How long would a reaction last from hop/yeast allergy?

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Logzor

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A friend was drinking some homebrew at my house last weekend. I don't know the details yet but apparently he's broken out into hives. Nothing serious from what I understand.

How long do allergic reactions last, apparently he's still having the problem.
 
I am having trouble finding any studies showing an allergic reaction like dermatitis/hives from drinking a beer with hops, only from handling hops directly. I haven't looked into yeast yet.

I've never actually heard of such a thing, so I can't say anecdotally whether or not it will last much longer or not. Perhaps your friend should see a doctor.
 
I agree, he needs to see a doctor.

I guess my question is, could beer cause hives that last an entire week? We're just trying to track down the potential source as information he can provide to his doctor.

A doctor is not going to scan you for allergies to hops and yeast unless you ask about it. At least when I had a test done years back they were not included.
 
To save the Dr. visit he NEEDS to take Benadryl. If he has already he needs to take x2's the recommended dose. When you walk into the ER/urgent care having a reaction they give you a shot of liquid Benadryl that is higher than x2 the recommended dose. The tech told me If I would have simply upped my dosage and wait a short while I would have probably been fine...

Now for some hard truths. These reactions are VERY serious. I also agree that having this happen from beer is highly improbable. These reactions are caused by proteins your body think are harmful. In the case of the beer, his liver would have filtered it out and the proteins would have left his body to the tune of 1 average strength beer an hour or he evacuated the beer from his body naturally.

As this has been going on for days it could be a food reaction that he has been eating (EXAMPLE:cheap eggs or milk for breakfast) but I will bet it is a reaction to some sort of soap (laundry, hand, body, liquid fabric softener or dish.) The reason I think this is his skin is in contact with this for a much longer period of time. Ask him his wife/significant other if they have recently used ANY different soaps body, laundry, fab softener and dish. This is a MUCH more likely scenario than a reaction from the beer.

We had to give away all our soaps and buy the "free and clear" soaps because we think that was the cause of MY reaction. The reason I have not gone in for allergy tests is because I do not have insurance and it is a "best guess" system that requires MANY visits. Swapping out ALL the soaps has fixed my issue and was fairly cheap to try. If your friend does this and the hives do not go away, he starts having problems breathing he needs to see a Dr. ASAP.

I hope he feels better soon and that this helps. :mug:
 
Yeah, I had a similar reaction to a particular shampoo once. It sounds more like something in the shower or the washing machine than it does a food allergy.
 
Zamial said:
To save the Dr. visit he NEEDS to take Benadryl. If he has already he needs to take x2's the recommended dose. When you walk into the ER/urgent care having a reaction they give you a shot of liquid Benadryl that is higher than x2 the recommended dose. The tech told me If I would have simply upped my dosage and wait a short while I would have probably been fine...

Now for some hard truths. These reactions are VERY serious. I also agree that having this happen from beer is highly improbable. These reactions are caused by proteins your body think are harmful. In the case of the beer, his liver would have filtered it out and the proteins would have left his body to the tune of 1 average strength beer an hour or he evacuated the beer from his body naturally.

As this has been going on for days it could be a food reaction that he has been eating (EXAMPLE:cheap eggs or milk for breakfast) but I will bet it is a reaction to some sort of soap (laundry, hand, body, liquid fabric softener or dish.) The reason I think this is his skin is in contact with this for a much longer period of time. Ask him his wife/significant other if they have recently used ANY different soaps body, laundry, fab softener and dish. This is a MUCH more likely scenario than a reaction from the beer.

We had to give away all our soaps and buy the "free and clear" soaps because we think that was the cause of MY reaction. The reason I have not gone in for allergy tests is because I do not have insurance and it is a "best guess" system that requires MANY visits. Swapping out ALL the soaps has fixed my issue and was fairly cheap to try. If your friend does this and the hives do not go away, he starts having problems breathing he needs to see a Dr. ASAP.

I hope he feels better soon and that this helps. :mug:
Click to expand...

+1 to this, it is sound advice in my opinion. I had a very similar reaction a few years back when my wife did nothing more than change to a new sent of the same Arm and Hammer laundry detergent. The only thing she had washed were whites, which meant all my undershirts and boxer briefs were contaminated. I had a pretty good idea of what is was so I stopped at the grocery bought some Benadryl and in an hour or two later I was in good shape. As suggested we changed to all "free" detergent, fabric softener and more natural soaps the problem was solved.

I also have a difficult time wrapping my head around it being a "beer" related. Especially if they have consumed commercial or craft beer in the past. That is unless any of your beers contain adjuncts like ginger or cinnamon that can cause reactions in some people. Generally there is not just a skin reaction when someone ingests an allergen, it is not always but pretty often accompanied by respiratory/airway inflammation. I am not a medical professional and as stated above this can be serious condition, seeking a professional medical attention would be a good suggestion IMHO.
 
Thanks for the advice, I'll get a hold of him today and suggest that it was probably not the beer but rather suggest a new irritant that entered his routine that is more likely the case. The beer we drank was just pale ale and oatmeal stout. We also have some Stone Ruination, which is super hoppy, so I was potentially thinking hop allergy. I find it difficult to believe that any of this beer caused week long hives.

I don't think he has insurance, I can't imagine how much it would cost to have an doctor pinpoint the cause. I'm sure thousands of dollars without insurance.
 
As people have stated when dealing with any kind of allergies go see a doctor. But do not rule out a food allergy. This is almost exactly what happened to our daughter on her first birthday. She had a a rash/hives for almost a week. Everyone told us it wasn't food related for various reasons including some of the examples listed above. Even the doctor told us this over the phone. We went through everything we could for that day and the only different thing she was exposed to was a cake from Costco that she had never had before.

Well while the cake did not have peanuts or peanut butter in it they process peanuts there. After insisting the doctors do a test sure enough she came out as highly allergic to peanuts. So just the exposure to peanut residue or dust in the bakery from the cake was enough to trigger a reaction to this. If it were direct contact she would have been in trouble. We now carry epinephrine with us and read labels carefully.

Take a look here http://www.webmd.com/allergies/foods-allergy-intolerance and note the top syptom of an allergy.
 
Celiac can also manifest as an outbreak on the skin too. Maybe your beer was just enough to push it over the edge but unless he was fairly gluten free already, probably not. Just another thing to consider.

I've also been had by the laundry detergent outbreak as well. A roommate decided to help me out with some laundry and used their cheap detergent. Groin rash is no fun, especially when you're in college and start to question what that chick from the party gave you.
 
Good luck catching the culprit! That sounds awful, I'd hate to be allergic to beer, considering I'm allergic to practically everything else, with the exception of foods, I have to take 3x the dose of Benadryl just for my standard allergies. But I am conveniently at the dr today with my wife and I'll see if they can answer some free questions.
 
If he were having an allergic reaction to yeast or hops, then he would also have the same reactions eating bread and drinking commercial beer. Does he have that? If not, then it's highly unlikely it came from homebrew.

Bread yeast IS Saccharomyces cerevisiae, just like beer yeast.

And obviously commercial beer and homebrew are exactly the same, so he would have to have a difficulty in drinking commercial beers as well.
 
Well I just asked the dr. And she said that if he was allergic to anything in the beer it could go either way ( I asked about respiratory stuff or hives ) but if this was the first time it'd happened then maybe it was a new ingredient. She also suggested taking Benadryl.
Good luck!
 

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