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damo · 01-07-2008, 12:31 PM

is it true you get a bigger hangover from homebrew i am currently drinking my first batch should i regret it when i wake up or is it a myth

***Yooper*** · 01-07-2008, 12:37 PM

I think it's the opposite- I usually get wicked hangovers if I drink too much commercial beer or wine. With homebrew, I can put away quite a lot and not have a hangover at all.

I think it's temperature dependent, too. Fermenting at a high temperature (as in the summer) can cause more fusel alcohols and that can have some unpleasant flavors as well as cause some hangovers. I now ferment my ales at 62-64 degrees, and never had a problem. (And yes, I do tend to drink too much beer!)

chase · 01-07-2008, 12:51 PM

The Complete Joy of Homebrewing has a nice section on hangovers for the layman. Basically he says, homebrew (if fermented at the correct temperature) produces less of a hangover because of the yeast present in it. The yeast are high in B vitamins which are depleted in your body by alcohol consumption. Commercial beers are typically filtered to remove yeast. Drinking homebrew just replaces what is lost. B vitamins are essential to alcohol metabolism.

But as Yoop said, fermenting at higher levels produces fusel (high order) alcohols. If you are of anglo descent, you are probably quite capable of dealing with ethanol (grain alcohol), but not the fusel alcohols. These fusels enter your cells nearly as well as ethanol, but are not metabolized as well. They tend to build up and are slowly oxidized into even less favorable molecules. These lead to a hangover.

Additionally, just drink enough a pint or two of water before you go to bed, and when you wake up take ibuprofen, or some other NSAID w/o acetaminophen.

damo · 01-07-2008, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chase

The Complete Joy of Homebrewing has a nice section on hangovers for the layman. Basically he says, homebrew (if fermented at the correct temperature) produces less of a hangover because of the yeast present in it. The yeast are high in B vitamins which are depleted in your body by alcohol consumption. Commercial beers are typically filtered to remove yeast. Drinking homebrew just replaces what is lost. B vitamins are essential to alcohol metabolism.

But as Yoop said, fermenting at higher levels produces fusel (high order) alcohols. If you are of anglo descent, you are probably quite capable of dealing with ethanol (grain alcohol), but not the fusel alcohols. These fusels enter your cells nearly as well as ethanol, but are not metabolized as well. They tend to build up and are slowly oxidized into even less favorable molecules. These lead to a hangover.

Additionally, just drink enough a pint or two of water before you go to bed, and when you wake up take ibuprofen, or some other NSAID w/o acetaminophen.

are you saying that dark skinned peoples can handle more potent alcohols ??? or as u say fusal lol (ethanol/jet fuel) lol

grasshopper1917 · 01-07-2008, 04:07 PM

Yes homebrew is fine by my experience - except one batch I brewed in the summer - it fermented at about 76f . It tasted ok going down but man - drink too many and youd feel pretty rough the next morning. As long as you keep fermentation down at 70 or so you should be fine

chase · 01-07-2008, 04:08 PM

First off. Let me preface my response by saying this: skin color has no effect of alcohol metabolism. Ethnicity does. But ethnicity does not imply inferiority of intellect, culture, stature, wealth, etc. I'm not that guy.

Grain alcohols such as beer, wine, sake, etc are historically drinks of Europe and Asia. Being so, people that come from European or Asian descent are typically more capable of dealing with ethanol, metabolically. Simply, we've adapted to a diet with ethanol. The common counter example is the Native American people. Alcoholic drinks were not common among these people.

There is much research on the topic of alcoholism. Some of this research is showing that Native Americans lack an important mutation in the gene for alcohol metabolism. What this means is they are less capable of dealing with alcohol metabolically than an anglo or asian.

One thing to understand though is that humans of all races are only capable of dealing with one alcohol in large amounts; ethanol. All other alcohols (fusels) generally have bad physiological side-effects (hangovers or worse). For example, if you had a single beer with methanol instead of ethanol, you would go blind, and suffer irreversible liver and kidney damage and then die. If you drank a beer with all 1-propanol or isopropanol (rubbing alcohol) you would have massive GI hemorrhage, and likely go into a coma.

Thankfully, these and other high order alcohols are present in extremely small amounts. Even if you fermented your beer at 100ºF, it is unlikely that there would be enough of the fusels to do anything to you other than give you a nasty headache.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusel_alcohols

zoebisch01 · 01-07-2008, 04:19 PM

I have never even felt the slightest bit off from drinking one too many homebrews. However, there is a local brewpub that I routinely get headaches from their beer. It never fails.

ohiobrewtus · 01-07-2008, 04:22 PM

I haven't had a hangover in a very long time because I normally only drink homebrew. The last hangover I had was off of commercial beer, or when I mix homebrew with commercial.

Homebrew tastes better and you feel less crappy the morning after.

TheBone · 01-07-2008, 06:52 PM

it seems like the homebrews are simply weaker. I don't know this for a fact, but so far, (probably because of my inexperience), they are less carbonated, and don't seem to have the immediate "buzz" impact that commercial beers do.

Just an initial reaction, though.

chase · 01-07-2008, 06:59 PM

Umm. Maybe you should leave your homebrew in the bottle longer so they get properly carbonated. And maybe you should make a beer with a higher ABV.