Test yourself on homebrewing safety in this week’s Tuesday Beer Trivia.
With all due respect to the guy who said, “Relax, don’t worry, have a homebrew,” don’t relax too much. All too often we get into the rhythm of homebrewing over time without considering hazards and risks each time we brew. Brush up on some safety principles in this week’s quiz.
After you take the Beer Trivia quiz below, scroll down to “Beer Trivia Answer Explanations” section to learn more about homebrewing safety.
Beer Trivia Answer Explanations
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The following explanations were taken from “Smart Brewing: The Basics of Homebrew Safety” by Matt Stinchfield and “Homebrew Toxicology” by Paul Hanlon. Both articles were featured in the May/June 2015 issue of Zymurgy.
Question 1: SWP stands for Safe Work Practices. SWPs are powerful because they are preventative by nature. Most other control methods are mainly protective.
Question 2: Hazard X Exposure. This means that risk is dependent on both variables, because if either is zero then the overall risk is zero. For example, a chemical that is not hazardous (zero hazard) and chemicals you aren’t exposed to (zero exposure) do not pose any risk to you.
Question 3: In addition to the well-known short-term effects of ethanol that many are familiar with, ethanol is also associated with a number of long-term effects including cancer, liver cirrhosis, and reproductive effects. The amount of ethanol that needs to be consumed to produce these effects varies, but studies have demonstrated that chronic alcoholic beverage consumption is the prime contributor to long-term ethanol-induced toxicity.
Question 4: True. Hops can be deadly to dogs.
Question 5: Acid or iodine. These sanitizers are marketed for this specific purpose, which means that the application of these chemicals has been evaluated by toxicologists and other scientists and determined to be safe.
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