Exploding tired hands growler

the second part of this is inherently not true. If something can be expanded, it can also be compressed, because it is by definition compressed compared to its expanded state. Water does not compress very much, but it also does not expand very much (unless its freezing, which is a different mechanism).

 

I got a fill at the Fermentaria this past weekend. They filled it until it was running over and then poured a little shot out of the growler so it was not filled to the brim when they capped it. Not sure if it was just that guy, or they're being instructed to do this now. Has anyone else noticed that? This guy was doing it to every growler he filled.

 

I am specifically saying compressed as in like squeezed into a smaller volume by force as opposed to contracting with a lowering in temperature.

 

It's probably because mago tago is just more popular. A green beer that hasn't finished fermenting wouldn't add a tremendous amount of co2 to the growler. Most of that happens in the growth stage of fermentation.

 

That is a good sign. Easy fix.

 

Its actually the opposite. There is very little co2 production during the growth phase of yeast reproduction (aerobic fermentation) its during the main eating sugar= co2 and alcohol phase (anaerobic) that you get co2 production. Think of it like bottle conditioning. Not saying that's whats happening cause I don't know but it is possible.

 

I highly doubt this is what's causing it. Almost every place I get growlers from uses the same method, and fills the beer to the very top (Hill Farmstead & Tree House are the 2 most notable), and their growlers don't explode.

 

Semantics, I wasn't talking about aerobic vs anaerobic. I was talking about the growth phase of fermentation where the yeast is most active and eating the most sugar. Lag->growth->stationary->death

http://www.brewgeeks.com/the-life-cycle-of-yeast.html

It would be very surprising if they were packaging while there was active fermentation going on, how could they even know what the final product would even taste like or abv would be if that were the case?

EDIT -> I am not saying they are infallible, it would just be really surprising. When you bottle condition, you're essentially just waking up whatever yeast are in the bottle by presenting them with more sugar to consume. I've actually conditioned some beer in growers without any problems. I would think that if it were the beer itself then everyone would have at least a big gusher when they opened their growler if it didn't blow it apart. I'd also think the gas would escape past the rubber seal if the pressure were that high but that I am less sure of.

 

I suppose it depends on the definition of the word "packaging". I typically use the word packaging in the context of a canning or bottling line and I personally view Tired Hands as being a draft brewery. Needless to say but filling a growler is sort of a packaging process.

I personally would like to think that Tired Hands makes it a consistent practice to always wait for primary fermentation to be 100% complete but in the context of serving beer at a brewpub there is not an absolute need for this to occur.

The folks at Tired Hands are being pretty silent on this topic.

I happened to be at Tired Hands (Cafe) last night and one of the people I was with asked our server about the exploding growler situation (he brought 3 growlers with him to be filled up). All I heard coming out of the server's mouth was abba dabba jabba wabba.

If Tired Hands wanted to clear up this situation they could simply make a published statement on this topic (what @ShanePB referred to as a Public Service Announcement earlier in this thread). Why this hasn’t occurred yet is a mystery to me.

In the meantime we can all speculate what the problem is.

I sincerely hope that nobody gets seriously hurt during one of these exploding growler incidents.

Cheers!

 

They could also stop selling growlers until they figured it out. I know that it would piss people off and that it would cost them some money but I'm sure there are a number of tests they can run that include different beers, different fill amounts, different carb levels, etc. that would not take that much time. I'm also sure Jean has a vast rolodex of other breweries to call who might have had similar issues.

But this has been going on for quite a while (I've seen things going back to May 2014 with Professor Caterpillar!) so maybe they've done that and still haven't figured it out and just said "screw it, we'll take our chances."

 

You mentioned "cost them some money"? I suspect you answered your own question here.

I suspect that is indeed the calculus of their business decision. I sure hope that they have adequate liability insurance here in case some customer gets seriously hurt by an exploding growler.

Cheers!

 

I wonder if their liability insurance carrier is aware of this problem they are having? I have seen pics of folks (NOT Tired Hands growlers, but commercial bottles) pretty seriously injured by exploding beer bottle glass. Doesn't it seem inevitable someone will get hurt seriously enough to require medical care and insurance claim?

 

Yes, it does seem inevitable. Growlers are fairly thick, I would imagine it takes a lot of force to cause them to explode. If you get too close to high velocity glass shards, you're gonna have a bad time.

The only thing I can come up with as to why this would be specific to a single brewery, is maybe they wash their growlers at an extremely high temperature, which compromises the integrity of the glass. Maybe 50 pallettes guy can chime in and let us know what pressure these types of growlers are rated for. It seems to me that you'd be hard pressed to get a beer to exert enough pressure to shatter a growler that hasn't been compromised somehow. Seems impossible, really, even if you're serving/packaging beer that hasn't completely fermented - which itself is an error that all but the most inexperienced homebrewer knows to avoid.

 

They are using growlers from Grandstand, which supplies in my complete estimation 20-30% of the craft breweries with apparel and glassware. I assume it's not the vessel.

 

When was the last known time a growler from TH exploded? I was under the impression this was resolved a while back? Or are people just carrying on still about it?

 

Someone posted in a local beer group about 2 weeks ago they had one explode. So yeah, it is certainly still an issue.

 

Got two more growlers filled the other day , this time at the Brew Cafe, and no explosions thankfully.

 

Nah it still happens. I see it on my Facebook groups a lot. I did notice a drop off in posts and asked if they had stopped and the general response was that it keeps happening but people got tired of posting. Lychee Milkshake was a recent culprit.

 

Damn, I've never had a issue. I figured this was over. That sucks, I'm surprised TH isn't addressing it.

 

I wonder, how easy it would be to 'address'(to the satisfaction of all) something where you don't know what the cause is? Does anyone here think that TH knows what cause is and just doesn't want to address it? If they checked with the manufacturer and found no faults what is the next step? Oh hey bros, watch out for exploding growlers?

No snark here, just things I have been thinking about.