Mine all revolve around things at breweries... none of my other jobs have been interesting!
-My worst on the job injury; Was doing something that required looking in the top manway of a 20bbl HLT. As I started down the ladder, I slipped... WEEEEE... going backwards I hit my kettle and took a 1 1/2" tri-clover valve to the kidney, bounced off the tank and landed on my ankle... after which the rest of my body crashed to the floor. I couldn't get up. Fortunately the GM of the restaurant side happened to walk out of his office and saw my crumpled mass on the floor, checked that I wasn't in immediate danger. I had him call my wife and had her get me to the ER. Was off work completely for a week, supposed to be 2 weeks light duty afterwards.. RIIIIGHT... tell it to the mash tun...
-Working at a larger facility, I was doing CIP on a 90bbl FV. Set the hoses to pump out of the cone and back into the spray ball. Hot (170F) caustic cycle using a blend of caustic and bleach (NASTY stuff, but amazing at cleaning). I turned the pump on and once I saw that everything was in order, I walk around the tank to do something else. FOOOMWHOOSHHHHHH.... Out of the corner of my eye I see the hose that attached to the spray ball give way at the CIP line! BOTH hose clamps failed! It came loose at face level and was shooting caustic across the brewery. 2 seconds slower and I would have taken it full in the face.
-Same location as the first one. Had a central CIP brink that had caustic, acid and iodophor tubs. It also had a steam heat exchanger in line to recirc and heat the caustic. It was in recirc one day and my assistant and I were cleaning several things. There was a hose coming off the kettle that was recirculating 180F hot water for cleaning and sanitizing purposes. Discovered this hose was defective when a bubble formed on it. I hollered at my assistant to get out of the way, but too late.. the bubble burst and sprayed water at him. He saw it coming and jumped aside, missing the water.. but... he hit the hard piping on the cip brink and jarred to tri-clover clamps loose... he took 200F caustic to the face, shoulders, chest, etc... i.e. pretty much head to toe... there was a door to the alley right next to the brink, he jumped out and was screaming (duh). I had to get down on the floor and crawl under the spray to get to the emergency shut off. Once I had the pumps killed, I hollered at him to get back in and under the drench shower. He was too freaked, I had to grab him and drag him back in, holding him under the shower for about five minutes until I was sure the caustic was gone and he had calmed down. Fortunately, he had no burns that caused scaring.
- (not an injury story, this one, a crazy person story!) Was brewing at a pub in Birmingham, Alabama when the alcohol content limit in Alabama was raised from 5% to 6%. A few days after it went through I was called to the phone to talk to a customer. He asked me if I would be changing the beers to raise the alcohol now. I told him that the house standard recipes would remain the same, but that I would certainly brew some that were higher in alcohol (I didn't say I had already been doing specials as high as 8% heheh) This guy gets all indignant and insists that ALL the beers MUST be 6% now or I was a F**KING CROOK and RIPPING OFF THE CUSTOMERS . I tried to explain that changing the alcohol content of the house beers would also change the flavor, etc and that wasn't good to do for the customers that liked those beers. Reiterated that there would be specials that wo... YOU'RE RIPPING OFF THE CUSTOMERS... THEY SHOULD BE 6% NOW... YOU'RE RIPPING OFF THE CUSTOMERS... YOU GUYS ARE CROOKS... Well sir, you are welcome to go somewhere else, in fact I encourage you to, have a nice day YOU'RE RIPPING OFF C *click*
