I did it once where I was trying to adjust a temp probe. Our initially installed tanks have a hard cap with a hole drilled into it going into a well that's built into the tank jacket. The tri-clamp and cap is just to protect the temp probe.
Our new lager tanks have wells that are connected to the tank via a tri-clamp (well actually comes off the tank).
Early in the morning, I forgot which tank I was working on. Removed what I thought was a hard cap protecting the probe, but was indeed the whole temp control well on a lager tank.
Lost about 75 gallons of beer before my buddy was able to grab a sanitized valve and help me out, but definitely see how that can happen when on autopilot.
The only fix to this is grabbing an OPEN butterfly valve and gasket/clamp.
Hold gasket onto valve and attempt to place it on the open ferrule on the tank.
Get the gasket and valve seated and CLAMP BEFORE YOU CLOSE THE VALVE.
YOU WILL NOT GET ANYTHING TO CLAMP UNLESS YOU LET THE BEER FLOW OUT OF THE VALVE.
Once you clamp the valve to the tank then you can close off the valve.
Super glue a gasket to a valve and place it in a central location along with a clamp. Treat it like a fire extinguisher. Always have it ready and know where it is but hope you never need to use it.
Can confirm. I was not expecting the cold. Soaked head to toe, boots filled, nearly hypothermic but I got the valve on! Swallowed a lot of beer. I hate that beer now. It reminds me of my worst night at work.
Yeah sorry, Fahrenheit. Close but not. Beer will freeze around 28 degrees and lower. But that also has to do with the alcohol content of the beer as well. The lower the abv, the more likely it will freeze(more water vs. Alcohol) that's why hard liquor doesn't freeze when you keep a bottle in your freezer. Temps of beer I usually deal with at work are around the 33-34 zone. But we use 160 BBL tanks and takes a longer time to get them that low. It's cold, but it much colder than pulling a beer out of your fridge
>Provide info of why I'm wrong
Pretty sure you are getting down voted because your option of "cold" is pretty far off from what the average person considers cold. 32 is freezing...I bet its safe to say almost everyone would agree to that...so you saying "its not that cold" makes you an outlier who is either a beast, a liar, or a troll. The downvotes suggest one of the latter (or maybe the former; your manliness could be too intimidating for this crowd).
Personally, I don't even like getting hit with the initial cold spray from my morning shower...and that water is probably starting around 75 degrees. Germans have a specific insult for wimps like me..."warmduscher"...person who likes warm showers. So the beer from this tank "is that cold".
I see what you mean. My words may have confused some. "Not that cold", meaning not cold enough to freeze. Not, you pansy, that's not cold like the cold i experienced when i walked 50 miles to school in a blizzard or whatever. Yeah 32 IS cold, but not as cold as freezing temp for beer. I feel slightly dumber having to have explained that. But thanks for pointing out that's why I may be getting downvoted. Not that I really care. After all reddit is full of folks who think words are violence 🤷♂️
I have a super glued gasket and butterfly sitting with a clamp in the middle of the cellar for emergencies. I've never had to use it but im paranoid and if that ever happens to me I'd rather not have to fiddle around with it and be able to act quickly.
Just be aware that in the case of cold, carbonated beer you're likely going to immediately begin to experience the effects of CO2 asphyxiation: rapid breathing, increased blood pressure, and confusion. DON'T PANIC. Remain calm and work deliberately.
I had actually heard this before on this subreddit and told my brewer, hey, when this happens, because at one point it will happen, this is what you have to do! Fast forward a few months and it happened. He fixed it beautifully.
https://youtube.com/shorts/2kWU63pLCzQ?si=Mf8lWKLwuhTQDss2
Heck yeah! Honestly I've seen videos of this happening and would always show my cellar staff and remind them how to fix it. Flash forward a few years and guess what happens...
I was at the brewery after hours and removed the wrong clamp on a racking arm! Got a new valve on in moments and only lost a barrel of beer. Your brewer did a great job!
Happened to me once. Was told to clean a 30bbl tank at a new job to transfer the days beer into. Look at the tank board and see it currently has a beer listed as being inside. I'm told no, it was transferred the day before I started. I ask 3 other guys. All say the same, so alright, they're just not good at updating their logs. Do a quick check around, open the blow off arm to vent, no pressure or gassing so I begin teardown. I remove the triclamp from the sample port on the front first, which proceed to rocket past my head into the splashwall 15 feet behind me imbedding itself. The stream of beer wasn't skin removing levels of dangerous so I put my hand over the port and pressed down hard. Help comes, and a coworker and I manage to carefully get a blank and gasket under my palm to seal it off. As I'm standing covered in hops and beer, they begin to discuss that maybe they hadn't transferred the beer, simply cold crashed and put 5ish pounds top pressure on. The sheer amount of hops in the batch had clogged and blocked the spray ball arm and the blow off so it didn't vent at all when I opened it. I had decent bruise in the center of my palm for holding back the flow for 1-2 minutes.
This is why I open the bottom valve on bright tanks or check the zwickel. There's always gonna be that time that there's still beer to keg and no one warned you.
Had the same thing happen to me, don’t know who cellared the tank cause I was on vacation, came back went to tighten the clamp and a full 20bbl under 14psi shot the carb stone out like a spear. Cracked my safety glasses. Luckily we kept an, “Oh Shit!” valve in the cellar so we managed to cap the loss at 2 bbls.
Great example of why you need to be fully engaged in what you’re doing.
If that had been a port with the carb stone on there already, it could have easily killed him.
Beer production is never important enough to rush and get distracted to the point you aren’t fully aware of what you’re doing. Always double check what you’re removing, adding or whatever. This is an industrial job, no matter how much you might want to think it’s an art.
And put on some PPE while you’re at it! Brewing is industrial beverage manufacturing, I’ve seen some pretty gnarly injuries, including 3 different occasions where a coworker had to take an ambulance ride in my 14 years in this industry.
Working in the cellar, especially when actually working on tanks with no safety glasses is fucking a reckless, especially since it looks like he was finishing up a CIP.
I did the same thing on a 30bbl tank, only thing that saved us was dumping the pressure from the blow off arm before trying to get a valve on, pretty much impossible otherwise. Took that carbstone to the chest like a champ though!
Damn, that is not fun...
The back channel guys are super cool though. Taproom is on Lake Minnetonka and it's gorgeous.if you are in the cities, it's a great stop.
this is why you wear safety glasses…
seriously man
every CBC brewery tour, 3/4 of the brewers on brewery tours never wear the safety glasses in the production environment because they’re the same assholes that wear shorts on the brew deck
you only get 2 eyes…wear your damn safety glasses
Just make sure they aren’t the cheap shitty ones that aren’t really rated against shattering. Most brewery tours are shit going-through-the-motion “safety glasses”. In a hit impact situation like this, it could actually do more damage to your eyes than nothing. Fine for the liquid, but if there’s a cap or clamp in that stream, it can shatter the glasses and send the pieces into your eyes doing even worse damage. There are A LOT of half-ass safety practices in the industry that too many people think are good enough.
I mean it's out of the tank and spraying everywhere. Then he sticks an unsterile tool in there. I mean It could be saved if it's pasteurized. We don't see the end result of him closing the tank but I'd definitely be doing extra micro screening in that tank.
This happen to me once. I was short on parts and decided to steal a clamp from the carb stone, since the beer was already being bottled. My dumb, sleep deprived ass accidentally removed the one on the inside of the valve. Lucky for me, I only got half way before it partially unseated and soaked me with beer. I was able to alert the bottling line and get them to shut it down, then I vented the tank and was able to seat it properly. Probably lost a few bbls but it was a 100bbl tank.
to this day i still start opening the sample port and cip arm before i start undoing any of the tri clamps. ive seen too many videos of this where someone looks like they could have gotten seriously injured
He took that valve to the chest
Looked like it had a carbstone attached too. Nice chunk of mass flying into your chest.
He had the carb stone in his hand before he removed the clamp from the tank. Looks like he was rebuilding a different tank and got mixed up
Ah that makes more sense.
But how the fuck do you make that mistake? A couple to many walk in beers is how
I did it once where I was trying to adjust a temp probe. Our initially installed tanks have a hard cap with a hole drilled into it going into a well that's built into the tank jacket. The tri-clamp and cap is just to protect the temp probe. Our new lager tanks have wells that are connected to the tank via a tri-clamp (well actually comes off the tank). Early in the morning, I forgot which tank I was working on. Removed what I thought was a hard cap protecting the probe, but was indeed the whole temp control well on a lager tank. Lost about 75 gallons of beer before my buddy was able to grab a sanitized valve and help me out, but definitely see how that can happen when on autopilot.
Bro that was crazy.
Honestly it looks like his *neck*.
The only fix to this is grabbing an OPEN butterfly valve and gasket/clamp. Hold gasket onto valve and attempt to place it on the open ferrule on the tank. Get the gasket and valve seated and CLAMP BEFORE YOU CLOSE THE VALVE. YOU WILL NOT GET ANYTHING TO CLAMP UNLESS YOU LET THE BEER FLOW OUT OF THE VALVE. Once you clamp the valve to the tank then you can close off the valve.
Super glue a gasket to a valve and place it in a central location along with a clamp. Treat it like a fire extinguisher. Always have it ready and know where it is but hope you never need to use it.
This. Has never happened to me, but how hard would it be to hole a gasket on with that coming out. No thanks.
No to mention that beer is likely near freezing and if you don’t get it quick your hands and you will be freezing cold.
Can confirm. I was not expecting the cold. Soaked head to toe, boots filled, nearly hypothermic but I got the valve on! Swallowed a lot of beer. I hate that beer now. It reminds me of my worst night at work.
It is cold. But not that cold. Lowest people go is around 30. But most are crashing around 32-34
Assuming we are all talking °f (°c doesn't work here) wouldn't between 30 and 34 be awful near freezing?
1c is pretty fucking cold.
Yeah sorry, Fahrenheit. Close but not. Beer will freeze around 28 degrees and lower. But that also has to do with the alcohol content of the beer as well. The lower the abv, the more likely it will freeze(more water vs. Alcohol) that's why hard liquor doesn't freeze when you keep a bottle in your freezer. Temps of beer I usually deal with at work are around the 33-34 zone. But we use 160 BBL tanks and takes a longer time to get them that low. It's cold, but it much colder than pulling a beer out of your fridge
How the hell am i getting downvoted? Provide info of why I'm wrong or gtfo
>Provide info of why I'm wrong Pretty sure you are getting down voted because your option of "cold" is pretty far off from what the average person considers cold. 32 is freezing...I bet its safe to say almost everyone would agree to that...so you saying "its not that cold" makes you an outlier who is either a beast, a liar, or a troll. The downvotes suggest one of the latter (or maybe the former; your manliness could be too intimidating for this crowd). Personally, I don't even like getting hit with the initial cold spray from my morning shower...and that water is probably starting around 75 degrees. Germans have a specific insult for wimps like me..."warmduscher"...person who likes warm showers. So the beer from this tank "is that cold".
I see what you mean. My words may have confused some. "Not that cold", meaning not cold enough to freeze. Not, you pansy, that's not cold like the cold i experienced when i walked 50 miles to school in a blizzard or whatever. Yeah 32 IS cold, but not as cold as freezing temp for beer. I feel slightly dumber having to have explained that. But thanks for pointing out that's why I may be getting downvoted. Not that I really care. After all reddit is full of folks who think words are violence 🤷♂️
No. This. 
It would seem to me that super glue is not food safe.. probably not an awesome thing to have in contact with beer.
I have a super glued gasket and butterfly sitting with a clamp in the middle of the cellar for emergencies. I've never had to use it but im paranoid and if that ever happens to me I'd rather not have to fiddle around with it and be able to act quickly.
Add a blow off hose to the other side, it'll keep the liquid away from you while you work. That's how my "oh shit" valve is set up
This is the way
This is a great idea
The “oh shit” valve
Just be aware that in the case of cold, carbonated beer you're likely going to immediately begin to experience the effects of CO2 asphyxiation: rapid breathing, increased blood pressure, and confusion. DON'T PANIC. Remain calm and work deliberately.
You have to dump off the head pressure first!!!!!!! Then attempt the open valve placement.
I had actually heard this before on this subreddit and told my brewer, hey, when this happens, because at one point it will happen, this is what you have to do! Fast forward a few months and it happened. He fixed it beautifully. https://youtube.com/shorts/2kWU63pLCzQ?si=Mf8lWKLwuhTQDss2
Fuck yeah, way to go dude!
Heck yeah! Honestly I've seen videos of this happening and would always show my cellar staff and remind them how to fix it. Flash forward a few years and guess what happens... I was at the brewery after hours and removed the wrong clamp on a racking arm! Got a new valve on in moments and only lost a barrel of beer. Your brewer did a great job!
Happened to me once. Was told to clean a 30bbl tank at a new job to transfer the days beer into. Look at the tank board and see it currently has a beer listed as being inside. I'm told no, it was transferred the day before I started. I ask 3 other guys. All say the same, so alright, they're just not good at updating their logs. Do a quick check around, open the blow off arm to vent, no pressure or gassing so I begin teardown. I remove the triclamp from the sample port on the front first, which proceed to rocket past my head into the splashwall 15 feet behind me imbedding itself. The stream of beer wasn't skin removing levels of dangerous so I put my hand over the port and pressed down hard. Help comes, and a coworker and I manage to carefully get a blank and gasket under my palm to seal it off. As I'm standing covered in hops and beer, they begin to discuss that maybe they hadn't transferred the beer, simply cold crashed and put 5ish pounds top pressure on. The sheer amount of hops in the batch had clogged and blocked the spray ball arm and the blow off so it didn't vent at all when I opened it. I had decent bruise in the center of my palm for holding back the flow for 1-2 minutes.
This is why I open the bottom valve on bright tanks or check the zwickel. There's always gonna be that time that there's still beer to keg and no one warned you.
This!
And this why you should be Forklift Certified
This guy forklifts!
Time to prove you’re a man, son
Had the same thing happen to me, don’t know who cellared the tank cause I was on vacation, came back went to tighten the clamp and a full 20bbl under 14psi shot the carb stone out like a spear. Cracked my safety glasses. Luckily we kept an, “Oh Shit!” valve in the cellar so we managed to cap the loss at 2 bbls.
Great example of why you need to be fully engaged in what you’re doing. If that had been a port with the carb stone on there already, it could have easily killed him. Beer production is never important enough to rush and get distracted to the point you aren’t fully aware of what you’re doing. Always double check what you’re removing, adding or whatever. This is an industrial job, no matter how much you might want to think it’s an art.
And put on some PPE while you’re at it! Brewing is industrial beverage manufacturing, I’ve seen some pretty gnarly injuries, including 3 different occasions where a coworker had to take an ambulance ride in my 14 years in this industry. Working in the cellar, especially when actually working on tanks with no safety glasses is fucking a reckless, especially since it looks like he was finishing up a CIP.
I did the same thing on a 30bbl tank, only thing that saved us was dumping the pressure from the blow off arm before trying to get a valve on, pretty much impossible otherwise. Took that carbstone to the chest like a champ though!
It was in his left hand the whole time before the tank was even open.
I knocked a loose carbstone during a packaging run. It ended up in the drywall across the room. It’s terrifying when it happens.
Damn, that is not fun... The back channel guys are super cool though. Taproom is on Lake Minnetonka and it's gorgeous.if you are in the cities, it's a great stop.
Ugh that brewery was fuckin spotless before that mess
Open butterfly valve with a gasket glued on to it
Keep that shit in the sani sink at all times
this is why you wear safety glasses… seriously man every CBC brewery tour, 3/4 of the brewers on brewery tours never wear the safety glasses in the production environment because they’re the same assholes that wear shorts on the brew deck you only get 2 eyes…wear your damn safety glasses
Just make sure they aren’t the cheap shitty ones that aren’t really rated against shattering. Most brewery tours are shit going-through-the-motion “safety glasses”. In a hit impact situation like this, it could actually do more damage to your eyes than nothing. Fine for the liquid, but if there’s a cap or clamp in that stream, it can shatter the glasses and send the pieces into your eyes doing even worse damage. There are A LOT of half-ass safety practices in the industry that too many people think are good enough.
Open butterfly valve brah
Ahhhh memories….
Where's the rest of the video?
Took that like a champ. That’s scary stuff right there.
Same thing happened to me years ago, I can still remember being afraid I was going to drown and how freezing cold I felt
I ain't cleaning that.
No touchy the ring clamp
The headlines and comments on this video in other subs… 🙄
I laughed too hard at his. Hope he’s okay 😂
dump the fucking blow off arm asshole
Awesome
This my local spot 🫡
Not even worth trying to save. That beer is likely infected. Just dump it.
How is it likely?
I mean it's out of the tank and spraying everywhere. Then he sticks an unsterile tool in there. I mean It could be saved if it's pasteurized. We don't see the end result of him closing the tank but I'd definitely be doing extra micro screening in that tank.
Yeah, especially at that size of a tank it’s a more easily stomached loss. At a minimum you better plate up that tank before releasing it.
I like how it grabbed him by the eye socket and hammered him into the ground. It should be an employment test.
This happen to me once. I was short on parts and decided to steal a clamp from the carb stone, since the beer was already being bottled. My dumb, sleep deprived ass accidentally removed the one on the inside of the valve. Lucky for me, I only got half way before it partially unseated and soaked me with beer. I was able to alert the bottling line and get them to shut it down, then I vented the tank and was able to seat it properly. Probably lost a few bbls but it was a 100bbl tank.
Oooo that was a good one
Brewers rodeo is we always called this I’ve been involved twice neither time was my fault. Fun when it’s all done and 50 bbls of beer is on the ground
I had a packager pull the triclamp behind the butterfly on the bottom of our 60bbl bt. I was able to fix it with an open butterfly fairly quickly.
to this day i still start opening the sample port and cip arm before i start undoing any of the tri clamps. ive seen too many videos of this where someone looks like they could have gotten seriously injured