65218 - Who doesn't love a beer flood?

In 1814 in London, the strangest thing happened ... thousands of litres of beer flooded the streets of St. Giles.  Sounds like fun?  Well actually it was tragic.

The Horse Shoe Brewery had a wooden fermentation tank holding the equivalent of 3,500 barrels of brown porter.  The tank was held together with iron rings.  On October 17, 1814, one of the iron rings snapped and about an hour later, the tank ruptured releasing a gale force of beer that collapsed the back wall of the brewery and blasted open several more vats. Hundreds of thousands of litres of beer started down the streets, effectively moving like a tsunami and destroying whatever was in its path.

8 people died from the beer flood in London while others flocked to the streets to get their fill of free beer.  Although the smell of fresh beer is delicious, the stench of the beer flood lasted for months.  A lawsuit ensued but it was determined that the beer flood was an act of god.

Check out more details at https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/The-London-Beer-Flood-of-1814/