Does whisky/alcohol vapour explode?

Certainly alcohol can explode at the right concentration, temperature and pressure but I don't think there's much chance of a camera flash setting off a distillery. My guess would just be it's a corporate policy, which might not have any good rational reason at all - but I'm ready to be corrected by anyone who knows better.

Bart

"Andreas Tschoeke" skrev i melding news:bmeu4c$66k$04$ snipped-for-privacy@news.t-online.com...

There is no chance for the alcohol-vapors in the air at distilleries to explode with todays cameras. It's mainly a remnant from the time when flashphotography was done with the help of the good old exploding bulbs, they could ignite the vapors. Sadly the photo-ban survives on many distilleries, although many now allow it if you have a digital camera and don't use the flash.

I too visited quite a few distilleries over the summer and was told many a funny thing. At Bushmills we were told prior to entering the stillroom that the air had an alcoholcontent of 85%! (They were not distilling at that time). At Isle of Jura it was allowed to take pictures without the flash, but not allowed to bring mobilephones (even though they were turned off), lighters or matches due to the risk of sparks igniting the vapors. And at Aberlour Distillery we were allowed to take digital photographs woithout using the flash, but in the stillroom this was only allowed on the groundlevel, not higher up due to risk of ignition (and I though alcohol vapors were heavier than air, and therefore would be concentrated down on the floor, rather than higher up).

But seriously there is a extremely small chance for distilleries to explode today. There are to many safety vents and ventilation for the vapors to concentrate to the levels were ignition is possible.

----- Martin Oslo, Norway

• To reply by e-mail, first remove the "spam" from the e-mail adress *

With a flashlight you produce much more energy than with any switch. I think the question is who's paying and who is responsible after a still house is blown up. Money should be the reason...

Andreas

Uzytkownik "Andreas Gugau" napisal w wiadomosci news: snipped-for-privacy@andreas-gugau.de...

I don't think this is the case, though. There are distilleries (e.g. Dalwhinnie, Edradour, Cardhu, Talisker, Glen Grant), where you are told in no uncertain terms that no photography is allowed, flash, no flash, digital or traditional - for safety reasons. And then it does not matter whether the plant is working (i.e. there are highly concentrated alcohol vapours in the air) at the moment or not. There are others, like Ardbeg (or Jura, Glenfiddich, Tomintoul), where you can take flash pictures even if the distillery is currently working _and_ distillation is in progress. Those who have been to Ardbeg know how confined the space in the stillhouse is, making for extremely high concentration of vapours during distillation. Several flash pictures that were shot during my last visit - by myself and by other visitors - certainly didn't cause any trouble, nor did Stuart Thompson, the manager, as much as blink when we were at it. Obviously there must be some other reason for the flash ban in some distilleries, undiscovered by mankind as yet...

Cheers, Rajmund

On Talisker in 2001 even digital video camera was not allowed to be used (allowed in, but to be switched off) On Edradour in 2003, I videotaped the complete tour without remarks, but no distilling took place at the moment, so maybe that was the reason. Or they maybe changed the rules with the new owners. But again at Dalwhinnie no foto or video, and no mobile phones.

On Laphroaig in 2002, you could take foto or video as much as you liked, didn't bring the camera though, because I thought it was banned:-( On Strathisla, Glenfiddich, Tobermory and Springbank in 2003 foto was allowed, but mobile phones should be switched off.

So I think it has to do with company policy rather than the danger of blowing anything up. The risk most certainly were higher in old days, when the stills were heated by open flames. But again it could be, that the policy has to do with insurance - just a wild guess.

Others have taken pictures at every distillery on Islay during the festival, but maybe the rules are bent a little with so many visitors at the distillery open days. I would think that Lagavulin and Caol Ila had same policy as Talisker and Dalwhinnie, since it is the same company.

Thanks all,

I think I agree with Bart and Karl, that there must be a kind of corporate policy behind this.

I also agree with Martin, that there _is_ a slight risk of some kind of ignition if by chance the concentration of vapours is right for this, but I think the risk is relativly small.

Ok, so, no further enlightnment on this for me, but I´m glad that Your thoughts go in the same direction as mine!

Thanks again,

:-) Andreas

I think dust from the barley would be a bigger concern than alcohol, although without floor maltings not much dust should be around.

Grain silo's burn and explode from time to time due to nothing more than static electricity.

As I have never been to a distillery, I am not sure how barley is handled in the other distilleries (that don't use floor maltings).

Jim

No question, it explodes. The real question is, under what conditions. I am somewhat familiar with home distilling; the accepted wisdom was to keep all your pipe joints tight and be sure the copper tubes were straight as they went into the connecting nuts. No leakage, no problems. I know of at least one garage fire attributed to an unattended still. The process was not considered high risk if you were careful.

As there are lots of old and small distilleries in Scotland (Ardbeg was mentioned), we can presume that, with due care, the risk of an explosion are small. Otherwise, all the surviving stills would be in well ventilated buildings.

It would be interesting to research how many still explosions are documented from the 1700s on. It would be good to compare that information to explosions at gun powder mills.

Hey, home distilling? Is there a possibility to test the results?

Ok, as I mentioned , the risk _is_ there; would be interesting to compare the ventilation of those distilleries that allow photograpy with those who do not.Didn´t think about that yet.

But, even without photography, I´ll take a good dram of ... ok, Springbank now!

Cheers,

:-) Andreas

"Ethelred the Unready" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@n>

The message from "Andreas Tschoeke" contains these words:

Ah, so this is about photography? I did several years as a guide at a "well-known" distillery operated by "one of the major players". We certainly always said "no photography, because of danger of explosion, and no time to test whether your camera, Sir, is Tempest compliant", but the reason had zilch to do with danger - simply if you are taking 20 or so punters round a distillery, you need to keep them together, and the photographers will all wait until the gang have gone to get a good shot........

Richard

... now _this_ is the answer I have been wait´n for!

Thanks a lot!

:-) Andreas

"Richard Spencer" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@zetnet.co.uk...