BeerMe21

Recipes 

Does anybody have an idea what could be causing a headache the morning after having a 22oz of my imperial rye IIPA? I gave a 22oz to two of my friends and they both said that they had a headache the next morning. I have not had an issue with headaches, but I am used to this style of beer where they are not.

The beer was 8.5%, about 90ibu's, typical ryePA grain bill, fermented on US-05 cake.

My best guess was that their headaches were from dehydration. My experience with the Imperial IPA's is that you should definitely drink some water afterwards (high abv and ibu's?) otherwise you will be parched. They normally drink newcastle or sierra nevada pale ale.

Do you guys have any thoughts, or experiences with this?

Dogphish

Recipes 

Yes dehydration is possible, but it could be other things. If your friends don't typically get a headache from three beers (the equivalent of a single one of your beers), then it was probably not dehydration that caused the headache.

The guy at the local homebrew store where i live says he gets headaches from hoppy beers, i'm guessing that your friends would know if they were allergic to hoppy beer.

Some commercial beers give me a headache. I'm not sure if it is caused by bad brewing techniques (fusel alcohol), by preservatives, or by nitrates. Sammy Smith gives me a raging headache.

Was there a lot of yeast floating around in the beer?

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Tap: Centennial IPA (SMASH)
Tap: Dogfish Head Ginger Saison
Bottle: Stone 11th Anniversary Black IPA clone
Secondary: Flemish Brown Sour Ale

BeerMe21

Recipes 

They don't normally get a headache from three beers but I'm would assume three lower abv beers would hydrate better than one high abv beer (36oz compared to 22oz)? I have noticed that I can be more prone to a headache with highly hopped beers, maybe the high alpha-acid content?

I am curious what brewing techniques could cause fusel alcohol? The beer was pretty clear (kegged) so I don't think there was much yeast in suspension.

mrk305

Recipes 

Fusel alcohol is usually caused by fermenting to warm for the yeast that was used.

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Carport Brewery, Lilburn GA

BradleyBrew

Recipes 

Pitching on a yeast cake could be a culprit of fusel alcohols because the heat generated from such an explosive fermentation would cause temperatures to spike rapidly unless you had very tight temperature controls in place. I believe the yeast cake is the culprit to the headaches.

BeerMe21

Recipes 

Thanks for the input guys. I talked to them again and they said they were thirsty the next morning so I guess that means dehydration. I was wondering, because I did not get headaches from drinking the beer.

I will keep that in mind about the fermentation temperature