worlddivides
Well-Known Member
So I did a closed transfer of my newest beer today. And while technically it was the third closed transfer I've done, it was the first fully successful closed transfer, though maybe that's even not true since the first one lost about 100-200ml in leakage from the way I connected the two different sized tubes and for the second one, I tried a different method but my tube actually had ripped open, which was an absolute catastrophe. This time everything went super smooth, but it wasn't a 100% perfect lock, so around 5ml or so leaked. A tiny amount and way better than my previous 2 beers, but still maybe not 100% perfect.
But when I opened the fermenter after everything was done and I wanted to clean it, I took a sniff from just above it and didn't smell much of anything, so I leaned down inside and it was like my face entered a blanket of gas, and I jolted back. It was an almost burning sensation and I suddenly got lightheaded and backed off. My fiancee was standing nearby and she asked "Does it really smell that bad?" and I said "No, it doesn't smell bad. I just smelled something I've never smelled before that's making me lightheaded." She took a light sniff from a much higher position and said "It smells like strong alcohol." and I said "That's not the smell of alcohol. This is only 4.5% ABV."
It took a few minutes before I realized what the cause was. The CO2 that had been in the tank was being pushed out the gas line while the beer was being pushed by gravity through the beer line, and so after almost all the beer was gone, there was still that "blanket" of CO2 resting on top of the yeast. If I had realized that beforehand, I never would have tried to smell it that fast. The lightheadedness went away a few minutes later, but I've heard of people going unconscious from breathing high concentrations of CO2 or even dying in industrial situations and so on. Before my last 3 batches, all of my batches were bottled, so I never experienced anything like this, and in the previous 2 batches, this hadn't happened (not sure why), but I'll definitely be a lot more careful going forward. When I mentioned to my fiancee that it must be CO2, she mentioned that people at her workplace have died from inhaling CO2 and that the way I jolted back at the smell was sign enough that it hadn't been enough to do me any harm, but it was definitely an odd sensation I will not repeat.
But when I opened the fermenter after everything was done and I wanted to clean it, I took a sniff from just above it and didn't smell much of anything, so I leaned down inside and it was like my face entered a blanket of gas, and I jolted back. It was an almost burning sensation and I suddenly got lightheaded and backed off. My fiancee was standing nearby and she asked "Does it really smell that bad?" and I said "No, it doesn't smell bad. I just smelled something I've never smelled before that's making me lightheaded." She took a light sniff from a much higher position and said "It smells like strong alcohol." and I said "That's not the smell of alcohol. This is only 4.5% ABV."
It took a few minutes before I realized what the cause was. The CO2 that had been in the tank was being pushed out the gas line while the beer was being pushed by gravity through the beer line, and so after almost all the beer was gone, there was still that "blanket" of CO2 resting on top of the yeast. If I had realized that beforehand, I never would have tried to smell it that fast. The lightheadedness went away a few minutes later, but I've heard of people going unconscious from breathing high concentrations of CO2 or even dying in industrial situations and so on. Before my last 3 batches, all of my batches were bottled, so I never experienced anything like this, and in the previous 2 batches, this hadn't happened (not sure why), but I'll definitely be a lot more careful going forward. When I mentioned to my fiancee that it must be CO2, she mentioned that people at her workplace have died from inhaling CO2 and that the way I jolted back at the smell was sign enough that it hadn't been enough to do me any harm, but it was definitely an odd sensation I will not repeat.
