Why did a barrel explode in my face!?!?

[amywy88]

I work in a bar and when I went to change a barrel the other day, i found it difficult to remove the nozzle from the neck of the barrel and the beer started spraying out sideways and when I finally got the nozzle off, the beer sprayed all over me and hit the ceiling! It was fairly amusing but slightly shocking.

Why did it do this? And is it possible for barrels to actually explode?

[cassa333]

Don't know the second bit but when I worked in a pub it could take a while for the pressure to go down when changing the barrel. Jut let the pressure out more slowly in future.

[philippa84]

i also work in a bar the same thing happened to me i think its because the gas lever is still on a little bit make sure its pulled right he way up:)

[boogieboogie]

It sounds like there was excess gas or expanded gas in the barrel as these are pressurised. In layman terms imagine a bottle of lemonade, somtimes the tops are hard to get off because there is so much pressure in the bottle, when you finally loosen it, it can shoot across the room and the lemonade fizzes everwhere. Other times it comes off easily and there's hardly a fizz. Gas can expand under activity (shaken up) or under heat so the pressure increases. Sometimes just too much has gone into the barrel. No it can't just explode, not under normal circumstances anyway.