Major Mishaps, Inuries and Scr*w-Up's

[Misplaced_Canuck]

I didn't see a thread around here except for the blood-in-beer thread.... Thought I'd start one.

I'm not talking about "I pitched too early in hot wort", but more along the lines of something semi-serious that happened to you (or someone you know)....

My recent scr*w-up: I was emptying a glass carboy full of bleached water into the laundry room sink, and it slipped out of my hands. It punched right through the sink (it was plastic and somewhat brittle), dumped a gallon or two until I picked it back out.

In the process of changing the sink, I broke the hot water tap and it gushed hot water all over the laundry room floor and into the hall onto the hardwood floors. I had the presence of mind of closing the hot water valve at the hot water in the garage. Hardwood floors are warped a bit now (they seem a lot better after a month).

From a while back: I was brewing in very cold weather, and I decided to put my empty keggle next to my turkey fryer stove while heating up the sparge water. At some point I decided to check if the keg was getting warm.... Was it ever! I burnt my palm pretty bad - but no trip to the ER. I was in pain for a couple weeks!

What about y'all?

M_C

 

[Zamial]

Lets address a serious issue before you hurt yourself, then we will talk about the topic.

There is no need at all to move a full carboy or even a 1/2 full one, it does not exist. I cart my wort to the carboy in a sanitized bucket and dump it through a giant sanitized funnel. I auto siphon the beer out of the carboy where it sits.

I am building a carboy washer as seen below. I will then dump the trub into a bucket and use a carboy cleaner like the 4th post down in this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/keg-carboy-washer-158415/ with a bit of brushing if needed.

I am super glad you were not seriously injured...



As for serious stuff, The most serious thing that has ever happened to me is I cut both pinky fingers from picking up a full 1/2 bbl without gloves. Last time that will ever happen. Live and learn.

 

[gr8shandini]

I actually scalded myself pretty good on my last batch. I've been using a step ladder to elevate my mash tun so it can drain into my kettle. I knew this to be a bad idea, but as my old scoutmaster used to say "it's OK to do something wrong if you know what you're doing." Well, that advice is as stupid as it sounds.

I just got done mixing in the sparge water and didn't manage to set the mash tun quite square on the top of the ladder when I hoisted it back up. I caught it before it fully tipped over, but the lid popped off and I managed to spill about a gallon of 160+ degree mash down my back. Luckily, it was about 35 degrees out, so it cooled quickly enough that I only ended up with about a 3" strip down my shoulder that got a 2nd degree burn and the equivalent of a mild sunburn on about half my back. If it was summer time, I could have easily needed a trip to the ER. Needless to say, I've already invested in a sturdy work bench before my next brew.

It's somewhat embarrasing, but if we get enough of these stories, maybe this should be a sticky so that others don't follow in our footsteps.

 

[weirdboy]

A couple of brews ago, when I was messing around with it, I had the "wort in" connection on my plate chiller pop off by accident while recirculating boiling wort through it. Nothing like streaming boiling hot wort all over yourself like an idiot to make you question why you ever bought a pump.

 

[jwheelz]

During my boil on my stove, things started getting a little warm and I could tell it was going to boil over in about 2 seconds. Instinctivly I grabbed the kettle and lifted it off the burner....the foam went down and I set it back on the burner...

If you do this, make sure you set it down SLOWLY...the weight of the 3 gallons in the kettle make the center pop up and down when pressure is applied/removed (think: Snapple lid)

When I set the kettle back on the burner the center of the kettle POPPED up and all the boiling wort came up with it! Luckily it wasnt quite hard enough to send it too far out of the kettle and I didn't get any on me. But I could definitly seeing someone doing this and getting a face/chest full of boiling wort. Be cautious!

 

[TheBrewinator]

Building my mash tun, I was modifying a piece of PVC and slipped with an exacto knife with a brand new blade. That one yielded me a thumb split down the middle and a trip to the ER to get some stitches.

Other than that, I haven't had any major injuries during brewing, just a few minor screw-ups (forgetting to add whirlfloc, yeast nutrient, etc) during the process.

 

[stunsm]

Instinctivly I grabbed the kettle and lifted it off the burner....the foam went down and I set it back on the burner...

I did something similar to this a few years ago, but not with wort. Saw a boil over about to happen, lifted the pot off rather than kill the heat (gas stove)... Big mistake. A quick splash was all it took to give me a major scald on about 60% of my left hand. 6 hours of excruciating pain while waiting in the ER, they simply wrapped it, gave me pain killers, and send me off to the burn center. I have pictures, but they are a bit too graphic to post on a public forum. I learned a new respect for hot liquid that day.

 

[Runyanka]

A couple of brews ago, when I was messing around with it, I had the "wort in" connection on my plate chiller pop off by accident while recirculating boiling wort through it. Nothing like streaming boiling hot wort all over yourself like an idiot to make you question why you ever bought a pump.

Mine follows along with the pump story. Recirculating my wort though my plate chilller back to my brew kettle. while I was bent down adjusting the pump valve, the hose that was going back to the kettle popped out. It shot hot wort all over the back of my head, neck, and back. The worst part about it was that I didn't even see it comming! So I also have a nice looking sunburn on my neck, back, etc.

Friggin pumps!

 

[metaltim]

2 brews ago i had my wort chiller in the boil for the last 10 min.. my immersion chiller usually has water in it from previous time, i don't blow the water out.. anyway, 10 min in the boil, i kill flame and turn on garden hose which goes into IC. the 'out' of my IC has just vinyl hose on it, going into a bucket, where i collect hot water for cleaning.
well water pressure was high, the vinyl hose went crazy like a snake, and sprayed pretty hot water on face. i measured the water once i got it in the bucket, it was 160 deg.. so it was probably hotter since the first couple ounces or so sat in the IC in boiling for 10 min.

i had a red area about an inch wide going down my face from forehead to chin, and my skin actually peeled about 4-5 days later.

lesson learned, I now use a hose clip on edge of bucket to hold down exit hose.

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

This one came close to dangerous...:

My first brew since my hiatus, and I was doing a dry-run (well there was water so not really a "dry" run) of my system to find any problems before I actually brewed...

I set-up my Cajun Kooker to heat up some water, and I stepped away for a 2-3 minutes (mistake). While I was away, the coiled up gas line sprung up, and stuck to the Kooker's frame, and proceeded to melt rather quickly. I came back to the stove and noticed a big plume of black smoke... I turned the gas off immediately of course.

I'm not 100% certain if the hose was leaking gas at this point, but I can tell you that after it cooled down, it was leaking a LOT. I put it in the trash of course, and scrambled to find a replacement on a Sunday... Not easy.

My lesson on that one: I now put a medium sized log over the hose to prevent spring-up's.

M_C