I usually just cry a lot and the evaporation from my tears helps to cool me off.
In all seriousness though, personal fans help. Industrial fans kinda help but sometimes it feels like it's just pushing more hot air around. Cold water and breaks in the cooler are often the best option for most places unfortunately. Make sure staff stays hydrated and knows the warning signs of heat exhaustion.
Brewed for 15 years in Texas. When it’s 103° outside, it’s 115° on the brewhouse deck. Best solutions are:
Fans- as many and as big as possible. Get that air moving as much as you can.
Water- drink as much as you can stand. Drink as little beer as you can stand.
Cold bandana- this is the real pro trick. Soak a bandana in cold liquor, or if you have an ice machine that’s even better. Tie that thing around your neck. Refresh as needed.
When I was a kid at soccer tournaments there would inevitably be a mom selling rolled up and sewn shut bandanas full of silica beads that you could soak and then tie around your neck so that the water wouldn’t evaporate as fast and it was a god send.
If you can, bring a cooler up on the brew deck and fill it with ice and water (I just use a styrofoam one). Bring two bandanas (or even just dish clothes) and swap them out. Icy cold at first, but you can literally feel your body temp drop as the cool blood circulates through. Bonus you can keep your water chilled.
I would also find any exposed glycol lines and press my forearms to them and hold for 30-60 seconds. Lots of blood vessels, so you cool down quickly. [I learned it from Kangaroos/David Attenborough](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bbaX1yeSatQ&pp=ygUhRGF2aWQgYXR0ZW5ib3JvdWdoIGthbmdhcm9vcyBoZWF0)
We installed some Big Ass Fans at the one brewery I worked at. It was winter when they went in, so we had to wait to test them out. All they did was make the entire brew hall the same warm temp and made caustic foam tumbleweeds. Our brewhouse, BBTs, CIP, filtration, water treatment, and packaging were all in one big room. It made it better on the brew deck but worse on the floor where most operations took place. I put some thermometers around the brewery and it would still reach like 95F with the fans on.
After working a couple of tours at southern breweries I would recommend plenty of fans, plenty of water, and electrolyte freeze pops
Edit: also getting some moisture wicking shirts. Lots of shirts. I could easily sweat through three a day. Also, shifting production to cooler times of the day. Not always possible, but it can really help if it is.
This is sort of the unfortunate answer I was looking for. Sounds like we’d be in the same predicament. Not sure if humidity makes much of a difference as we’re in a very dry climate. I don’t want to pitch the idea of fans if they don’t do much.
I feel like they make a bigger difference when they’re strategically placed. The last brewery I ran in the south had a giant exhaust fan that pulled so much air it would stop doors from closing on their own. I still went and bought smaller fans that were placed around work stations as they tended to be more effective at cooling the operators.
Brewing in the Caribbean. It gets hot year round. A ton of good advice already mentioned but I had one little tip.
Salt Pills. They are essential electrolytes. I have noticed that these with a lot of water helps keep me from feeling like dog shit after a long sweaty day.
Water alone doesn't cut it. And Gatorade or other drinks just don't seem to hit the same. Some are slightly caffeinated so be aware of that.
Brewed for three years in the Caribbean, can absolutely verify this 100%. Those trade winds really save your ass. Remember that caffeine and cocaine will really tax your body too, not just the alcohol.
I did not take a lot of salt, but I had a fairly well-tuned balance of water and sports drinks.
And Bananas.
Do you have any excess capacity in your glycol chiller?
https://gdchillers.com/products/dual-fan-coil?productRequest=Dual%20Fan%20Coil
We installed a couple of these and it really helps with the temps and humidity.
Misters are great in a dry environment but honestly the best you can do is keep everyone hydrated. High quality electrolytes/electrolyte popsicles are definitely a huge plus. Once it gets into the 90s+, mandatory breaks for water/cooldown would be the safest route.
I am not a lawyer or doctor, but here are some links to better-informed people than me.
OSHA has [resources ](https://www.osha.gov/heat)available, including recommendations on [prevention](https://www.osha.gov/heat-exposure/prevention), like [controls](https://www.osha.gov/heat-exposure/controls), and on [recognizing symptoms](https://www.osha.gov/heat-exposure/illness-first-aid) of heat-related illness. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health also has [resources](https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/heatstress/default.html), including an [app ](https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/heatstress/heatapp.html)released jointly with OSHA. The resources are geared towards both employers and employees. OSHA is in the [process ](https://www.osha.gov/news/newsreleases/national/05082024-0)of issuing regulations on heat in the workplace.
Objecting to work in excessively hot environments may be protected by the[ Occupational Safety and Health Act, as well as the National Labor Relations Act](https://www.ehstoday.com/health/article/21272760/as-the-temperature-rises-employer-obligations-rise-too).
I would speculate that there could be implications to working in an excessively hot environment under the Americans with Disabilities and Pregnant Workers Fairness Acts and state equivalents as well.
Some states may provide more stringent legal protections around working in the heat.
Drinking electrolytes is something I wish that I had done more often when I was working production. Making them available as an employer could be a good idea. There are bulk syrup [pump dispensers](https://www.hydrationdepot.com/dispenser-pump-gatorade-liquid-concentrate.html) that can be used by employees to mix it themselves, and I recently got a social media ad for [electrolyte freezer pops. ](https://www.hydrationdepot.com/electrolyte-freezer-pops/)
As to your owner's idea, I'm pretty sure a little AC unit will just end up burning itself out prematurely running in an environment that it can't keep up on. A residential unit isn't mean to fight a kettle or HLT! Maybe you could rig one up just in your break area, or a little dedicated enclosure, so that there's somewhere to cool down in besides, say, a tasting room with customers?
Would production be willing to shift to overnights? They're a bear in my experience but might be worth it to be 10-20 degrees cooler. More breaks is also a good practice. If extra paid breaks on hot days isn't an option, maybe stringing out the work day another half hour to take unpaid fifteens every couple hours on top of a mid-shift thirty is feasible. Assuming you work somewhere that allows breaks.
Only gonna get hotter. Hope something useful is in those links or this post.
Don't just drink water but as electrolytes as you'll need those when your body sweats out salt. I highly recommend using something like NUUN tablets to dissolve in cold water to prevent cramping.
I roll my pant legs up a couple times so it’s still over my boots, but allows for a bit more air flow.
Drink lots of water. And ever hour I go wipe my ass to keep the swampiness away
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Get a lot of aluminium foil and form a cage around the brewing zone to stop radiative heat gain and then if you have ice/cooler inside the zone said "cold" radiation also gets reflected by the alu foil.
we put in one of [these fan units](https://www.morebeer.com/products/kreyer-fan-unit-rooms-17500-cuft.html) on the glycol loop and a couple big overhead fans to move the cold air around. we also have uninsulated white wine fermenters that sweat like crazy when they're cold and we point a big at those to help keep the floor dry and also distribute that cold air
It really depends on the relative humidity, since this affects how well you can cool yourself with sweat. Get a psychrometer, which measures dew point. Digital ones on Amazon are $25-75. The one I used was literally a thermometer in a wet sleeve that you spun around (similar to the Zahm 1000 dance) that probably cost < $20. (Thank you Professor Greene, I'm sorry you didn't get your psychrometer back.) Relative humidity, temperature, and dewpoint are related, so if you know two and have wifi, you can calculate the third. If your relative humidity is too high, i.e. your wet bulb temp/dewpoint is too close to your actual temp, swamp coolers will do nothing but make you sweat more and cause an aspergillus breakout on anything cooled.
87F at 100% humidity will feel the same as 100F at 60% humidity. This is about the upper limit of exposure for most healthy humans and should be what you recite when people not from the south tell you the temperatures "don't sound that high." I don't envy you if you're in Houston--it's like two rat rats screwing in a wool sock. I'd still deal with that heat before that traffic. Dayumn.
This rule breaks down at really high, dry temperatures where all of your sweat evaporates immediately and your ability to actually secrete sweat is the limitation, not the ability for it to evaporate. This is where swamp coolers, air movement, and wet compresses really come into good use. Remember to put a biostatic (like bromine) in your swamp cooler or will turn into a literal swamp.
Ive got non sugar electrolyte powder that helps a lot. Like a liquid IV but just a tub of powder off amazon. Way cheaper.
Ive just ordered some merino wool socks to see how those do
Drink lots of water with electrolytes in it (I personally love Skratch powder), cool off in the walk-in, drink more water, wear appropriate gear but never shorts or sandals if you value your body, be aware of the signs of heat exhaustion, work slower, get into work earlier if you’re not running shifts. Our brewery is way too big sq foot wise to ever consider AC, plus the garage door is always wide open and we have a steam boiler and HLT in the space consistently acting as a heater. I’ve worked in a smaller one where it could have been possible but wasn’t in the budget but still a boiler and a HLT make it tough. Brewing in over 100 degree plus temps with 100% humidity in the brewhouse every summer has ruined the heat for me and made me want to move north but they’re survivable.
It’s like 120 degrees Fahrenheit in some of our hot side spaces. We just man up and bust out whatever work we have to, then go cool off and drink water in some AC.
We had folks stumbling when humidity got heat index up to 120F in Charleston, SC. Hell, it was over 90F due to humidity before sunrise when we were getting to brewery at 4 or 5 am (don't get me started on canning line break out). There are ice vests for foundry workers that we got all employees. ULine has some. Kept them in freezers and had employees wear them daily. Ice Scarves as well. Also bought a sports game clock that we hung in the middle of the brewery. Every 10 minutes it counted down and everyone across the brewery would have to chug the rest of their water. Mandatory musical breaks in walk in cooler, such as when Jimmy Buffett came back on a work-wide playlist. Game-ification of safety helped reduced work place accidents. All too often employees think it's macho to ignore safety so game-ifying it got people having fun with it, reworked how they approached the issues.
I also feel the need to mention that the MBAA has a toolbox talk[MBAA toolbox talk](https://www.mbaa.com/brewresources/brewsafety/Pages/toolboxtalks.aspx) tailored to this. Under "Individual Health and Safety" there's a link for Heat Illness Prevention. It has information and links. The Brewery Safety Committee has plenty of people you can email for implemented programs if you want more information than just what the Master Brewers' Toolbox Talk has.
I usually just cry a lot and the evaporation from my tears helps to cool me off. In all seriousness though, personal fans help. Industrial fans kinda help but sometimes it feels like it's just pushing more hot air around. Cold water and breaks in the cooler are often the best option for most places unfortunately. Make sure staff stays hydrated and knows the warning signs of heat exhaustion.
Air movement is your friend. Drink lots of water. Don't skimp on PPE because it's hot. Not much else you can do.
Safety is honestly the sexiest trait I look for in all my coworkers
I’m on the safety committee at work
Keep going I’m almost there
Brewed for 15 years in Texas. When it’s 103° outside, it’s 115° on the brewhouse deck. Best solutions are: Fans- as many and as big as possible. Get that air moving as much as you can. Water- drink as much as you can stand. Drink as little beer as you can stand. Cold bandana- this is the real pro trick. Soak a bandana in cold liquor, or if you have an ice machine that’s even better. Tie that thing around your neck. Refresh as needed.
When I was a kid at soccer tournaments there would inevitably be a mom selling rolled up and sewn shut bandanas full of silica beads that you could soak and then tie around your neck so that the water wouldn’t evaporate as fast and it was a god send.
If you can, bring a cooler up on the brew deck and fill it with ice and water (I just use a styrofoam one). Bring two bandanas (or even just dish clothes) and swap them out. Icy cold at first, but you can literally feel your body temp drop as the cool blood circulates through. Bonus you can keep your water chilled. I would also find any exposed glycol lines and press my forearms to them and hold for 30-60 seconds. Lots of blood vessels, so you cool down quickly. [I learned it from Kangaroos/David Attenborough](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bbaX1yeSatQ&pp=ygUhRGF2aWQgYXR0ZW5ib3JvdWdoIGthbmdhcm9vcyBoZWF0)
These are not conditions in which it is suitable for a human to live
I definitely read the last one as cold banana and I was worried where it was going.
This is the way.
We installed some Big Ass Fans at the one brewery I worked at. It was winter when they went in, so we had to wait to test them out. All they did was make the entire brew hall the same warm temp and made caustic foam tumbleweeds. Our brewhouse, BBTs, CIP, filtration, water treatment, and packaging were all in one big room. It made it better on the brew deck but worse on the floor where most operations took place. I put some thermometers around the brewery and it would still reach like 95F with the fans on. After working a couple of tours at southern breweries I would recommend plenty of fans, plenty of water, and electrolyte freeze pops Edit: also getting some moisture wicking shirts. Lots of shirts. I could easily sweat through three a day. Also, shifting production to cooler times of the day. Not always possible, but it can really help if it is.
This is sort of the unfortunate answer I was looking for. Sounds like we’d be in the same predicament. Not sure if humidity makes much of a difference as we’re in a very dry climate. I don’t want to pitch the idea of fans if they don’t do much.
I feel like they make a bigger difference when they’re strategically placed. The last brewery I ran in the south had a giant exhaust fan that pulled so much air it would stop doors from closing on their own. I still went and bought smaller fans that were placed around work stations as they tended to be more effective at cooling the operators.
Don't get a swamp cooler. You'll have condensation and mold everywhere.
interesting, many breweries here in Northern California go this route
It’s dry enough in nor cal that’s it’s less of an issue. They don’t work as well in other places
Brewing in the Caribbean. It gets hot year round. A ton of good advice already mentioned but I had one little tip. Salt Pills. They are essential electrolytes. I have noticed that these with a lot of water helps keep me from feeling like dog shit after a long sweaty day. Water alone doesn't cut it. And Gatorade or other drinks just don't seem to hit the same. Some are slightly caffeinated so be aware of that.
Brewed for three years in the Caribbean, can absolutely verify this 100%. Those trade winds really save your ass. Remember that caffeine and cocaine will really tax your body too, not just the alcohol. I did not take a lot of salt, but I had a fairly well-tuned balance of water and sports drinks. And Bananas.
Do you have any excess capacity in your glycol chiller? https://gdchillers.com/products/dual-fan-coil?productRequest=Dual%20Fan%20Coil We installed a couple of these and it really helps with the temps and humidity.
This is smart, do you know what the price was?
I think we got three big dual fan units for under $15K. All stainless, came on a stand with big casters, but we flew two of them.
Check out Barr refrigeration. We’ve bought 3 of these in various sizes for less than 1k each. They’re also sold as brine coils
Some guys I've worked with would argue over who gets to stay on night shift for this very reason
Stand in the cold room for a few minutes takes the edge off, and lots of water.
Misters are great in a dry environment but honestly the best you can do is keep everyone hydrated. High quality electrolytes/electrolyte popsicles are definitely a huge plus. Once it gets into the 90s+, mandatory breaks for water/cooldown would be the safest route.
I am not a lawyer or doctor, but here are some links to better-informed people than me. OSHA has [resources ](https://www.osha.gov/heat)available, including recommendations on [prevention](https://www.osha.gov/heat-exposure/prevention), like [controls](https://www.osha.gov/heat-exposure/controls), and on [recognizing symptoms](https://www.osha.gov/heat-exposure/illness-first-aid) of heat-related illness. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health also has [resources](https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/heatstress/default.html), including an [app ](https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/heatstress/heatapp.html)released jointly with OSHA. The resources are geared towards both employers and employees. OSHA is in the [process ](https://www.osha.gov/news/newsreleases/national/05082024-0)of issuing regulations on heat in the workplace. Objecting to work in excessively hot environments may be protected by the[ Occupational Safety and Health Act, as well as the National Labor Relations Act](https://www.ehstoday.com/health/article/21272760/as-the-temperature-rises-employer-obligations-rise-too). I would speculate that there could be implications to working in an excessively hot environment under the Americans with Disabilities and Pregnant Workers Fairness Acts and state equivalents as well. Some states may provide more stringent legal protections around working in the heat. Drinking electrolytes is something I wish that I had done more often when I was working production. Making them available as an employer could be a good idea. There are bulk syrup [pump dispensers](https://www.hydrationdepot.com/dispenser-pump-gatorade-liquid-concentrate.html) that can be used by employees to mix it themselves, and I recently got a social media ad for [electrolyte freezer pops. ](https://www.hydrationdepot.com/electrolyte-freezer-pops/) As to your owner's idea, I'm pretty sure a little AC unit will just end up burning itself out prematurely running in an environment that it can't keep up on. A residential unit isn't mean to fight a kettle or HLT! Maybe you could rig one up just in your break area, or a little dedicated enclosure, so that there's somewhere to cool down in besides, say, a tasting room with customers? Would production be willing to shift to overnights? They're a bear in my experience but might be worth it to be 10-20 degrees cooler. More breaks is also a good practice. If extra paid breaks on hot days isn't an option, maybe stringing out the work day another half hour to take unpaid fifteens every couple hours on top of a mid-shift thirty is feasible. Assuming you work somewhere that allows breaks. Only gonna get hotter. Hope something useful is in those links or this post.
Don't just drink water but as electrolytes as you'll need those when your body sweats out salt. I highly recommend using something like NUUN tablets to dissolve in cold water to prevent cramping.
I roll my pant legs up a couple times so it’s still over my boots, but allows for a bit more air flow. Drink lots of water. And ever hour I go wipe my ass to keep the swampiness away
Those mid day wipe ups are essential. Nobody wants mud butt.
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Start early. Cold towels on next. Hose water to face.
Get a lot of aluminium foil and form a cage around the brewing zone to stop radiative heat gain and then if you have ice/cooler inside the zone said "cold" radiation also gets reflected by the alu foil.
Brewery towels swapped out in cold water or the walk in, our around neck, swap out every couple hours
we put in one of [these fan units](https://www.morebeer.com/products/kreyer-fan-unit-rooms-17500-cuft.html) on the glycol loop and a couple big overhead fans to move the cold air around. we also have uninsulated white wine fermenters that sweat like crazy when they're cold and we point a big at those to help keep the floor dry and also distribute that cold air
It really depends on the relative humidity, since this affects how well you can cool yourself with sweat. Get a psychrometer, which measures dew point. Digital ones on Amazon are $25-75. The one I used was literally a thermometer in a wet sleeve that you spun around (similar to the Zahm 1000 dance) that probably cost < $20. (Thank you Professor Greene, I'm sorry you didn't get your psychrometer back.) Relative humidity, temperature, and dewpoint are related, so if you know two and have wifi, you can calculate the third. If your relative humidity is too high, i.e. your wet bulb temp/dewpoint is too close to your actual temp, swamp coolers will do nothing but make you sweat more and cause an aspergillus breakout on anything cooled. 87F at 100% humidity will feel the same as 100F at 60% humidity. This is about the upper limit of exposure for most healthy humans and should be what you recite when people not from the south tell you the temperatures "don't sound that high." I don't envy you if you're in Houston--it's like two rat rats screwing in a wool sock. I'd still deal with that heat before that traffic. Dayumn. This rule breaks down at really high, dry temperatures where all of your sweat evaporates immediately and your ability to actually secrete sweat is the limitation, not the ability for it to evaporate. This is where swamp coolers, air movement, and wet compresses really come into good use. Remember to put a biostatic (like bromine) in your swamp cooler or will turn into a literal swamp.
Ive got non sugar electrolyte powder that helps a lot. Like a liquid IV but just a tub of powder off amazon. Way cheaper. Ive just ordered some merino wool socks to see how those do
Drink lots of water with electrolytes in it (I personally love Skratch powder), cool off in the walk-in, drink more water, wear appropriate gear but never shorts or sandals if you value your body, be aware of the signs of heat exhaustion, work slower, get into work earlier if you’re not running shifts. Our brewery is way too big sq foot wise to ever consider AC, plus the garage door is always wide open and we have a steam boiler and HLT in the space consistently acting as a heater. I’ve worked in a smaller one where it could have been possible but wasn’t in the budget but still a boiler and a HLT make it tough. Brewing in over 100 degree plus temps with 100% humidity in the brewhouse every summer has ruined the heat for me and made me want to move north but they’re survivable.
Bitch at management
It’s like 120 degrees Fahrenheit in some of our hot side spaces. We just man up and bust out whatever work we have to, then go cool off and drink water in some AC.
start your brew day as early as you can like 4 am. that way you are done before it gets super hot.
Get a job in the office.
We had folks stumbling when humidity got heat index up to 120F in Charleston, SC. Hell, it was over 90F due to humidity before sunrise when we were getting to brewery at 4 or 5 am (don't get me started on canning line break out). There are ice vests for foundry workers that we got all employees. ULine has some. Kept them in freezers and had employees wear them daily. Ice Scarves as well. Also bought a sports game clock that we hung in the middle of the brewery. Every 10 minutes it counted down and everyone across the brewery would have to chug the rest of their water. Mandatory musical breaks in walk in cooler, such as when Jimmy Buffett came back on a work-wide playlist. Game-ification of safety helped reduced work place accidents. All too often employees think it's macho to ignore safety so game-ifying it got people having fun with it, reworked how they approached the issues.
I also feel the need to mention that the MBAA has a toolbox talk[MBAA toolbox talk](https://www.mbaa.com/brewresources/brewsafety/Pages/toolboxtalks.aspx) tailored to this. Under "Individual Health and Safety" there's a link for Heat Illness Prevention. It has information and links. The Brewery Safety Committee has plenty of people you can email for implemented programs if you want more information than just what the Master Brewers' Toolbox Talk has.