Kudos to the Brewers Association Safety Subcommittee for releasing “Best Management Practices for The Management of Confined Spaces in Breweries”.  Don’t know what may be a confined space at your brewery?  Look at your fermenters, grain bins, silos, mash tuns, kettles and yeast propagation tanks.  Actually, anything associated with the the word “tank” is a good place to start, or places that creep you out.  Also be sure to look at trailers used for fresh or spent grains.

OSHA confined space standard 29CFR1910.146 defines a confined space as the following (all three criteria must be met in order to be considered a confined space):

• An area large enough and so configured that an employee can bodily enter and performed assigned work, and
• Has limited or restricted means of entry or exit and
• Is not designed for continuous occupancy

The Brewers Association BMP offers some great solutions to eliminate the need to enter confined spaces such as:

– Placing “clean in place” systems to allow cleaning and sanitation without entry

– Conducting inspections with the use of mirrors or video cameras

– Using tools such as long-handled gripper tools and scrubbers

To view the entire Brewers Association’s BMP for the Management of Confined Spaces in Breweries go to:

https://www.brewersassociation.org/best-practices/safety/confined-spaces/

Cheers!

Janet