fivehoursfree]

All I got from taking a big sniff out of a fermenter was a burning feeling in my lungs.

 

[BendBrewer]

All I got from taking a big sniff out of a fermenter was a burning feeling in my lungs.

You didn't hold it in long enough. Try again.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

This is where the English word, "Barmy" (meaning crazy) came from. Barm is the term for the foam on top of anything fermenting, what we tend to refer to as kreuzen. When they'd send guys in to clean the "barm" out of the fermentors after they were drained, in some of the big distilleries and breweries these fermentors were as big as rooms, they'd start getting dizzy, acting strangely, and sometimes passing out. In fact, they used to tie ropes to themselves so they could be pulled out! Since this was before people knew about things like CO2, they figured it was somehow caused by the foam, hence "barmy".

Really!? Well, that's just barmy!

Edit: come to think of it, Barmy is another one of those words that I trained myself not to use in the U.S. to avoid the blank stares. I'd actually forgotten all about it after a few years!

 

[demonrichie]

dont worry about the teens huffin air dusters and robbin the medicine cabinet. theyre goin to be sniffin fermenters

 

[billc68]

I always smell my fermenters, and noticed quite a hum coming out of my fermentation cooler (not to mention I had a leaky CO2 system in there as well) but I have never gotten dizzy, maybe I should breathe deeper next time.