ever had an allergic reaction.

was tasting a different beer the last two days and i think i had an allergic reaction. i was drinking ska buster nut brown then switched to a red lager i hadn't tried. my face got all hot then i layed down. the next day i had another in between jobs and my face felt like it was going to blowup and my arms got all numb. i thought i was having a heart attack. christ, i'm only 29. anyways, i took some asprin and a lot of water and after 2 hrs it went away. don't think i'll drink another one of those..

Man, for your sake I hope you are not allergic.
I know that if I was allergic, I would go ahead and eat a lead sandwich, end it all right now...

Seriously, I know some people that are but not as bad as you describe. Hope it was just a bad coincidence.

I don't know what it would be in a red lager that isn't in other beers that you would be allergic to. The red in a red lager is probably coming from roasted barley. I don't know why roasted barley would get you but not other types of barley. I suppose there is the odd chance it could be rye. You could try some rye bread and see.

Other ideas:
Potassium/sodium Metabisulfite or Campden tablets: sulfites can cause severe asthma attacks in some people.

Isinglass (fish bladder gelatin): if you are allergic to the fish it was made from.

Chitosan (shellfish polysaccharide): I know its used in some wines, I've never heard of it in beer. But it is a fining agent like isinglass.

sulfites was my first thought, I had a Homebrew that in order to get a pecan taste he boiled them in and let them sit in secondary. i am allergic to nuts, I didnt smell it but the first sip,,,yeah...that sucked..nice swollen tongue for a few hours

Maybe a particular hop? Just a guess more than anything.

Arneba28 said:

sulfites was my first thought, I had a Homebrew that in order to get a pecan taste he boiled them in and let them sit in secondary. i am allergic to nuts, I didnt smell it but the first sip,,,yeah...that sucked..nice swollen tongue for a few hours

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Nut allergy has to suck. My dad developed a peanut nut allergy at 45. Its been 15 years since then and my stupid brother still offers him snickers.

I sometimes get a food alergy. Skip the aspirin, they do nothing. I pop 2 - 3 Benadryl and they help alot.

My old room mate did that too. He went to the doctor, but to no avail they couldn't figure it out. Only certain alcoholic beverages did it to him. Liquors and beer both did it, weird.

2-3 benadryl and some home brew. Yeah, I'd say that WOULD help alot

Do you have a shellfish alergy? Do you sanitize with iodophor? Somebody posted a couple weeks ago about iodine based sanitizer not being good for people with shellfish allergies. Nobody followed up on the post, but it got me wondering.

i was trying a store bought beer.. shellfish, those bastards!

It could be histamines in the beer. I just did a little reading up on this for a friend. Many fermented foods (cheese, beer, wine, cured sausages, saurkraut) can contain histmines and some people are particularly sensitive to them. This IS NOT classified as being allergic to something, more along the lines of being a chemical sensitivity, even though the net result is often the same (different process though). I have another friend whose wife was tested negative for milk allergies and lactose intolerance, but many cheeses cause her problems. It's a good chance it is a reaction to histamines.

I did find one paper that says that properly made wine should not contain histamines. This paper was saying that histimines that are produced by bacterial contaminants, not the yeast. I did however see other (non-scientific) web references that says yeast are a source.

Try some lambics or other sour beers and see what happens. It could just be specific beers, not all beers. Better sanitation = less problems

I once had a roomate that was allergic to the Iodine I used to clean equipment and bottles. I always took extra care to dry my bottles after soaking them before bottling... perhaps something along these lines?

star-san ftw! i've switched sanitizers the past two batches. seems like starsan does an awesome job and it even has the little measuring thingy so i don't over use it. of course i haven't experienced the reaction with one of my beers. i've even made some pretty spoiled batches. had a couple new belgium trippel's the other night. no issues there? i'll have to look into histimines if the problem comes about again.

Yes! And I had a similar reaction once. Felt like there was a knot in my gut, and I had the same "bloating" reaction. Once and a blue moon have a reaction to beer with to much hops, something my grandfather had an alergy with. Every so often I have a beer (generally when in Europe) that gives me this gut "knot" and I can tell right away, so I give the beer to a friend and order another style. I sometimes get this from white wine as well, but dont know what it is about. Strange $hit! Glad to know I am not the only one out there!