It's a Dirty Job

And I love to do it. It’s true, this job will mess you up. You leave wet, sore and with cuts places you are pretty sure you never even made contact with anything that day. Oh, the joys of brewing.

There are many things at a brewery that are messy beyond belief. Here are a few that happen from time to time and while being scary and messy are quite fun.

De hopping and de yeasting under pressure

I know most of you don’t know what a Fermentation Vessel looks like (FV from now on) so I’ll explain the bottom ports, the 2 we are dealing with. The very bottom one opens at the bottom of the tank and will let everything out if you leave it open. This is where you draw off the hops and yeast from most of the time. The upper port has a pipe running up into the FV to a point above where the hops and yeast settle. Getting this out is a very easy task, if it isn’t clogged. If it is you have a few options. First you put on top pressure using CO2 to force the stuff out. You need to be careful because once it comes out, it comes out. Fast. I’ve splashed my self a number of times but nothing too severe. If this doesn’t work you know you will get messy. You need to get a tube and ram it up the port until the hops start moving. This time there is no hose on the port to direct the hops. This shit is going everywhere. You need to be faster than a ninja in daylight to not get hit. This is guaranteed to spray you at least a bit but by fast isn’t the worst thing I’ve had splash on me.

Sample Taps

Each FV also has a sample tap where you can pull out a sample of the beer to taste, smell and look at as well as to check the gravity. There is a design flaw in it though. If you open it too far, it comes out. I did this yesterday. I had to unplug the sample tap using a CO2 cylinder to push out the hops. Like the bottom ports nothing will come out if the pressure is over 0.5 barr as a vacuum is created. You NEED to open it up all the way. Yesterday I went too far. It fell off. Beer is spraying everywhere and I’m scared shitless. I’m trying to stop it with my hands while grabbing the piece to put back on and it is making it worse. It is in my eyes and it burns like crazy. Beer is dangerous when flying at you under high pressure with hop particles in it. I can barely see and I’m getting the beer up my sleeve as I’m putting the piece back in. I finally get the piece back in and I’m crying and I can’t see. This is probably the funniest thing I’ve ever done. I also had to lose the clothes and clean up while they dried. I’m outside shirtless in the dead of winter in northern Scotland cleaning up beer I sprayed all over the floor.

I’ve yet to not get messy at work and my room smells like malt from my work clothes.

Can anyone else’s Co-op work term stories stand up to this? Is anyone having as much fun as I am?  Does anyone else have an explosion at work they can laugh about? Doubt it.