Historical Beer Deaths

[jasonharley]

This thread is designed to capture all historical events that involve human deaths associated with Beer. I encourage anyone who has reliable historical facts and sources to share with the wider forum, the most aweful fate to approach a human being .... death by beer !


On the evening of 17 October 1814, a giant beer storage vat at Meaux's Horse Shoe Brewery in St. Giles, containing 7,600 barrels of Porter, catastrophically burst. The burst washed away the brewery walls and with the tenacity of an "inland tsunami" crushed buildings across the street and flooded basements all along Bainbridge Street. Eight people died of "drowning injury, poisoning by the porter fumes or drunkeness". You need to remember that Porter in those days was a very powerful drink, brewed in excess of OG 1080 and matured in vats for over a year. (Source: P. Mathias, The Brewing Industry in England, p58)


5 Eyes

 

[going down a hill]

My grandfather was walking to his local RSL and had a heart attack and died, he was probably pissed already. He only drank beer.

 

[ArnieW]

My father in law has a death certificate of his great grandfather or some similar relative who owned a pub somewhere in Victoria. The certificate records death by alcohol poisoning and length of illness two weeks - in the words of FIL, "must have been one hell of a bender".

 

[Bribie G]

My dad was in the RAF and seconded to the Yanks after WWII, and was involved in flying through the mushroom clouds after nuclear bomb testing, to collect samples. He died of leukemia (about the same age as I am now).

However I can very proudly relay his last words on this planet. The nurse asked if he would like anything and he said "I'd love a beer". So they brought him a can of lager and he drank it. Last words:

"that was lovely"

:beerbang:

way to go


edit: move to the pub or off topic??

 

[RobH]

The Man and the Beer

For poor old Joseph Hartley,
The poet sighs, or partly,
And likewise drops a tear.
But not for Joseph only,
In the graveyard lying lonely,
Doth the poet drop a tear,
So crystal, bright and clear,
He is thinking, thinking, thinking,
Of that liquor brewed for drinking
In pewter-pots, whose clinking
Makes music sweet to hear;
Of that liquor never tasted,
Which unhappily was wasted,
Whilst an officer stood near.
Not for Joseph, calmly sleeping,
Is he altogether weeping--
The Scytheman, ever reaping,
Reapeth millions year by year,
Of husbands, fathers dear,
Here to-day, and gone to-morrow--
No, the bardlet's burst of sorrow
Is partly for the beer;
For the loss of Joseph Hartley,
In conjunction with the beer.

It gurgled, fresh and foaning,
Down the gutter in the gloaming
To the sewer pipes below.
Perchance a vagrant kiddie
Lapt the stream till he was giddy,
Whilst brewmen, stout and low,
Fascinated by the flow,
Lingered musing, musing, musing
On the joy the world was loosing
In a mixture, made for boozing,
As it dissapeared below;
Lovely lotion, lately vatted
(Ah! the frames it might have fatted!)
They cried a cry of woe,
Not for comrade Joseph merely,
Though they felt for him sincerely;
They where broken hearted, nearly,
By the thought that he could go
And pollute good liquor so
And the press reporters, frowning
When the cost of Josephs drowning
The 'papers' sent to know
Vowed the value of the liquor
Far exceeded that of Joe.


That poem was written by a Bulletin poet in the 1890's after a brewer named Joseph Hartley was found floating , dead, in a gigantic vat of beer (valued then at 140) at the Castlemaine Brewery in Victoria. The contents of the vat were run off down the street channels, under the vigilant supervision of a Customs Officer, and to the great grief of many spectators. A Melbourne paper commented rather unsympathetically, "Too much absorbed in his business"...

(Ref: Beer Glorious Beer, Chapter 15 - By Cyril Pearl)

 

[bcp]

1966 deaths from Dow beer in Quebec:

Until 1966, the Dow Brewery had enormous market share in a province that, more than most in the country, liked a pint or seven before, during or after work. It was omnipresent, like Coca-Cola is now, remembered the late, great columnist, city councillor and lifelong enemy of sobriety Nick Auf der Mar in 1987. Part of the beers charm was the abundance and consistency of it head the result of a cobalt additive with which, as it turns out, the company was a little too generous.

Sixteen Quebec City-area men died of cardiomyopathy, a degeneration of the heart muscle. Beer, doctors surmised, was the culprit, and for months rumours swirled about the type that had poisoned the poor lads. In a bid to, uhh, quench the hysteria, Dow temporarily shut down its Quebec City plant and dumped all its vats into the St. Lawrence. Dow then returned to the shelves, sans cobalt.

It wasnt enough. The beer went from popular to pariah practically overnight. In November 1966, a Quebec doctor charged with the investigation concluded that a total of 25 people died every one of them a heavy drinker, consuming at least eight quarts a day. OKeefe bought the brewery in 1966 and let it die a slow death; it became the beer of drunkards attracted more by its low price than any sort of nostalgia. Dow ceased production in 1992.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2008/08/26/of-meat...ease-and-death/

So, if you're having trouble producing a great head, try a little dash of cobalt.

 

[bcp]

Maletis Beverage worker killed when rack of beer kegs collapses - February 10, 2011

A 25-year-old Portland man died this morning when a rack of beer kegs collapsed on top of him, the Multnomah County Medical Examiner said.



Mary Queen of Scots was executed after her treasonous letters were found in a beer barrel. It's not known how Walsingham's men came to look inside the beer barrel.

 

[drtomc]

I can't recall the source, but a year or two ago, a brewery worker in Germany was killed when the CIP system on the large tank he was working in was accidentally enabled. Shudder.
T.

 

[chrisherberte]

Flashback of the farmer dude last year that gave his dead horse XXXX gold and it come good. Almost historical, definitely legendary.

 

[enuun]

There was three kings into the east,
Three kings both great and high,
And they hae sworn a solemn oath
John Barleycorn should die.

- Robert Burnes

 

[ben_sa]

In one of my beer books at home (Australian Brewery reviews) There is word of a brewery who back in the ol days, used to allow staff to drink as much as they like while on duty.

This fellow was leaning into a tun stirring/mashing and fell in... Found floating...

Dead Man Ale?

Ill double check when I get home and get the finer points

 

[felten]

I can't recall the source, but a year or two ago, a brewery worker in Germany was killed when the CIP system on the large tank he was working in was accidentally enabled. Shudder.
T.

A nice hot caustic shower? Nasty.