A burst fermentation vat at a London brewery released up to 323,000 gallons of beer, killing eight people and prompting the industry to abandon large wooden vats.
Key Facts
- Date
- 17 October 1814
- Beer released (max)
- 323,000 imperial gallons
- Beer released (min)
- 128,000 imperial gallons
- Deaths
- 8 people
- Vat height
- 22 feet
- Brewery
- Meux & Co's Horse Shoe Brewery
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
At the Horse Shoe Brewery in London, a 22-foot-tall wooden vat containing fermenting porter burst under pressure. The escaping liquid struck a valve on an adjacent vessel, causing it to fail as well, and several large barrels were destroyed in the cascade, releasing a massive volume of beer.
On 17 October 1814, between 128,000 and 323,000 imperial gallons of porter flooded out of the brewery, demolished its back wall, and surged into the St Giles rookery, a densely populated slum district. Eight people died, five of them mourners attending a wake for a two-year-old child held by an Irish family.
A coroner's inquest ruled the deaths accidental misfortune. The brewery narrowly escaped bankruptcy through an excise rebate on the lost beer. The disaster accelerated the brewing industry's gradual move away from large wooden fermentation vats. The brewery site was eventually redeveloped; the Dominion Theatre now occupies the location, and Meux & Co went into liquidation in 1961.
Human Cost
Each dot represents approximately 10,000 deaths. Total estimated: 8 (flood)