cvstrat
Well-Known Member
I read all the allergy threads here, but I still don't know what's up w/a friend of mine. Here's the story.
I have a friend who has always been fond of drinking. We have drank just about every kind of alcohol under the sun and plenty of it. However since I have been homebrewing I have managed to get him into a wider variety of beers. He has never been a fan of any wheat beers, but I finally got him turned on to a few hefes, and we decided to do some sampling to figure out which style I should brew.
Well the last 3 times he has come into town we have sampled my homebrew selection and afterward went to the ale house down the road and drank a variety of hefes. The first time he complained of sore throat and cold-like symptoms the next morning. The second time he complained about a swollen throat, and the other morning he said he woke up having slight trouble breathing noting a significant restriction in his airway.
His immediate comment was that he fears he is allergic to wheat beers. My immediate thought was that he might be allergic to yeast. He made the comment that he has had nights where he polished off 6er of Michelob wheat beers and had no problem. I looked up and sure enough most of their beers are filtered, but their dunkel, which he said he drank a 6 pack of before with no issues, is unfiltered.
The other night we had a HB berryweiss, glass of apfelwein, 2 or 3 SNPA clones, a tall Aventinus (wheat dopplebock and probably the best beer I have ever tasted), a pilsner, milk stout, and vanilla porter. (yes we were wasted). However in all of that we only had two wheat beers.
The other nights were equally as libational but all included something along the lines of a Weihenstephaner, Paulaner, or some other wheat beer, and a few HBs.
I still think it might be a yeast problem because drinking commercial beers alone he has no reaction, but the higher yeast content of HBs combined with the heavy yeast in the wheat beers seems to set him off. Yet I'm still baffled by the 6 pack of Michelob Dunkel that didn't cause any problems. Maybe it's unfiltered but still has a nominal amt of yeast compared to HBs and big glasses of bavarian hefes?
Any ideas?
I have a friend who has always been fond of drinking. We have drank just about every kind of alcohol under the sun and plenty of it. However since I have been homebrewing I have managed to get him into a wider variety of beers. He has never been a fan of any wheat beers, but I finally got him turned on to a few hefes, and we decided to do some sampling to figure out which style I should brew.
Well the last 3 times he has come into town we have sampled my homebrew selection and afterward went to the ale house down the road and drank a variety of hefes. The first time he complained of sore throat and cold-like symptoms the next morning. The second time he complained about a swollen throat, and the other morning he said he woke up having slight trouble breathing noting a significant restriction in his airway.
His immediate comment was that he fears he is allergic to wheat beers. My immediate thought was that he might be allergic to yeast. He made the comment that he has had nights where he polished off 6er of Michelob wheat beers and had no problem. I looked up and sure enough most of their beers are filtered, but their dunkel, which he said he drank a 6 pack of before with no issues, is unfiltered.
The other night we had a HB berryweiss, glass of apfelwein, 2 or 3 SNPA clones, a tall Aventinus (wheat dopplebock and probably the best beer I have ever tasted), a pilsner, milk stout, and vanilla porter. (yes we were wasted). However in all of that we only had two wheat beers.
The other nights were equally as libational but all included something along the lines of a Weihenstephaner, Paulaner, or some other wheat beer, and a few HBs.
I still think it might be a yeast problem because drinking commercial beers alone he has no reaction, but the higher yeast content of HBs combined with the heavy yeast in the wheat beers seems to set him off. Yet I'm still baffled by the 6 pack of Michelob Dunkel that didn't cause any problems. Maybe it's unfiltered but still has a nominal amt of yeast compared to HBs and big glasses of bavarian hefes?
Any ideas?