killer homebrew hangovers

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fultonhopper

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I have done some experimenting and noticed that everytime I drink homebrew in excess, I get unbelieveable hangovers that last about a day.....much more severe then the typical beer hangover.

Does anyone know why this happens and/or what can be done about it? I know that I could always just drink less of it, but that would not be practical:)
 
we could use a little more info, type of beer, alcohol content, age of the beers.
 
Maybe you're fermenting really hot and getting fusels, but the B-complex vitamins in the yeast seem to keep me hangover free, and I've gotten a hangover from as few as 2 beers before.
 
Maybe you're fermenting really hot and getting fusels, but the B-complex vitamins in the yeast seem to keep me hangover free, and I've gotten a hangover from as few as 2 beers before.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I drink homebrew daily, and often times I drink too much. I have never, ever had a homebrew hangover. I do get hangovers from commercial beers, though- wicked bad headaches if I forget that I'm drinking commercial beer and drink more than even a couple.

If you ferment at cool temperatures, and allow it to finish, and use only malt (no extra fermentables like table sugar), you should be golden.

Could you tell us a typical process/recipe and see if we can see something that might be causing some fusel alcohols or other issues?
 
Another thing that no one ever seems to consider...If you are use to drinking a commercial beer especially a BMC product with an ABV of under 5% and slamming a few of them...Unless you are brewing session beers then the ABV of yours will be significantly higher...So if you drink the same amount as you would a BMC, and you aren't used to it,then I could see how possibly you'd get a hangover...

Most of my ales begin in the 5.5 % range, and have many in the 6-7%
 
i have also noticed the lack of hangovers when drinking pure homebrew, but i have also noticed if i am pounding homebrew and it gets late and i decide to grab just one or two bud lights, i'll be a goner the next day...
 
I've never gotten hangovers from beer [homebrew or otherwise]. Even this past wknd when I drank excessive amounts of homebrew into the wee hours of the night, I didn't get a hangover. What I've noticed tho is that I have a lot dreams [and weird dreams at that] whenever I drink homebrew.
 
lower your fermentation temperatures and cut down on your ABV. make some session beers that are in the 3-4% range, that way you can just pound them down. give your beer time to ferment out completely and properly condition.
 
My last batch was a golden ale. After steeping my bag of crystal malt, I boiled 5 pounds of light DME and 3/4 oz hops. I used SmackPack yeast, and achieved active fermentation in about 8 hours. I left it in the primary for about a week at 70-75 degrees, then transferred it to a secondary with 1/2 oz of hops for another week at the same temperature before kegging. it was about 5 percent abv. I left it in the keg for about another week to carbonate. It tasted awesome, as homebrews often do, but gave me a rockin' headache.
 
My last batch was a golden ale. After steeping my bag of crystal malt, I boiled 5 pounds of light DME and 3/4 oz hops. I used SmackPack yeast, and achieved active fermentation in about 8 hours. I left it in the primary for about a week at 70-75 degrees, then transferred it to a secondary with 1/2 oz of hops for another week at the same temperature before kegging. it was about 5 percent abv. I left it in the keg for about another week to carbonate. It tasted awesome, as homebrews often do, but gave me a rockin' headache.


Well, 75 is pretty high temperature for an ale- and often times the temperature is much higher in the fermenter than the ambient air temperature. Was the 75 degrees ambient air temperature, or the temperature of the beer in the carboy?

What kind of yeast did you use? You didnt' use a starter, right, just pitched it in there?
 
the air temperature got up to 75, and I did not make a starter. I just pitched the yeast into the wort.
 
i have also noticed the lack of hangovers when drinking pure homebrew, but i have also noticed if i am pounding homebrew and it gets late and i decide to grab just one or two bud lights, i'll be a goner the next day...

THAT is why Bud Lights will NEVER be in my fridge!
 
My last batch was a golden ale. After steeping my bag of crystal malt, I boiled 5 pounds of light DME and 3/4 oz hops. I used SmackPack yeast, and achieved active fermentation in about 8 hours. I left it in the primary for about a week at 70-75 degrees, then transferred it to a secondary with 1/2 oz of hops for another week at the same temperature before kegging. it was about 5 percent abv. I left it in the keg for about another week to carbonate. It tasted awesome, as homebrews often do, but gave me a rockin' headache.

My first brew was a golden ale that was fermented at about 75 degrees (heck, probably even a little higher) and used Safale S-04 dry ale yeast. Maybe I was excited about drinking my first beer and drank too many or it really did have something in it that made it more "toxic," for lack of a better term, but I remember it giving me a few more headaches than some of my more recent batches.
 
the air temperature got up to 75, and I did not make a starter. I just pitched the yeast into the wort.

I'm guessing that if the air temp was 75, your beer was chugging along upwards of 80, which could produce some fusel alcohols, which mean nasty hangovers. My fermentation room, like yours is at about 75 at the moment, and here's what I do to cool down the beer while the magic happens:

1: I bought a keg bucket (under 10 bucks), set the fermenter in it, and filled it up about 18" with water. Wrap a towel around the fermenter so it wicks water up to to the top (I dunk the towel in the water to give it a head start). Point a fan at the fermenter in the bucket to accelerate evaporation- if your ambient humidity is below 50% or so, that will cool the beer down 5-10 degrees. This is called a swamp cooler, and it works.

2: I just fermented a fairly big beer (higher gravity = more heat), so I took a couple of the cheapo tupperware containers that lunchmeat comes in these days, filled them with water and froze them. I rotate them between the freezer and the keg bucket to knock a few more degrees off the temperature.

Between those two measures, I fermented a 1.074 OG beer and kept it at 68F the whole time. Not a lot of trouble or money (I'm a Ph.D. student, so I can afford neither at the moment). Like I said before, I get hungover really easily, but my homebrews don't do it to me. I hope the advice you get on this forum gets you to the same place.
 
Simple....homebrew tastes much better therefore you drink more of them...:rockin:
 
Agreed if the air was 75 you may have been fermenting in the 80's

I had an ale that fermented at about 78 or so during a warm spell and ill tell u after 8-9 of those the next morning your head would be a wee bit sore

On the bright side they tasted pretty good :D
 
Whenever I start drinking I notice that I get dry-mouth really quickly and then I keep on drinking to keep it from coming back (which is not a problem). But when consuming homebrews I've noticed that that does not happen, and Ive never woken up the following morning with it either (cause thats usually what gets me up wwaaayy sooner than I want to after a night of drinking.) Since I dont usually get hangovers, I guess this is my benefit of drinking homebrew!
 
I don't think I've ever had a hangover from homebrew, but then again I don't think I've ever really been drunk on it.

This is not a moral issue; I have been snot-hammered on other things just not homebrew. I think homebrew fullfills a different psychological purpose for me.

I also find that hangovers are far easier to catch and feel worse now that I am on the wrong side of 40.
 
I just started brewing again after a layoff of a few years. When I got the first batch in the primary, I put it in a closet in my office, which sadly that room gets a lot of direct sunlight, ergo a lot of heat. While this IPA tastes great, I've noticed that after just 1 of these beers the night before, I'm getting a little bit of a headache and fatigue the next day. DAMN!

So, now I am fermenting in my walk-in closet which has an AC vent. The ambient temp stays around 70 - 72*, so while this should hopefully prevent the creation of fusel alcohol, it's still not ideal.

I'll be moving to a chest freezer with a temperature controller ASAP, that's for sure.
 
Another thing that I can't believe no one has mentioned is the role hydration and many other factors play in causing hangovers and headaches. If you aren't drinking at least as much water (if not double) as the amount of beer you're drinking, you're asking for a hangover of some degree. I know that I'll get headaches simply from dehydration, so couple that with beer, and you'll be having trouble.
 
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