Costly malfunction causes beer flood at Boston-area brewery

Dec. 12 (UPI) -- A blown gasket at a Boston-area brewery in Framingham, Mass., resulted in a beer flood that dumped a full tank of Jabby Brau onto the floor of Jack’s Abby Brewing Company overnight on Tuesday.

The company says that there will now be a shortage of the popular pilsner brew.

The tank that experienced the gasket malfunction was filled with 1,500 gallons of beer, enough suds to stock about 700 cases.

“When we came in the morning, we came into a mess,” co-owner Jack Hendler told CBS Boston. “The good side of the whole mess is there was never a safety issue for anyone working. It was simply a waste of beer issue.”

The beer was supposed to be bottled on Wednesday but Jack’s Abby employees instead spent the day cleaning up. The beer flood also meant that Hendler had to tell some of his retail partners that they wouldn’t be getting any Jabby Brau.

“We weren’t sure they’d believe us,” Hendler said, which was one of the reasons they shot a video of the flood. “We were hoping to prove that we weren’t lying to them. We hope that they’ll take pity on us going forward.”

The company anticipates being out of Jabby Brau bottles until at least the beginning of January. “For a small company like ours, any financial issues hurt,” Hendler said.

[CBS Boston]