In this blog, we seek (i) to commemorate and highlight significant historical events such as our post on the 75th anniversary of the partition of India; (ii) highlight overlooked historical events that need greater attention such as the New Orleans Massacre and other events from the Jim Crow era; (iii) highlight notable persons and stories of courage and humanity such as the tale of Japanese bomber Nobuo Fujita and the friendship he formed with the Oregon community he attempted to bomb; and (iv) then there is the final category – strange freak events such as the San Diego Big Bay Boom Bust. Welcome to category number 4.
The Horse Shoe Brewery, established in 1764, was one of London’s largest breweries and a major producer of porter beer under Henry Meux & Co. The brewery used large fermenting vats that were 22 feet high and held 153,700 gallons of beer. On this day in 1814, one of the Horse Shoe vats burst, with the impact leading a neighboring vat and several smaller barrels to begin discharging between 154,000–388,000 gallons of beer (which is the equivalent of 9,935 – 25,032 kegs of beer or as much as 3.1 million pints of beer).
The force of the liquid destroyed the brewery’s rear wall, unleashing a tsunami of porter 15 feet high onto the poor London neighborhood surrounding the brewery, destroying at least two structures and flooding others. The flood killed eight, including the mother and four mourners attending the wake of a two-year-old boy. One newspaper reported that the scene resembled that of an earthquake.
Once the wave of beer settled, Londoners rushed to the scene to gather the beer with cups, pots, and pans or simply drank it directly off London’s dirty streets. The stench of beer is reported to have lasted months. There are unconfirmed reports that there was one additional death due to alcohol poisoning.
“The London Beer Flood” may conjure an image of freely raining beer and general rejoicing. On closer examination, however, another picture emerges: one of a struggling community, ill-equipped for such an occurrence. It is perhaps worth noting that a judge and jury deemed the London Beer Flood an “Act of God.” Meux and Company, that brewery founded by an English baronet, paid no damages to the predominantly poor, predominantly Irish victims of the flood. After negotiation, they even recovered some of the duty on the lost beer.
The Black Creek Growler
The disaster was responsible for the gradual phasing out of wooden fermentation casks to be replaced by lined concrete vats.
See also
- Patrick Lynch, Death by Beer: The London Beer Flood of 1814, History Collection (Nov. 2, 2017)
- Martyn Cornell, So what REALLY happened on October 17 1814? ZYTHOPHILE
- Martin Cornell, Remembering the victims of the Great London Beer Flood, 200 years ago today, ZYTHOPHILE
- Kat Eschner, This 1814 Beer Flood Killed Eight People, Smithsonian (Aug. 4, 2017).
- Alan Bellows, Beer Flood Claims Eight Souls, Damn Interesting (September 2005).
- THE LONDON BEER FLOOD OF 1814 | A HISTORY SERIES (a more detailed video).
- Jan-15, 1919: Boston Bhopal – The Forgotten Great Molasses Flood of 1919
Today Past 
