SpanishCastleAle

Recipes 

My experience is very similar to Yooper's. And other than not sleeping well after having a few too many...I actually have more overall energy than before I was drinking homebrew. I assume it's the B vitamins? In any case, I just feel healthier in general now that I'm drinking homebrew regularly again. It's magic I tell ya.

EDIT: forgot to add...the higher fusels react with the acidic beer to form esters (dark fruit notes) but it takes a loooong time for it to happen...on the order of months. That's why some big Belgians get so much better with aging...they have a lot of fusels to begin with which after enough time results in a lot of esters.

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Early brewers were primarily women, mostly because it was deemed a woman's job. Mesopotamian men, of some 3,800 years ago, were obviously complete assclowns and had yet to realize the pleasure of brewing beer.- Beer Advocate

Minky

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I'm witcha, man. When I start drinking homebrew, I tend to throw caution to the wind (it just tastes SO GOOD!!). That's why I tend to brew mostly "session" beers. The fusels can definitely cause some grief, but the plain ol' alcohol causes enough on its own.

Believe it or not, I've never had a headache in my life (nyahh, nyahh!!), so I find it difficult to relate on that level, but I have felt like I was fixin' to die a time or two.

CiscoKid

Recipes 

+1 on lowering the fermentation temp. My first brew was way too warm, and besides having some nasty off-tastes to go with it, I got some great headaches from it. Knocking my fermentation temp. in to the low 60s for ales addressed both issues (taste and headaches).

Yoop: I know what you mean. When I was in college, I could get plastered and sleep like a baby. Fast forward to today. Overindulgence leads to me tossing and turning and waking up at 5:30 in the morning.

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Irie5447

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I know its not easy but try to drink a whole glass of water after every 2 or 3 beers, if you know your gonna drink a lot. It really will make a huge difference. Alcohol is a diuretic which increases the excretion of water from your body which essentially is dehydrating you causing a hangover. Its also good to take some sort of B vitamins before bed. I usually drink a lot of water and then take Emergen- C its a b vitamin supplement powder sold at most stores. Just mix with water and you should be good to go.

optimatored

Recipes 

A hangover is mainly due to dehydration and loss of B-Vitamin essential for the body. As you drink you are pee-ing out all those b-vits... homebrew has been known to reduce hangovers because of the yeast in the beer (yeast is loaded with b-vits). How to avoid a hangover? Drink two pints of water before going to bed (and hopefully not wet the bed as well! LOL).

Lordsoth

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Same here.

beerocd

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I have a theory - or maybe a superstition. I have yet to get a homebrew hangover; so when coming home from a night of non-homebrew I down a pint on top of whatever I drank while out. So far it works for me, and my neighbor has also tested this theory and it also seems to work for him too.

-OCD

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velotech

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I have to agree with Yooper and the others - I have hardly a hangover with homebrew than with commercial stuff. If I'm really drinking, I'll try to make sure to down a glass of water between each brew (until I forget)!

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yeasty

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wake up at 4am and drink two pints of water and take 4 advil. you will be fine by 7am !

DanVader

Recipes 

I'm a BMC headache type of guy, can't say I avoid commercial brew, but when I drink storebought, it's micro/craft brew. It can't be all about warm fermentation, I haven't been able to rig up any type of fermentation chamber yet, and even the wet t-shirt method only gets me around 70-72. (I live a little closer to the surface of the sun than a lot of brewers on this forum) most of my brews are in the 6-7% range and I have no problems with fusels/hangovers. Just kegged a tripel that tastes like beer listerine, but I knew that one was coming, I think that one'll be taking a long nap in the back of the closet and be a nice winter warmer.

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Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he’ll sit in the boat and drink all day