Bubbly beer blasts Vernon, B.C., brewery; gives new meaning to heady brew

The Canadian Press

VERNON, B.C. - This cream beer was no milquetoast.

The Okanagan Springs brewery in Vernon, B.C., is cleaning up after its latest batch of cream beer became a cream bomb, blowing apart the fermenting vat.

The Thursday afternoon blast was powerful enough to tear an aluminum loading door off its hinges, sending 32-thousand litres of fermented foam flooding across a downtown street in the North Okanagan city.

Fortunately, no one was seriously injured, although WorkSafe B.C. is investigating after one worker suffered a minor hand injury.

A well-timed rainstorm flushed most of the beer into the sewers but cleanup was a little more extensive inside the plant as workers swept up shards from several hundred pulverized beer bottles.

A build-up of carbon dioxide is blamed for the blast. (CKIZ)

© The Canadian Press , 2010