Why do some people claim draft beer gives a headache?

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fezzman

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It has never affected me this way. Is it just a myth? Is it because people tend to only think of their 16oz glass as a 12oz, thus drinking more than planned?

I've just been curious about this for quite some time. Anybody care to shed some light?
 
fezzman said:
It has never affected me this way. Is it just a myth? Is it because people tend to only think of their 16oz glass as a 12oz, thus drinking more than planned?

I've just been curious about this for quite some time. Anybody care to shed some light?

Probably because they drink it at a bar where it's filled with smoke. Nicotine causes the blood vessles to constrict.

http://www.wikihow.com/Prevent-a-Hangover
 
I've always heard the same, but it's usually, "I only drink Bud Light. Miller gives me a headache," or some such. As if the ingredients in watered down swill vary so much.
 
I've never heard it, but then my friends don't drink BMC (I think it's the BM that gets them).
 
My wife is under the impression that it has something to do with the carbonation in it.

Could it be that it is over-carbonated (well, more than it typically is) and that is what leads to the headaches? Maybe the bars turn up the CO2 pressure on BMC so that it stays fizzy longer in a pitcher.
 
Orpheus said:
I prefer draught beer to bottles!

As do I. :mug: I could go for a mug-o-Murphy's right about now, rather than my coffee.

'Nother question just popped to mind. Am I correct in thinking that draught typically refers to import and draft refers to BMC?
 
I would say there are a lot of people out there who are looking for a reason to blame their woes on something other then themselves. I imagine it has to do with drinking chemically enhanced beer, smoking a bunch of cigs and having "just one or two more".

Beer is beer, in a bottle, can or keg. It would be like saying I got a headache because I drank on Tuesdays. The true reason would probably be all the loud reporting on the elections, but that is a topic we will not bring up on this forum - will we?
 
Brewpastor said:
The true reason would probably be all the loud reporting on the elections, but that is a topic we will not bring up on this forum - will we?

Depends . . . I dont think I will be seceding from the Union yet reguardless how they go but it's a strong possibility in 2008 (BTW I'm not a fan of either party so it's always a possibility)
 
http://www.marker20.com/menus/beer.htm

I found this interesting:

All our beer is pushed with a nitrogen/CO2 mix (rather than straight CO2). Why? You’ll notice a crisper taste now, a less full feeling later, and less chance of a "draft headache" in the morning.

They even have Bud Light on Nitrogen. I'd be curious to see how it pours. And what is up with their list of 'wierd' beers? :D
 
My understanding is beer gas (nitro/CO2) is used to push beer because the Nitro will not go into solution and over-carbonate the beer. It is most often used on long beer line runs where the possibility of C)2 absorbtion is greater. More CO2 in the beer means a lot more gas in your gut. This is one reason Cask Conditioned Real Ale and beer engines are so nice. The "flat" beer is simply more lightly carbonated and has a mellow and smooth character.
 
fezzman said:
They even have Bud Light on Nitrogen. I'd be curious to see how it pours. And what is up with their list of 'wierd' beers? :D

All of the beers in Ireland (Bud included) are poured using beer gas (a mix of Nitrogen and CO2) and they are poured from a stout tap. The difference is the restrictor plate is removed and the pressure is not set as high as say a Guinness.

I didn't really notice a difference in the way that a Carling poured and tasted served this way. That's to be expected though. Carling, BMC et al. are thinner bodied beers and the Nitrogen doen't work it's magic without pressure and the agitation of the restrictor plate.

I'll see if I can post pics this week. It really is comical to see a Bud with a stout tap. It cries out, "But I am a big boy beer... see".

ETA: Also, I agree with what the Pastor says above.
 
fezzman said:
http://www.marker20.com/menus/beer.htm

I found this interesting:



They even have Bud Light on Nitrogen. I'd be curious to see how it pours. And what is up with their list of 'wierd' beers? :D

LOL....how did you come across that site? That's a little place that was just down the road from my place in VA. The spicy tuna bites or whatever they call them are the tits! :D
 
I've probably met a half dozen people who make this claim, and one very recently, so I'm bumping this thread back to life to see if there is any more insight out there.

Personally, I'm leaning toward BP's opinion that it's just people tending to drink more draft beer than bottled beer and incorrectly assigning blame for the headache they get. Beer, BMC anyway, tends to be smoother and can be quaffed faster from a glass than sipping from a bottle.

My second guess is the people making this claim have had at least one bad experience involving draft beer at a crumby bar that neglected keeping its beer lines clean, resulting in excessive amounts of toxins and bad stuff being consumed. Can dirty beerlines lead to headaches or did i just make that up?

I want to know the answer so I have some fodder next time I'm out and someone requests bottled over draft when I'm buying the next round.
 
I find that I do have a greater chance of upset stomache/headache when drinking Bud Light at a hockey/baseball game... but If I drink Budweiser I have no problems. This is beer for beer, no smoking cigaretts, etc.
 
I once had the worst headache and hangover I ever had drinking $2 pitchers of Icehouse in college. That was the last time I ever had Icehoue. My guess is that the keg was bad or something so the bar decided to offer $2 pitchers to college students to kill the keg.
 
Because (in my case) it does. All BMC I've ever had on draught will leave me with a terrible headache the next day.
 
A lady told me once, that champagne is the worst of all the wines for headaches, because of the bubbles. I guess it could be that there is more carbonation on draft vs bottle. And most BMCs taste overly carbed in the bottle to me too. I've never drank a lot of champagne so I'm not really sure. And usually if I drink more than a few, I take 2 advil before bed....so I usually do not get a headache unless I forget the advil.
 
A friend of mine gets headaches whenever he drinks commercial beer, but not when he drinks homebrew. The commercial beers he used to drink before he gave up on it were of the BMC variety, so I told him he should try homebrew since there isn't any chemical augmentation. He hasn't had any problems with homebrew at all. And his problem wasn't with drinking too much - he'd get a ripping headache after half a bottle, soon after drinking it.
 
Bottled beer (consumed from the bottle) retains a ton more carbonation than a pint that has been drawn from a tap.

Drinking a highly carbonated beverage will fill you up faster.

It's much easier to quaff higher quantities of a smoothed out beer from an open glass, than trying to suck out fizzy beer from a small (bottle) opening.
 
Beer snobs like me pour bottled beer into a glass, so I guess it's no different then draft.
 
This topic grabbed my attention, though not because I get headaches from draft beer. I had a measly four bottles of my homebrew Saturday night - two each of two different beers - and had a hellatious headache all morning on Sunday. Now I can easily drink a bottle of wine or mead and feel great the next morning so this headache had me puzzled.

I looked online and found a reply to a similar question. The reply was given by Ed Westemeier, "Award-winning beer writer, columnist, and brewing consultant, as well as Grand Master Beer Judge."

There is a chemical that causes headaches for about 1 person in every 15. It's a natural byproduct of certain strains of brewer's yeast, not something that is added to the beer. Switching to the products of a different brewery that uses a different strain of yeast for their fermentation will often clear up the problem.

Even though the breweries that have this difficulty are aware of it, they don't change their yeast because doing so would also change the flavor of their beer.

I should mention that every strain of brewer's yeast produces this chemical byproduct, but only a few of them have it at such a high level that it affects people. The Anheuser-Busch breweries just happen to be one of the highest.
 
Beer snobs like me pour bottled beer into a glass, so I guess it's no different then draft.

Right. But most people downing $1.00 bottles at happy hour are drinking from the bottle.

That nice head you get when you pour your bottle into a glass is what helps make the beer more enjoyable for snobs like us.

Bottle drinkers are consuming that extra CO2...usually on top of salty pretzels or chicken wings.

I just chalk it up to higher consumption levels for draft drinkers.
 
This topic grabbed my attention, though not because I get headaches from draft beer. I had a measly four bottles of my homebrew Saturday night - two each of two different beers - and had a hellatious headache all morning on Sunday. Now I can easily drink a bottle of wine or mead and feel great the next morning so this headache had me puzzled.

I looked online and found a reply to a similar question. The reply was given by Ed Westemeier, "Award-winning beer writer, columnist, and brewing consultant, as well as Grand Master Beer Judge."

There is a chemical that causes headaches for about 1 person in every 15. It's a natural byproduct of certain strains of brewer's yeast, not something that is added to the beer. Switching to the products of a different brewery that uses a different strain of yeast for their fermentation will often clear up the problem.

Even though the breweries that have this difficulty are aware of it, they don't change their yeast because doing so would also change the flavor of their beer.

I should mention that every strain of brewer's yeast produces this chemical byproduct, but only a few of them have it at such a high level that it affects people. The Anheuser-Busch breweries just happen to be one of the highest.


A-HA! That explains why Sam Adam's Boston Lager gives me a headache, no matter how little I drink. And I made a batch of homebrew that seemed to do about the same, but chalked it up to me being a hypochondriac. So I ignored it and now I can't remember what recipe it was. :(
 
I looked online and found a reply to a similar question. The reply was given by Ed Westemeier, "Award-winning beer writer, columnist, and brewing consultant, as well as Grand Master Beer Judge."

There is a chemical that causes headaches for about 1 person in every 15. It's a natural byproduct of certain strains of brewer's yeast, not something that is added to the beer. Switching to the products of a different brewery that uses a different strain of yeast for their fermentation will often clear up the problem.

Even though the breweries that have this difficulty are aware of it, they don't change their yeast because doing so would also change the flavor of their beer.

I should mention that every strain of brewer's yeast produces this chemical byproduct, but only a few of them have it at such a high level that it affects people. The Anheuser-Busch breweries just happen to be one of the highest.

So, why doesn't he state what this mystery chemical is? Is it fusel alcohols? This hasn't been mentioned here yet (that I saw). I guess different strains of yeast could produce different levels of fusel alcohols (which are known to cause headaches) independent of other factors, but I think it's more fermentation temperature dependent. The warmer you ferment, the more fusels are produced, the greater risk of headache.

Also, doesn't the fact that homebrew is unpasteurized and (usually) unfiltered have something to do with it? Most commercial beer is stripped of nutritional value and yeast, but home brew keeps all of those B Vitamins, etc. I've read that this can decrease hangovers in general, so probably headaches too.
 
If I had to guess I'd say they add sulfites as a preservative. This is also common in red wine, and gives a nasty headache to those sensitive to it.
 
i'd say that everyone has different bodies and different chemicals and compounds will affect us all differently...but most of the time it's just in their heads.
 
Yes, I know all the arguments about sulfites but I've been making wine a long time and drinking it for even longer and I don't get headaches after drinking full bottles of either wine or mead. Nor do I get headaches from drinking most beers but the ones I drank last weekend, or something, caused the worst headache I've had in months. Mr. Westemeier's explanation makes sense. It also corresponds to others making the same point when I conducted my Google search.

I looked a little more and found this article in Beer Allergies citing scientific abstracts.

The major cause of the pseudo-allergic response appears to be histamine and other biogenic amines in beer or wine. It is not so much the histamine content itself but histamine intolerance sufferers have lower diamine oxidase levels in their intestines (Wantke, Gotz et al, 1993).

Histamine and other biogenic amines are formed in beer during both the malting and fermentation stages (Gasarasi, Kelgtermans et al 2003). Specialty beers, especially sour beers and beers produced by mixed cultures, are particularly prone to the formation of biogenic amines.
 
I've always heard the same, but it's usually, "I only drink Bud Light. Miller gives me a headache," or some such. As if the ingredients in watered down swill vary so much.

Not a draft, but I think there is some merit to that. At a friends house recently, I had some Miller "high life" and after just 2 I had headache...
 
I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but often I feel the same way.
I have had some drinks that after just one or two I get a head splitter out of nowhere, and I'm used to stress headaches, eye strain, sitting next to load idiots, etc. But some of these I can point straight to the beer and say never again.
 
For some reason, Coors products always give me a headache after 1 beer. Doesn't matter if it comes out of a keg or can, happens every time. Other macro swill I can drink with impunity though.
 
Hey I'm new to the beer brewing and i had a taste of my beer that was 7 days old in the bottle and got a really bad headache after a few sips

I'm hoping it will improve after 3 more weeks and no more headaches
 
If I had to guess I'd say they add sulfites as a preservative. This is also common in red wine, and gives a nasty headache to those sensitive to it.

I'm pretty sure that you have to use sulfites at a pretty high level to work as a preservative or to effect people that are sensitive. There is a ppm threshold where anyone adding sulfites to any food product has to write "contains sulfites". I don't think Bud writes this on their can. Therefore, it does not contain sulfites.
 
I'm not aware of a beer sold in the US that has sulfites added, and such an addition would have to be noted on the label here by law. Sulfites, of course, occur in beer and wine and everything else naturally.

The mystery chemical discussed several months ago is acetaldehyde. However, the argument that this is the cause of headaches (the argument was posted here second hand from an anonymous source) is logically bankrupt. Here is why:

The levels of acetaldehyde in Budweiser are famously slightly higher than the flavor threshold, around 6 ppm, IIRC.

However, this is not nearly enough acetaldehyde to cause any sort of noticeable effect in humans. It is true that acetaldehyde contributes to hangovers and is, indeed, more toxic than ethanol. Acetaldehyde is produced during human metabolism of alcohol and it is this source of acetaldehyde that is responsible for hangovers. The amount of acetaldehyde in any beer, including Budweiser, is simply a non-factor.

Also I read something in the very old OP that is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Shaker glasses, called pint glasses in the US, hold 16 US fluid ounces (a US pint) to the top. Since beer foams, beer glasses are not typically filled to the top and a shaker glass will not hold 16 fluid ounces. Contrast this with a half liter or imperial pint glass where the state volume is to a fill line, not the top.
 
It's true, it happens. There's a number of reasons why.

A dirty line will be more prone to cause this. That's why people say certain beers do but others don't.

Sulfur in the lines.

It's a bit more carbonated, and depending on the bar could be insanely more carbonated.

People take larger drinks from a mug than a bottle. You're sucking in more air with each drink versus a bottle "sip".

A pitcher is obviously larger than a bottle, it's easier to drink more and drink it faster. This is actually the most probable cause as it's just somebody with a borderline hangover.


The local bar I go to cleans their lines once a month and they day before the cleaning they sell $2 pitchers. I never get a headache from the beer but lots of people claim to that night. I think the beer is just so old and the lines so crummy at that point that's what it is. It could also be a hangover, who knows? Who am I to judge somebody that can't drink?
 
I always thought it was Keg beer not draft/draught beer that gave the headaches. Yes I know its the same stuff, but look at the difference between a keg party and a bar. Keg usually gets picked up in the morning, sits around warm most of the day, we KNOW they use like a handful of hops for the 5000gal Kettle, so the beer has been abused, sat around warm, then chilled as an afterthought.
 
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