Looking for suggestions and find a love of beer.

So here's where I'm at. I've brewed a few Meads and Ciders(recently bottled carbed and will taste a caramel cider on the 21st, didn't plan that or anything..) and I've come to a point with my brewing addiction that I want to try my hand at beer. Simple right? Not so much.

I've tried enjoying beer but for the most part I've failed, and not entirely do to taste. More so I'm one of the small percent of men who get Cluster Migraines. As I found out a few years back (and not in a fun way) the few beers I'd tried ended up bringing on one of these drill a hole in your head migraines. So I sadly shut the door on beer in my life and stuck to sweeter drinks and spirits. I've gone back to trying a few beers here and there and found a few that actually worked pretty well, those being Labatt Blue, Henry Weinhard private reserve, Tilted Kilt ale and Corona. For the longest time I thought it might have something to do with the taste or bitterness. Not too sure still.

If homebrewing has taught me anything it's that you can brew anything to your taste and liking. So since I don't want to shut beer out of my life any longer I want to begin dabbling in beer brewing.

So my questions are thus: Anyone had any similar experiences? Recommendations for a good entry point recipe or which to steer clear for a first batch?

Since I tend to like things a bit more on the sweet side I'd stumbled onto this but wanted some thoughts as to the ease of brewing this on a first run, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f78/vanilla-caramel-cream-ale-23680/. Kind of on a caramel kick still. Any other suggestions more than welcome.


Thank you for the help in advance.

Chocolate stout sound good to you?

Dunkelweizen (If you like banana bread). I would recommend trying out some more craft beers, especially if you live near a store that sells individual bottles. Then you can decide what you like, and thus what you want to make.

see if you can find a style that catches your eye, and then go to a craft beer store and buy some to try.

it would be a shame to do all the work, and wait 8 weeks, only to find you can't drink something because it gives you a killer headache.

masskrug said:

Chocolate stout sound good to you?

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Not too bad honestly, thanks for the suggestion. Will be making a trip after the holidays to my lhbs!

Kinda good timing I guess on my part, I went out and picked up a few different craft bottles and soon as I hit the driveway it started snowing, an hour later pretty much buried in for the weekend so, yeah, plan on some experimenting with different taste lol

Believe me I know it'd be a shame and waste to go through the trouble brewing something in the end that'll give me a headache, that's why I normally punish myself downsizing recipes to 1gal batches, best to see what hits or misses without throwing away so much work(and product). It just sucks when you want to enjoy a beer or two with friends but always have that lingering idea of pain but having grown somewhat wiser over the years like I said I've found not all beer is bad, just need to find a good flavor. Hoping that'll be the case out of what I picked up and the suggestions here. Thanks again!

Have you found any beer that you can drink? Have you isolated it to ingredients, at all? I hate to see a beer lover who can't drink beer. A co-worker had esophageal cancer, and had about 1/2 of his digestive tract removed. He is a beer lover, and now it's a straight shot from his throat to his stomach. He can't handle carbonation anymore, but a beer that's bottled without much sugar, and he's found a happy medium. I hope that you can find a similar "work-around" to whatever is causing the headaches!!

Stilgar said:

Kinda good timing I guess on my part, I went out and picked up a few different craft bottles and soon as I hit the driveway it started snowing, an hour later pretty much buried in for the weekend so, yeah, plan on some experimenting with different taste lol

Believe me I know it'd be a shame and waste to go through the trouble brewing something in the end that'll give me a headache, that's why I normally punish myself downsizing recipes to 1gal batches, best to see what hits or misses without throwing away so much work(and product). It just sucks when you want to enjoy a beer or two with friends but always have that lingering idea of pain but having grown somewhat wiser over the years like I said I've found not all beer is bad, just need to find a good flavor. Hoping that'll be the case out of what I picked up and the suggestions here. Thanks again!

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for what it's worth, i'm a totally 1 gallon brewer, not because of headaches but because i have a short attention span, and want to brew something different each week, and i'm the only drinker in the house.

it's a very nice way to just try stuff, and sample it, and taste it, and on top of that i don't feel bad if i need to pitch a couple bottles of something i don't like.

might be perfect for you.

dadshomebrewing said:

for what it's worth, i'm a totally 1 gallon brewer, not because of headaches but because i have a short attention span, and want to brew something different each week, and i'm the only drinker in the house.

it's a very nice way to just try stuff, and sample it, and taste it, and on top of that i don't feel bad if i need to pitch a couple bottles of something i don't like.

might be perfect for you.

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Yeah 1gal works pretty well for me but I do like stepping up to 5 if I find something I like otherwise it's kinda fun doing 4 or so batches of different stuff, testing and normally I don't drink too much as it is so smaller batches suit me well. More so if something happens to go wrong, I lost a batch of mead to some fungus and had to toss it, felt better about tossing something that cost me roughly 12 bucks to make vs what it would've in 5gal. My ex had and tossed my old brewing equip when I used to make wine and cider so that was what got me into the 1gal club.

bobot said:

Have you found any beer that you can drink? Have you isolated it to ingredients, at all? I hate to see a beer lover who can't drink beer. A co-worker had esophageal cancer, and had about 1/2 of his digestive tract removed. He is a beer lover, and now it's a straight shot from his throat to his stomach. He can't handle carbonation anymore, but a beer that's bottled without much sugar, and he's found a happy medium. I hope that you can find a similar "work-around" to whatever is causing the headaches!!

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Thanks and I really am hoping I can find a work around, a buddy of mine found he had bad reactions to tequila, can't drink even a shot of it without throwing up and buckling in pain, but for whatever reason he can drink Tarantula tequila and not have a problem what so ever.This migraines really do require you to look over every little thing through trial and error to find what brings them on and can intensify them. Lavender, melted dark chocolate, fryer oil(dirty oil). I enjoy sipping Wild Turkey and Makers Mark every blue moon and even that stuff if I have more than 2 shots will bring about that feeling somethin bad could be on the way. Same with the beer, in moderation it's alright but I learned certain beers like say Bud, Busch, keystone and thankfully malt liquor lol seem to have a bitterness and something in it that just seems to trigger the possibility of a headache.

I'm in a somewhat better position than most with cluster migraines, I'm probably off on the % but I recall my doctor saying something like 15% of men have cluster migraines, 6% can actually sense when they're going to have one. I fall into that 6% so I usually do a lot of experimenting on what to and not to do, what works and doesn't. I can't name specifically what it is about beer and I'm trying to find out more now, initially I just thought it was the hops in beer that did it, but I wouldn't want to pin that on it just yet.

I know I'll find a happy medium here that will work for me. Everything is eventual.

If I were you, i'd look at what my triggers were and find some beer styles to enjoy that don't factor into the triggers. I've always heard that sulfurous compounds can trigger bad headaches in wine drinkers, and that might also factor into whiskey drinkers if they're aged in charcoal lined oak wine barrels. That being said, i'd probably skip any beers aged on oak for any length of time. A lot of whiskey stouts and Scotch ales are oak aged in this way.

Since you believe that your triggers are related to the bittering compounds from hops, I would use ratebeer or beeradvocate to check the IBU's of the beers you're planning to sample. The BJCP style range for homebrewing can also give you a guideline for how hoppy a beer style should be (in a range) in IBU's (International Bittering Units). The higher the IBU's, the more bitter they taste.

Pick some styles that are low in IBU's and give them a taste test. Many session beers (low gravity mass market beers) are going to be low in IBU's, such as: Pale ales, pilsners, cream ales, fruit lambics, porters, belgian golden ales, etc..

Thanks again for all the feedback, have given a few more a try, Banana bread(least the one I tried) wasn't too wise a choice, was able to find a nice double chocolate stout though that was pretty smooth. This has helped a lot from the suggestions y'all have given, getting a better idea now. Thank you!

Have you tried glutten-free? Just a thought, sensitivity to ingredients can trigger in different ways. The lighter beers you have tried may have more sugars and rice and less malted barley and wheat. Sometimes hop profiles are stronger in bigger maltier beers to balance the profiles.