A few days ago I was making a starter and needed to split it into 2 small batches since my main flask wasnt big enough. after they were both done boiling i went to pour the smaller flask into the larger one. I was using a towel to hold the flask, lifted to pour when it boiled over onto my hand. I didn’t want to drop the glass flask on the floor so i held it and put it down.
Its a few days later and I still have some blisters but its healing. My first injury making beer in over 13 years.
stupid stupid stupid.
I asked for brewing gloves for xmas. don’t let this happen to you, be careful!
My worst brewing injury was from slaked lime I was using for pH adjustment. I got some of the powder on my hand and didn’t notice right away. It turned red and hurt for a week or so. My hand is still numb in that spot, and that was like 2 months ago. Needless to say, I now wear gloves and goggles when I handle lime.
Haha, as long as no one gets seriously hurt it’s always fun to exchange brewing injury stories.
Way, way back when I had just started brewing - I chilled my wort in a utility sink that was in a small janitor’s closet. My wife bought me an immersion chiller as a birthday (?) gift and we decided to put together a quick weekend brew just to see how well it worked. It was a hot summer day and I was shirtless. Once we wrapped up the boil I carried the kettle into the closet and set it in the sink. We hooked up the supply side hose and realized that I forgot to buy a hose for the exit side of the chiller. No problem I said let’s just crack open the faucet and let the cold water trickle through and then I’ll deflect the water into the sink when it starts flowing through. Here’s the Darwin award part - the cold trickle of water hit the hot copper and instantly vaporized, shooting (like a CANON) a burning hot steam spray directly to the center of my bare chest. Of course being inside the tiny closet it took me way too long to get out of the spray and to get the faucet turned off. So I was screaming like a little girl while my wife was on the ground lmfao. I laugh now.
I did something similar. I put my immersion chiller in the hot wort and it still had a little bit of water in it from the last brew. As it got super heated, it started burping hot boiling water out of the chiller (which didn’t have the hoses on it). As I approached the stove it spit up a good cup of boiling water on my chest. Man! that smarts. The burn hurt like hell and I only got one blister. Needless to say, I now always put the hoses on the chiller before I put it in the boiling wort. The outcome is currently on tap: Chest Burn IPA.
I have heard several pro brewers say the same thing: “There are two kinds of brewers. Those who have been burned, and those who are going to be burned.”
I am in the former category.
yep, both flasks were off the burners, the one i lifted to pour was the one that boiled over onto the top of the hand that was holding it. I honestly didnt think that could happen, but boy was i wrong!
I’m usually extremely careful when brewing, but it just goes to show that accidents happen when you least expect it.
Of course there’s the old don’t sulfur smudge an empty bourbon barrel…I was looking to get a barrel for the club and Dave Houseman warned me about Gordon Strong almost blowing himself up.
I have a silicone covered oven mit that I found at a kitchen store. Its great. The silicone has a lot of grip and it is waterproof and easily cleanable. Besides brewing, I use it when cooking turkeys and other large, heavy hunks of meat. I can just pick them up out of the pan - no tools needed.
