Suspected poisoning at Winston-Salem bar raises questions about draft beer safety

Last week news broke that one person passed away after drinking what an employee suspected was beer contaminated with draft line cleaner at a Winston-Salem bar. Here's what experts think may have gone wrong, and how they say similar incidents could be prevented. 

What we know

Three people were sickened after drinking beer at Burke Street Pub on November 9, and one passed away last week. Autopsy results are still pending.

In a 911 call, an employee told the operator they suspected that the company that cleans their beer lines left cleaner in the lines. Other outlets have identified that company as Caffey Distributing, but the company isn't confirming that or commenting on the matter at this time.

Burke Street Pub issued a statement offering condolences to family members of those affected but hasn't provided more information about the incident. 

What experts say

Chuck Skypeck with the Brewer’s Association, a national trade organization for independently owned breweries, says it's likely that a sodium hydroxide-based cleaning product referred to as Caustic was mistakenly never rinsed out of the draft line. Usually, the cleaner is so brightly colored an error like this would be obvious immediately. But he says that’s not always the case.

“Especially if there's been a dark beer in there, there'll be a lot of residue in the lines and so that caustic chemical cleaner coming out can mimic the color of the beer since it's pulling out substances that were in the beer in that line,” says Skypeck.

He says if the patrons ordered a darker beer and consumed it quickly, the problem may not have become apparent until it was too late.

It's unclear how common incidents like this are. Skypeck estimates he's heard of about 20 in his 40-year career, and none have resulted in fatalities. 

He says bar owners can prevent accidents like this by tagging the lines filled with chemicals during the cleaning process and removing the tag when they’ve been rinsed. He also recommends testing the PH of the water that comes out of the lines after they’ve been cleaned to make sure no chemicals remain. 

He advises consumers to always smell beer before drinking, and he says if there’s a high concentration of chemicals in a beer, it likely wouldn't have a foamy head. 

What's next

It's unclear which, if any, government agencies are investigating the incident at this point. Local health departments only inspect bars that serve food. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and Alcohol Law Enforcement in the state's Department of Public Safety both say the matter falls outside their purview. The city of Winston-Salem issued a statement saying the incident wouldn’t trigger a nuisance abatement notification, which appears to be the city’s only legal recourse. 

Skypeck says this isn't surprising. 

“Beer will not support pathogenic food poisoning type bacteria. You'll notice here that the culprit is not the beer, but the culprit is the chemicals. So, with that in mind, there's not a lot of strong regulation around draft beer lines in the US,” he says.

He says in most states, there is no required training for beer line cleaners or rules dictating who is allowed to clean lines, or even how frequently they are cleaned. 
 

*Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that news of the death broke this week, when in fact the news broke last week.