Food Safety Recall: Black Hops Extra Eggnog (As part of 2019 Beer Cartel Advent Calendar)

Packed 10/10/2019 – Best Before 10/04/20

Dan, Eddie and Govs regret to inform our valued customers that we are recalling all Black Hops Extra Eggnog 375ml cans effective immediately, due to potential for refermentation.

The beer was brewed exclusively for the Beer Cartel 2019 Advent Calendar and can be found in Slot 25. No other Black Hops beers are affected by this issue.

After discovering this issue this afternoon we immediately followed our Recall Plan and contacted Queensland Health and Food Standards Australia and New Zealand, who are also issuing a recall notice.

Beer Cartel has been made aware of the problem and are in the process of directly notifying customers of the issue.

If you have purchased the 2019 Beer Cartel Advent Calendar, please carefully remove the can from slot 25 and place it in the rubbish immediately.

The risk of excess fermentation in the container is due to the beer being prematurely chilled and packaged, resulting in residual fermentable sugar remaining in the can – which when combined with the live yeast culture that resides in all of our beers, can continue to ferment.

This has the potential to result in an increase in ABV rendering the product not fit for sale in current packaging, as well as excessive pressure build up in the can, potentially leading to leaking or rupturing of the container.

Black Hops Brewing is committed to safety and quality however in this case, we failed to detect this early enough as part of our routine quality checks. As such, unfortunately it has been sent out to customers, and needs to be recalled.

Please note, on the off chance that you have already consumed the beer, the liquid itself is not unsafe for consumption.

We have already begun reviewing our procedures to prevent this problem from occurring again. We will introduce additional testing for residual fermentable sugars and increased checks before products are released into the market. We stay committed to producing shelf stable and safe beers that are unpasteurised. We take full responsibility for this incident and declare our commitment to providing our customers and consumers with high quality beers.

Black Hops is a new company that has grown quickly, and we are continuously improving our quality procedures as the company grows. We continue to improve our quality program which includes our quality manual and recall plan, sensory program, retention library and batch testing protocols (both onsite and offsite lab testing) while we build on our existing in-house lab capabilities.

We are very disappointed that this has happened, and we unreservedly apologise to our customers and to Beer Cartel for the inconvenience caused. We will continue working hard to enhance the quality of our products, to minimise the risk of this happening again, and use this experience to become a better brewery in the future.

As the product is an online product, it cannot be returned. You will be contacted by Beer Cartel to arrange compensation.

We would like to thank you for your continued support and understanding. If you have any questions, please contact us on beer@blackhops.com.au or 0435 830 466.

Dan Norris, Eddie Oldfield & Michael McGovern – Black Hops Founders

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