Different kind of buzz??

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Zamial

Zamial

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Hello,
I want to start out by stating I did a search for this topic and while there are a few similar threads none match well enough or answer my question quite right and If this needs to be moved please move it to the appropriate section. Thanks!
I have done small “batch testing” with 2 other people and they tend to agree with me but I am looking for some outside input. I have asked others about this, that brew wine, and they state they have noticed the same thing with the HB wines vs. store bought. I am not trying or advocating anyone drink more alcohol than what they can handle, please be responsible! Also, I am more or less looking for opinions on this and others perceptions of this not a right vs. wrong type of answer!!!
Ok, I seem to get a slightly different “buzz” from my home brews. I am aware that HB’s (mine included) may have a slightly higher alcohol content but then I should just be able to have 5 shots of whiskey in an hour and I should get the same effect but I do not. When I drink 4 HB’s in an hour I get a super nice and clean buzz unlike any alcohol buzz I have ever had. (I was in the military and I drank like it. Drinking is not new to me…) I am wondering if this IS the case with others?


Cheers! :drunk:
 
I've noticed this effect not with homebrew specifically but with different classes of drinks. Red wine often makes me feel tired and irritable whereas a good clean vodka or gin relaxes me. Some high ABV brews give me a "fuzzy" kind of feeling without much buzz... hard to explain. Most good beer gives me a pleasant buzz with a craving for more beer.
 
I have wondered about the Buzz of homebrew myself, but I tend to agree with COLObrewer. I do drink more beer than I use to since I started brewing but its all in the name of research and development :p
 
i dont know what kinds of beers you are making but hops have their own euphoric properties so that a 6% ipa with 50 ibus could give you a different buzz then say a 6% abv porter with only 25 ibus
 
it has to do with your body's reaction to the other proteins in beer vs its reaction to whisky etc. Because a lot of store-bought brews and such have been filtered to a certain extent, your GI tract is going to have a different reaction to them vs something unfiltered. For instance, your pancreas releases certain chemicals in response to different kinds of food, ie high amino acid content vs fat vs sugar. Whiskey is poor in sugar and fat and therefore your GI system will react accordingly. With a 'fuller meal' like beer, your body will increase blood flow and to your GI tract more than for whiskey or filtered beverages and your intestines will absorb more alcohol at a higher rate. Once your liver enzyme's are saturated with ethanol (first pass metabolism) the rest of your body will then start to feel the effects of ethanol intoxication. So, while your tolerance for the same amount of alcohol has not changed, the rate of absorbtion does and therefore you get your effect of HB drunkeness. At least in theory.
-Jefe-
 
I noticed this too, but thought it was only because I brew higher ABV beers than I used to buy. Then I'd drink a six pack of storebought beer of the same ABV and didn't get the same buzz. I thought I was just nuckin futs but I guess not. I also don't get as bad a hangover when I drink HB
 
I am in the group that says it is all in your head. ETOH is ETOH no matter the packaging. You may have different effects to the other ingredients, but they are not the drug.
 
Boerderij_Kabouter said:
I am in the group that says it is all in your head. ETOH is ETOH no matter the packaging. You may have different effects to the other ingredients, but they are not the drug.
Click to expand...

Please, dont take offense...but while you are correct in your statement..it is not applicable to the situation because pharmacokinetics is not just inherently about the chemicals you put in your body. Its about absorption, metabolism, distribution and excretion. Absorption is not static and changes based on the content of your meals, Metabolism changes based on the absorption rate, genetics, and tolerance. All 4 of these factors will affect the way your body reacts to etoh. So while your statement is correct, etoh is etoh, the factors that affect your body's reaction to it are not static. If you directly injected etoh into your blood giving 100% bioavailability, it would not matter if it was beer or whiskey, homebrew or store-bought. But since most of us dont inject etoh into our blood stream the principles of pharmacology rule out vs the principle of placebo.
Change in bolus content--> changes GI enzyme release--> GI bloodflow--> Changes Absorption rate --> changes BAC

So no, etoh is not etoh if you are taking it by mouth.
-Jefe-
-Jefe-
 
Everyone who's ever drank my homebrew's agree they hit harder than commercial beer, why, I don't know. I can drink 3 times the wine it takes to get a homebrew buzz.:drunk:
 
It MUST be because the estrogens in hops are slowly changing us to female so that we don't have as much tollerance . . . . . . . Does my ass look fat in this mirdle?
 
It's true - different alcohols can give you different kinds of effects.

Compounds called congeners (usually present in darker alcohols like red wine, whiskey, and dark beer) contribute to worse alcohol effects. They're byproducts of fermentation - which means you get more of them in beer than, say, vodka.

Carbonation also speeds up alcohol absorption - so that high ABV stout is going to be fun for your liver to process!

Acetaldehyde (brewers know this term) is another poison/toxin in many alcohols. It adds to the hangover and also affects the drunk. Other things like mixing drinks (both with different types of congeners, a la rum and tequila, or with sugary mixers) can impact your buzz, too. Hell, cheap liquors (like bad tequila - the kind that isn't 100% agave - often includes cheap brandy and sugars as fillers) have many more toxins as well.

Aside: Why do people stand for cheap tequila that isn't 100% agave (in other words, not 100% tequila)? Would you buy beer that's not 100% beer and had grain alcohol or sugar added in for flavoring after?

ETOH is ETOH, but it's not the only active compound you're drinking.
 
I've heard that alcohol absorption is also subject to your circadian rhythm, ever notice that a beer or two at lunch time will knock you off your ass, when after dinner you can have six and be fine?
 
Very interesting information in this thread.

I'm the opposite actually. 6 bug light's in an hour and i'm feeling pretty good.
6 home brews of comparable alcohol, and I never get the buzz, just a groggy kind of 'skip the buzz heres DRUNK' feeling
 
I haven't noticed having a different kind of "buzz" while drinking homebrew, but have certainly appreciated the reduced hangovers. I was led to believe this is from the B-vitamin complex present from the brewer's yeast. More b-vitamins=less hungover in the morning.
 
Hmm while all this talk is interesting, I believe even though there are different variables involved when drinking different kinds of alcoholic beverages, all this "all my friends agree with me" type statement is absolute rubbish (along with a lot of the other anecdotal evidence given in this thread)... thats probably because you guys just keep feeding off each other and put ideas into each others head, things like this happen all the time... on the other hand i would be very interested in someone who is qualified (say perhaps with some type of education) in biology to take a second to tell the other 99.9% of us on here who are susceptible to be 'blinded by science' ie. people using terms like "pharmacokinetics" that no one understands.
 
How about a BS in biology, ecology and evolutionary biology and 3 years of medical school? ;) (only one year left) But then again, I could just be supplying anecdotal evidence that I have no experience with. Or maybe I tried to give someone the right direction. Take what you will form what I said. Ive only been in college/med school for 10 years, what do I know.
-Jefe-
 
Boerderij_Kabouter said:
I am in the group that says it is all in your head. ETOH is ETOH no matter the packaging. You may have different effects to the other ingredients, but they are not the drug.
Click to expand...

JefeTheVol said:
Please, dont take offense...but
-Jefe-
Click to expand...

None taken, hopefully none given.

While i recognize that there may be differences in the uptake and that other compounds do affect home ETOH may be absorbed, my point is that the users differentiation is a load of bollucks. I don't know anyone who is either in the liquor industry or well versed in varied drinking who agrees that any certain drink will get you all "messed up".

The "buzz" you get from whiskey is different than from beer because of how much booze you are imbibing. The absorption to me is irrelevant because I am not literally measuring how much ETOH I am starting with, then how much I am absorbing. I am measuring two fingers of Scotch vs. a pint of Bitter. If I drink a corresponding amount of each, I will feel substantially the same.
 
Well,
Ty for all the posts so far! I see that this may have some grounds to stand on. I do think that there is something to this, possibly a combination of a few different things added together. (placebo, hops AA euphoria, Vitamin B and brewers yeast.) and/or this may also only effect some people???

As for the Blanket statement that ETOH is ETOH, chemically this is true but the effects seem to vary for other reasons. I can site a very similar argument that THC is THC but there is a huge difference between the effects of cheapo pressed brown stuff vs. the fluffy "kind" bright green stuff that is covered in crystals vs. the prescription Marinol as far as the effects go, so I am told...yet they are all the THC chemical. I am not trying to change this into a discussion about THC or the illegal use of this substance. I would very much like the topic to stay HB vs. store bought brew and the possible different effects between imbibing the 2. I am just showing that some chemicals do produce effects differently for different reasons other than strength.

I am also going to state that for me this is very subtle, not a major difference, just noticeable.
 
Boerderij_Kabouter said:
None taken, hopefully none given.

While i recognize that there may be differences in the uptake and that other compounds do affect home ETOH may be absorbed, my point is that the users differentiation is a load of bollucks. I don't know anyone who is either in the liquor industry or well versed in varied drinking who agrees that any certain drink will get you all "messed up".

The "buzz" you get from whiskey is different than from beer because of how much booze you are imbibing. The absorption to me is irrelevant because I am not literally measuring how much ETOH I am starting with, then how much I am absorbing. I am measuring two fingers of Scotch vs. a pint of Bitter. If I drink a corresponding amount of each, I will feel substantially the same.
Click to expand...

I agree that EtOH affects all walks of life a little differently and that, subjectively, to you, it might not matter what bolus of alcoholic beverage you are taking. But to the some others, I merely stated the physiological facts that would explain others' experiences with different beverages. To say its completely neurological and fabricated by your psyche would be naive. I provided physiological facts that would explain the different ammounts of EtOH that would reach your CNS based on the type of bolus ingested and help explain the differences perceived by the OP. I didnt make anything up but again, I cant provide evidence of bolus vs CNS EtOH delivery in the literature, I merely extrapolated on already available evidence involving other drugs. The literature I read doesnt really care about the short term effects of drinking. :mug:
-Jefe-
 
I had a firefighter friend over once when I first started brewing. He's a rather large fellow...6'3" and 300+lbs. He can drink a case of BMC just to start getting a buzz.

After five 12oz bottles of <5% brew (over the course of several hours), his speech was slurred and he was giggly like a little school girl. This man was drunk! :ban:

I did not over hype my beer. In fact, I down played it and confirmed that it was about the same strength as what he normally drinks. To this day he still likes to tell that story when someone new comes over for a brew.
 
Drank a few Belgians at a local bar, The Busy Bee last year. Both my friend and I noticed a way different buzz. They were high gravity Dubbels. Have not noticed it from my home brews yet though. Maybe I will on my next batch which is a dubbel.
 
Zamial said:
Hello,
I want to start out by stating I did a search for this topic and while there are a few similar threads none match well enough or answer my question quite right and If this needs to be moved please move it to the appropriate section. Thanks!
I have done small &#8220;batch testing&#8221; with 2 other people and they tend to agree with me but I am looking for some outside input. I have asked others about this, that brew wine, and they state they have noticed the same thing with the HB wines vs. store bought. I am not trying or advocating anyone drink more alcohol than what they can handle, please be responsible! Also, I am more or less looking for opinions on this and others perceptions of this not a right vs. wrong type of answer!!!
Ok, I seem to get a slightly different &#8220;buzz&#8221; from my home brews. I am aware that HB&#8217;s (mine included) may have a slightly higher alcohol content but then I should just be able to have 5 shots of whiskey in an hour and I should get the same effect but I do not. When I drink 4 HB&#8217;s in an hour I get a super nice and clean buzz unlike any alcohol buzz I have ever had. (I was in the military and I drank like it. Drinking is not new to me&#8230;) I am wondering if this IS the case with others?


Cheers! :drunk:
Click to expand...

I'm new to brewing and drank my batch over the weekend. Well for one my beer gets me a buzz after like 3 of them whereas it takes me a six pack normally of some beers to even give me a buz. Then i relized the buzz was alot different. Even the drunkeness was alot different then regulary. I think it has alot to do with the carbonation and sugar content.

I feel like non home brewed beers have lots of adjunc in them. I feel like that has A LOT to do with it.

Also my friends said the same thing about the beer I made.
 
JefeTheVol said:
I agree that EtOH affects all walks of life a little differently and that, subjectively, to you, it might not matter what bolus of alcoholic beverage you are taking. But to the some others, I merely stated the physiological facts that would explain others' experiences with different beverages. To say its completely neurological and fabricated by your psyche would be naive. I provided physiological facts that would explain the different ammounts of EtOH that would reach your CNS based on the type of bolus ingested and help explain the differences perceived by the OP. I didnt make anything up but again, I cant provide evidence of bolus vs CNS EtOH delivery in the literature, I merely extrapolated on already available evidence involving other drugs. The literature I read doesnt really care about the short term effects of drinking. :mug:
-Jefe-
Click to expand...

so in your expertise would you say that drinking different kinds of booze will lead to "significantly" (ie. easily noticeable/observable) differences in 'buzz'. And when i say different i mean it not in the sense of more or less drunk but as in a different form of buzz, which is what I believe the OP meant by different as well. Much in the same way that different kinds of drugs give different 'highs' not just degrees of the same high. or are all these variables between say beer and whiskey just minor differences that no reasonable person could claim to actually feel the difference between them (i obviously mean this in the sense that if the psychological ie. convincing oneself, could be taken out of the equation, that it really noticeably exists)

sorry if that was too wordy, but I am trying to be clear... please Jefe do your best to respond
 
bdleedahl said:
so in your expertise would you say that drinking different kinds of booze will lead to "significantly" (ie. easily noticeable/observable) differences in 'buzz'. And when i say different i mean it not in the sense of more or less drunk but as in a different form of buzz, which is what I believe the OP meant by different as well. Much in the same way that different kinds of drugs give different 'highs' not just degrees of the same high. or are all these variables between say beer and whiskey just minor differences that no reasonable person could claim to actually feel the difference between them (i obviously mean this in the sense that if the psychological ie. convincing oneself, could be taken out of the equation, that it really noticeably exists)

sorry if that was too wordy, but I am trying to be clear... please Jefe do your best to respond
Click to expand...

I cant comment on the subjective experiences of one high vs the another, just what I said before...different bolus, causes different absorbent rates which could help to explain the different CNS response from the OP's point of view. I am merely talking about alcohol delivery to the CNS which can be physiologically explained in the average person. Individual tolerances and responses are just that, individual, and would be impossible to generalize.
-Jefe-
 
I definitely agree with the OP. I feel a very different euphoric effect from the HB versus commercial brew.

Could it be the B vitamins in there?
 
JefeTheVol said:
different bolus, causes different absorbent rates
Click to expand...

Unless I missed something in the thread I didn't see any mention of different bolus. We're talking about administering the alcohol in the same way (bolus), which is by drinking it. Are you home brewers using HB enemas? :cross:

I'm not buying the different buzzes from home brew vs. store bought beer of the same or similar ABV and malt profile.
 
NorCalAngler said:
I'm not buying the different buzzes from home brew vs. store bought beer of the same or similar ABV and malt profile.
Click to expand...

agreed, I'm not buying the different buzzes at all. I always hated when friends would say something like "drinking whiskey makes me crazy" or "whenever i drink whiskey i want to fight" ... such differences in buzzes do not exist
 
bumping a way old thread, but because i had an aventinus eisbock for the first time in ages. im in beer hell, south korea and it's a rare, rare occasion when i can get something like this. also homebrew season is just on the verge of beginning.
the buzz i get from this is very, very different from anything else and highly pleasant. to add to this i supposed, the belgians i made last using t-58 gave me a similar, but lesser buzz.
i'd say i get a more openly, mentally active buzz from homebrew and a beer like aventinus (heady, strong, unfiltered).
 

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