(Portsmouth, NH) – The Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued numerous citations to Redhook Brewery’s parent company, Craft Brew Alliance, this week after a broad investigation into the company’s workplace safety. The investigation followed an accident involving a plastic keg explosion that killed a worker back in April.

OSHA identified seven “serious” citations carrying a total of $63,000 in fines.

Only one citation in which OSHA found, “the employer did not furnish employment and a place of employment which was free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees in that employees were exposed to struck-by hazards,” was directly connected to the keg incident. That fine is the largest one issued at $7,000.

The other citations range from $3,000 to $6,000, with some of the violations already having been corrected according to the report.

Craft Brew Alliance released this statement in response to OSHA’s findings to BeerPulse on Wednesday:

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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released the citations of its investigation into the tragic accident at the Redhook Brewery involving Ben Harris last April. The OSHA investigation found that Redhook Brewery and parent company Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) did not willfully violate workplace safety standards. Redhook did receive citations which have already been addressed. The Portsmouth brewery uses compressed air to push waste beer out of returned kegs prior to washing and filling. The brewery believed it was operating safely because it has historically washed and filled only stainless steel beer kegs without incident. Redhook had never worked with plastic beer kegs at the time of the accident and has implemented policies to ensure that plastic kegs are not processed. Additionally, Redhook has installed pressure reducing and pressure relief devices to ensure that no incoming keg is exposed to pressure in excess of 60 psi.

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An informal hearing will take place on October 31st and CBA has until November 13th to appeal any of the citations. If the company does not appeal, the agency will release a summary of its nearly five-month investigation of the accident at that time. If it does, the release of the report will be delayed until the appeal process is finished.

in case you missed it last week, Foster’s released its own investigation around the safety of plastic kegs.