Unfiltered Wheat Beer.....Make you sick?

My SWMBO loved New Glarus Spotted Cow, and I was thinking about doing a clone or something close.

Lately the Spotted cow has been making her sick to her stomach about 2 hours after drinking 2-3 beer. She doesnt have an iron stomach to begin with, but lately the Spotted seems to be triggering it.

Other pasturized/filtered beers dont seem to affect her.

Any thoughts before I start brewing?

Maybe she has an allergy to something in it?

Her stomach might not be used to drinking live yeast. If you drink a lot of live yeast and aren't used to it sometimes you can have really bad gas and I would assume an upset stomach.

She's been drinking Spotted cow for a few years, usually without issue. Seems the last few months, its been bothering her.

Might be an allergy, as they can appear at any time from what I understand. Maybe with the wheat. Is she fine with bottle conditioned beers?

Not sure if other bottle conditioned beers affect her like the spotted. will have to try some and findout.

I dont know if it matters, but she is allergic to triple sec.

She must be pregnent

pnh2atl said:

She must be pregnent

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uhhh......hmm....OK I'll guess....why is that?

I know lactose intolerence can spring up at a late age, but I wonder if a gluten allergy can as well?

Has she tried any other unfiltered/un pasturised wheat beers?

you say she has no issues with other unpasturised beers (and I assume you homebrew) but what's the wheat content in those as opposed to the new glarus?

Has she had any issues with bread lately?

Technically, Spotted Cow is considered a saison, if that makes any difference recipe/allegy-wise.

cactusgarrett said:

Technically, Spotted Cow is considered a saison, if that makes any difference recipe/allegy-wise.

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Actually its a cream ale brewed with a large percentage of corn.

cellardoor said:

Actually its a cream ale brewed with a large percentage of corn.

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I guess they consider it a "Farmhouse Ale" with only a "little hint of corn". LINK

Does she drink milk on the regular? That might be it. I can't have anything with the smallest amount of lactose in it anymore. Also try another wheat beer and see if she has a reaction to that as well.

But, Spotted Cow isn't a wheat beer. It's a barley malt beer with a little corn. There is some yeast in it, as it's bottle conditioned.

cactusgarrett said:

I guess they consider it a "Farmhouse Ale" with only a "little hint of corn". LINK

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It is a "Wisconsin farmhouse ale" which is just marketing fun. It is barely based with corn and fermented cold with Koelsch yeast.

YooperBrew said:

But, Spotted Cow isn't a wheat beer. It's a barley malt beer with a little corn. There is some yeast in it, as it's bottle conditioned.

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Yeah I'm reading the same thing. I think what confused people was that they were calling it a farmhouse ale.

In France and Belgium, Farmhouse Ale = Saison = Wheat Based Beer.
But it appears that in Wisconsin they brewed their farmhouse ales without wheat.

But still that doesn't preclude it not still being a gluten allergy, since my understanding is that gluten is present in barley as well.

Cask conditioned ale has been the popular choice among brews since long before prohibition. We continue this pioneer spirit with our Wisconsin farmhouse ale. Brewed with flaked barley and the finest Wisconsin malts. We even give a nod to our farmers with a little hint of corn.

Naturally cloudy we allow the yeast to remain in the bottle to enhance fullness of flavors, which cannot be duplicated otherwise.

Expect this ale to be fun, fruity and satisfying. You know you're in Wisconsin when you see the Spotted Cow.

Style Ale
Flavor Fun, Fruity and Satisfying
Alcohol 4.80% by volume

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Gluten is present in barley but if she is developing a gluten allergy or cyliacs (sp?) she would be noticing it from all over her diet as gluten is in almost everything we eat.

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

Gluten is present in barley but if she is developing a gluten allergy or cyliacs (sp?) she would be noticing it from all over her diet as gluten is in almost everything we eat.

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Yep that's why in my very first post I asked about bread issues.

The OP hasn't come back and answered any of our questions...so it's really hard to narrow stuff down.

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

It is a "Wisconsin farmhouse ale" which is just marketing fun. It is barely based with corn and fermented cold with Koelsch yeast.

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Once I read that I got wondering if there WAS an american (especially wisconsin) tradition of farmhouse ales that I never heard of. I got to googling getting all excited about discovering a new, maybe historical style/tradition of brewing that I didn't know about.

*pout*

No.....damn marketers making something up like that.

Next thing you'll tell me is that there is no "Pepridge Farm" and Elsie doesn't really speak.

I've never been sick from a Weizen...and I started drinking them in 1975...

She just needs to fart!

Ok, sorry for the delay....

She doesnt seem to have any other food allergies, save for the aforementioned triplesec.

She does have some medicine allergies, mostly, a few anti biotics.

Bread doesnt affect her, nor does and sort fo wheat, or other gluten product.

Pasturized beers, dont affect her. Is blue moon bottle conditioned? That doesnt affect her. Capital Brewing Maiboc isnt a problem. Neither is Lazy Mutt, which, by its own label, is a Farmhouse Ale, and I assume thats bottle conditioned. Lake Louie in Arena, also makes a farmhouse, and thats doesnt bother her. Her faveorite beer of all time is the Great Danes Crop Circle wheat. Only get it at the pub, not pasturized, yeast left in as I recall. Thats never a problem.

I think its the yeast itself in the Spotted.

I dunno why I thought spotted cow was a bottle conditioned wheat beer. Been drinking it for...well, since it came out. Always thought it was a wheat beer.

Christian said:

She just needs to fart!

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Watch out for the wet ones...

You might try switching to another kind of beer she likes, see how that affects her. My wife drinks mostly unfiltered wheat beers, some mine, some commercial, and no bad effects have been noted.

Whats strange is that she has been drinking Spotted Cow for 5 years without an issue. ITs the first micro brew that she tried. Took 6 years to get her off Miller

NTOLERANCE said:

Whats strange is that she has been drinking Spotted Cow for 5 years without an issue. ITs the first micro brew that she tried. Took 6 years to get her off Miller

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Are you positive it is the beer, and not something else that has changed in her diet, or environment? It's doubtful that spotted cow changed suddenly...could htere be some other cause, and it just so happened that she was drinking the beer and it happened? And you just THINK it was caused by the beer? Like a mild case of food poisoning or an attack of acute gastritis?

Has she been looked at...I don't want something potentially serious ending up getting overlooked while we throw ideas around.

Revvy said:

Are you positive it is the beer, and not something else that has changed in her diet, or environment? It's doubtful that spotted cow changed suddenly...could htere be some other cause, and it just so happened that she was drinking the beer and it happened? And you just THINK it was caused by the beer? Like a mild case of food poisoning or an attack of acute gastritis?

Has she been looked at...I don't want something potentially serious ending up getting overlooked while we throw ideas around.

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Well, I am about 99% sure the beer is triggering it. ITs only when she drinks Spotted cow. The food she has eated has been from different places, (home, local bar, friends house) And it seems to come about 2-3 hours after having 3 beers or so. Other beers dont have this affect and the food has been drastically different. Chicken and pasta, Hamburgers, nachos.

I think her body has changed in the last year or so.... and for whatever reason, has started making her sick.....nearly throwing up.


Thanks for all the discussion and help guys, much appreciated.

OHH NO first swine Flu now "Spotted Cow"

I have no idea if this even makes sense or not but I'm just throwing it out there as a possibility. About a year or so ago new glarus' hilltop location became operational and I think they started brewing spotted cow there since they new location is vastly bigger than the old place. I don't know if they had to change the recipe or their process to compensate for the larger batch sizes but I wouldn't but it out of the realm of possibility. Maybe they changed yeasts and your SWMBO is reacting to a particular strain. I've heard of people having bad reactions to certain yeast strains.

cellardoor said:

I have no idea if this even makes sense or not but I'm just throwing it out there as a possibility. About a year or so ago new glarus' hilltop location became operational and I think they started brewing spotted cow there since they new location is vastly bigger than the old place. I don't know if they had to change the recipe or their process to compensate for the larger batch sizes but I wouldn't but it out of the realm of possibility. Maybe they changed yeasts and your SWMBO is reacting to a particular strain. I've heard of people having bad reactions to certain yeast strains.

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Well, this makes pretty good sense, either in brewing bigger batches they upped the yeast count and that means more yeast is in the finished product, or they have some wild spores growing in the newer factory (or missing some house spores from the old place) and she's being affected by that change.

I know from working here at the medschool, that with allergies or sudden gastro illness they ask for any changes to the patient's environment. I was thinking in terms of her life, since most commercial beer is a consistant product...same amount of yeast, same recipe, same equipment. But if they have made such a drastic change in their brewing environment, I be that is the case. I bet if you were able to do a yeast count in an old bottle and new bottle, you would find a higher cell count in the new, or it's a different strain, and that is what is casuing it.

I'm betting on higer yeast count than she can tolerate.

Well, we are going to try Lazy Mutt Farm House ale this week. See if that has anything that upsets her.

I was just driving by the New Glarus brewery yesterday, and thought about stopping in to ask them about this. I dont recall their new facility being on a hill so to speak, but I guess it could be. That area is great motorcyling country and I ride there alot. Stopped at the brewery a month or so ago, and took the "tour". The original brewery is a much older building.

There may be something in Lazy Mutt that upsets her




















































the taste

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

There may be something in Lazy Mutt that upsets her





the taste

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Yeah, dont remind me.....

The original Huber Bock was a pretty decent brew. Minhaus seems to have changed the berghoff beers slightly. Cant quite put my finger on it. I've done work at Minhaus, they make alot of Canadian brews there.....aparantly they are all the same beer, just in a different can. They make that Mountain Creek stuff there.