Some kinds of beer give me headaches...why?

There are some types of beer that give me a headache, even if I only have one or two. Lleinenkugel, cheap malt liquor, Mike's Hard Lemonade, and Michelob Ice are some on the list.

What is in these types of beer that are not in others? I need to know what to avoid in making my home brews. I've been concerned about this when considering alcohol boosters.

Some people say this doesn't matter and the issue is psychological, but drinking Budweiser products gives me a headache.

Obvious craft beer / home brewer jokes aside.. Budweiser uses rice in a lot of their light lagers, and apparently some people can have this reaction to beers brewed with rice. It's been a long time since I did any research on it, but I think I recall it having to do with higher levels of sulfites in beers made from significant portions of rice.

Either way, I've avoided Budweiser products for a long time and becoming a beer snob just gave me another reason to avoid their products almost entirely.

Note that most Miller products do not give me this reaction.

My mom and step dad claim that all draft beers give them bad headaches. Although its probably the places they go to dont clean their lines. But I see no reason that draft beer would cause headaches when the same brand in a bottle wouldn't.

I get a bad headache every time I drink new Belgium’s Ranger IPA. I have narrowed it down, it has happened three times in a row. The last time I solely drank that beer, and it is almost immediate, I wonder what they put in it that is not my cup of tea.

It's a hard theory to proove but this happens to me too! My theory is that stuff that gives you a headache contains more unwanted alcohols ( methanol ect ) and maybe draft gives you a head hurtin more because it's bottom vat beer ( so I've been told by my cousin who worked at a brewery ) and maybe the unwanted alcohols accumulate in the bottom more

Yeah I was thinking it might be fusel alcohols, especially with the malt liquor and "ice" beers these are in higher concentration. I am sure Mike's Hard Lemonade is a malt liquor beverage, too, along with e.g. smirnoff ice. I have never had the Leinenkugel so I am not sure about that one.

its Gods way of punishing you for drinking **** beer.

I thought i was the only wierdo. I asked around on here regarding the same thing. I linked my headache to the dunkel lager i brewed, however got no confirmation of why. It happened twice when i had a home mixer pack, then it happened again when i had just one beer which was the dunkel. I thought maybe it had an infection

bud gives me an instant headache. This years SA octoberfest did too initially but after sitting a month it doesn't. I usually buy old milwaukee or bass when I buy. The old mil is no headache and very consistent cheap beer. I'd like to know about the bud so I can avoid it as well.

adanac58 said:

maybe draft gives you a head hurtin more because it's bottom vat beer ( so I've been told by my cousin who worked at a brewery ) and maybe the unwanted alcohols accumulate in the bottom more

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i'm a professional brewer at a craft brewery and that simply makes no sense...

ive asked this question for years about beer until i started making my own many years ago and havent bought beer for a while and havnt had this problem. im not some from the earth freak or a organic person but whatever alot of these big brewers are doing to there version of beer is a crime and is the reason for the hangovers and ****ts people get from drinking there product.

What about tannins?
They're the reason some people get instant headaches from red wine, I've been told.
How to get tannins in beer? Oversparging to achieve insane efficiencies would be one way.

i used to get headaches from Sprite, but not so much anymore...

I have also heard that fusel alcohols can make hangovers worse, but most likely other factors contribute alot more i.e. how tired or dehydrated you are on a particular day. Any personal experience is likely to be heavily psychosomatic / influenced by confirmation bias.

dedhedjed said:

i'm a professional brewer at a craft brewery and that simply makes no sense...

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Really? It does to me.. Maybe read it over again and say the words sloooowly

DonnieZ said:

Some people say this doesn't matter and the issue is psychological, but drinking Budweiser products gives me a headache.

Obvious craft beer / home brewer jokes aside.. Budweiser uses rice in a lot of their light lagers, and apparently some people can have this reaction to beers brewed with rice. It's been a long time since I did any research on it, but I think I recall it having to do with higher levels of sulfites in beers made from significant portions of rice.

Either way, I've avoided Budweiser products for a long time and becoming a beer snob just gave me another reason to avoid their products almost entirely.

Note that most Miller products do not give me this reaction.

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I drank Budweiser for years and didn't have any issues with it. I switched to keeping Bud Light around a few years ago and now, if I have any more than a couple normal Budweisers, I get headaches.

My father is a Miller Lite drinker and although I don't get headaches from it, it leaves me queasy after a couple.

That being said, I brew 'Cream of Three Crops' pretty often. Enough that I usually always have some on hand. The recipe uses Minute Rice and I don't have any issues with it in regards to headaches or queasiness.

Yeah I was thinking it might be fusel alcohols, especially with the malt liquor and "ice" beers these are in higher concentration.

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This sounds about right to me. Not that it is a poor quality or anything (like tannins), but a bad 'kind' of alcohol.

How do i make sure my beers never have fusel alcohols?

Sometimes I go downtown to the supply store to get copper or stainless parts and they always chit chat about beer. One guy there says he was told by a foreign brewer that kegged beer contains preservatives and that's why he gets headaches from drinking it.

Seriously, this guy claims he gets headaches from keg beer, but not bottled beer... And this guy in Holland told him it was the preservatives.

So Bud puts formaldehyde in their kegs??

Certain craft breweries, okay just one, give me a headache nearly every time I have any of their brews. No idea what it is, but by the time I get through one glass a sharp headache starts building. Good news is that after 5-6 the headache goes away. Bad news is that it comes back the next morning....Kyle

This thread is giving me a headache!

I have noticed more headaches when drinking my homebrews over the last couple weeks... I'm putting this one solely on my cold, rather than the beer.

I have noticed that I feel "off" (not hung over, per se) the morning after drinking Bass while an equal amount of other, similar beers do not cause the problem. Even just a couple (2-3) caused this problem. I haven't touched a Bass Ale in years.

I've got high hopes for my bitter (bottled yesterday), though!!

As far as I know fusel alcohols do increase hangover symptoms and fusel alcohol production is determined by the yeast strain and fermentation environment. That is one reason why Budweiser will give you more ofa headache, due to there large production fermentation vessels and the added pressure this causes on the yeast.

And furthermore about the keg, it is common practice for some breweries to add stabilizers, not preservatives, to their keg beers. I can't remember what the most common stabilizer is, but a simple google search will give you an answer.

I can't say that I've ever gotten an "instant" headache from any beer.

I have had quite a few stingers the next morning though.

So far I an unable to find any stabilizer or additive in keg beer on google. As far as I can see, the main difference might be pasteurization. This may indicate a correlation between keg beer and headaches if the keg beer doesn't have it's "whatever it is" killed by pasteurization.

i doubt they do anything different. why would they? i don't

More typical for beer is adsorption of protein by silica gel or the adsorption of polyphenol with PVPP (trade name Polyclar). Polyclar Plus contains both PVPP and silica gel in combination, giving the best of both worlds. The most common treatment for conventional brewers is the use of silicated auxiliary finings, which is very effective at removing protein. Silicated in this sense is not the same as silica gel, but refers to acidified sodium silicate.

This is a common practice for stabilizing beer in kegs.

Quote taken from practical brewer

Histamine (and other biogenic amines) are the culprit for a lot of folks. It/they are produced during fermentation and I read one study where histamine levels increased significantly when draft equipment was not cleaned/sanitized on a regular basis. That could be the reason some folks only get "draft beer" headaches.

Malolactic fermentation in red wine can produce pretty significant levels of histamine also because bacteria is used (O. oeni). I would imagine that beer produced using any type of bacteria (Lacto, etc.) would also exhibit higher levels.

I didn't read all the responses in this topic, so pardon me if this has been asked.
First, a quick background story.
My dad never talks about his Vietnam days. Its just one of the things that I have never pushed. However, the last time he visited me, we got to talking about beer. I had never seen my dad take a drink until that day, and that's all he took was one drink.
Anyway, he told me about being station in Germany for a little while during the war. He said that he pretty much got hammered every night, but he never got a hangover or as much as a headache from drinking (in his words) good German beer.
Once he got back state side, he couldn't drink an American beer without getting a horrible hangover. He specifically mentioned Budweiser.
I know much of this would most likely depend on individual body chemistry, but could the chemicals that lead to hangovers vary geographically? Based on water chemistry maybe?

Pabst Blue Ribbon = headache every time!

dallasdb said:

Pabst Blue Ribbon = headache every time!

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I am terribly sorry. Pabst is one of the greatest commercial beers imo, the best 30 rack. I have a friend who gets a headache after even one budweiser or budlight. Freshman year in college he would freak out and not drink with us when wed forget and get bud.

jgerard said:

I am terribly sorry. Pabst is one of the greatest commercial beers imo, the best 30 rack. I have a friend who gets a headache after even one budweiser or budlight. Freshman year in college he would freak out and not drink with us when wed forget and get bud.

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The headache from Pabst only occurred after a night of Pabst first, margaritas second, throwing up third!

I feel i am much more likely to have a headache from draft beer then bottle beer. However i usually dont count the extra 4 ounces in a pint glass

rycov said:

its gods way of punishing you for drinking **** beer.

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Nice.

This always happened to me as well, usually when drinking some kind of Bud product. I'd always end up with a headache before I was even able to catch a buzz.

beefeater's response makes a lot of sense to me..hell, wikipedia has an entire page for "red wine headaches" and I would imagine that the mega-breweries try to strive for getting the most efficient extraction possible to save money. That being said, as bad as Bud is, I don't recall it ever having that bitter-tannic taste to it. Haven't had one in a while though.

Just my two cents.

Interestingly enough, I have had a total of three beers, two yesterday and one today, from a batch of a nut brown clone and for two days in a row, within a few minutes of the first drink, I have a headache. I don't notice anything out of the ordinary with the flavor, in fact, it's pretty good!

This 'instant headache' thing kinda sux...

I get headaches from non-diet soda, sugary mixed drinks, and Leinenkugel's. I think for me it's just a lot of raw sugar doesn't agree with me.

Oh, and I get headaches from Victory beers which doesn't seem to make sense to me.

isn't dehydration the big cause of headaches from drinking alcohol?

YNOT2K said:

isn't dehydration the big cause of headaches from drinking alcohol?

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Yes but typically for me at least that comes after drinking. I don't normally get headaches while drinking unless I'm consuming a lot of sugar.

adanac58 said:

and maybe the unwanted alcohols accumulate in the bottom more

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Density of water (1 gm/cm^3) is greater than that of ethanol and fusel alcohols (~0.7-0.85 gm/cm^3). Therefore the "unwanted alcohols" should only affect the people who cash the keg.

Note to self. Don't cash the keg.

Edit: It's science.

I've heard a lot of people make this claim. No one who frequents good beer bars though.

dlaramie08 said:

My mom and step dad claim that all draft beers give them bad headaches. Although its probably the places they go to dont clean their lines. But I see no reason that draft beer would cause headaches when the same brand in a bottle wouldn't.

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TheWall said:

Density of water (1 gm/cm^3) is greater than that of ethanol and fusel alcohols (~0.7-0.85 gm/cm^3). Therefore the "unwanted alcohols" should only affect the people who cash the keg.

Note to self. Don't cash the keg.

Edit: It's science.

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Alcohols are completely miscible with water. Beer is a homogeneous solution, you're not going to get any kind of layering effect (any kind of sediment from being unfiltered disregarded).


But on topic, instead of headaches I get what some could call cotton mouth from drinking light beers. Like I need a Gatorade or Coke in between beers to keep from feeling dehydrated while I'm drinking. That never happens to me while drinking 98% of craft/homebrew beers though.

Hello fellow homebrewers.

Every time I drink a beer with corn or rice I get nasty headaches/ hangovers. A fellow homebrewer along time ago told me that it not the alcohol that gives you the headaches, it the impurities in the alcohol. Barley malt produces the cleanest alcohol of all the grains with the least amount of impurities. I don't know if this true or not. But I've never had headaches/ hangovers with all barley beers. Distillers when making distilled alcohol do double or triple distillations to remove impurities. I haven't found any other explantion for the headaches/hangovers. so I stay away from beers that contain corn or rice in them.

phenry said:

Alcohols are completely miscible with water. Beer is a homogeneous solution, you're not going to get any kind of layering effect (any kind of sediment from being unfiltered disregarded).

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Sorry, I'll put a sarcasm label at the bottom of my posts from now on. And yes what you've stated is true. I was not trying to be beer-olitically (not a real word) correct with my post. My apologies.