i poisoned myself

[misteradam]

i don't know what happened. i've been drinking my 2nd batch for a few weeks now, a cream stout. the fermenting went a little awry and i added amylase enzyme to it.

it was all fun and games until tonight. after 3 beers it hit me like a fire truck. ( i've had 3 of these before many times ) felt like i'd downed a 12 pack, i've been puking all night. i'm afraid to touch the beer again.

the last beer i drank fizzed over when i opened it. i should have known something wasn't right.

 

[Runyanka]

Blaim it on the food you ate, not the beer

 

[beerthirty]

Likely it wasn't the beer. Not much can survive in beer that would be harmful to you. Since you have downed the same amount of the same brew before makes it even less likely. I would put it off to swine flu or some other ailment before condemning your beer. Gushers normally taste bad not make you feel bad.

 

[Pappers_]

Sorry, sounds like no fun. I go with the advice above, likely you had a bug or ate something, less likely that its the beer.

 

[Borisbbadd]

I agree with the others, probably not the beer.

 

[Bernie Brewer]

No probably about it, it ain't the beer. No known pathogen can live in beer. Sorry you're sick, though. Get well soon!

 

[HOOTER]

I would put it off to swine flu or some other ailment

I agree. Definitely the swine flu. You may die, but your beer is fine!

 

[kidoduck]

My second batch has some clarity issues, so every bottle has a little sediment. But about three beers I've pulled from the case have had a little blackish clump in the sediment. One of them fizzed like crazy when I opened it, they all smelled really yeasty.
When you say "No known pathogen can live in beer", surely you don't mean you'd take a chance of drinking the top layer off something like that?

 

[Bernie Brewer]

I mean it might taste like the ass end of a skunk, but it won't make you sick. Unless you get so druck you start puking like a sorority pledge at her first house party.

 

[brian_g]

I'm wondering why you felt the need to add amylase enzyme. The only way amylase enzyme could help a fermentation is if you already had problems with the mash. Was this all grain or a partial mash? You shouldn't need to do this on an extract recipe.

 

[snipper_cr]

As others have said, its probably not the beer BUT (and hopefully not) you might not be able to drink that type of beer again. Its called Taste Aversion and I've had it on multiple occasions. Once with alcohol, when I started drinking, I used to LOVE Jack Daniels wiskey. One night, Ol' Jack and I got into a fight and, well, Jack came out the better man. All night paying homage to the porcelain god and a morning cursing Tennessee. Turns out, after that the simple THOUGHT of Jack Daniels made my stomach clench up. For a while, I wasnt able to drink ANYTHING hard. In fact, thats what drove me to beer and why i prefer it still. I can drink hard alcohol again but still not Jack Daniels (or any whiskey for that matter).

Slight digression and more just a off topic 2 cents. cause I've been doing too much tonight.

 

[carnevoodoo]

As others have said, its probably not the beer BUT (and hopefully not) you might not be able to drink that type of beer again. Its called Taste Aversion and I've had it on multiple occasions. Once with alcohol, when I started drinking, I used to LOVE Jack Daniels wiskey. One night, Ol' Jack and I got into a fight and, well, Jack came out the better man. All night paying homage to the porcelain god and a morning cursing Tennessee. Turns out, after that the simple THOUGHT of Jack Daniels made my stomach clench up. For a while, I wasnt able to drink ANYTHING hard. In fact, thats what drove me to beer and why i prefer it still. I can drink hard alcohol again but still not Jack Daniels (or any whiskey for that matter).

Slight digression and more just a off topic 2 cents. cause I've been doing too much tonight.

This almost happened to me once. I got horrible food poisoning after drinking like 4 IIPAs and I was just vomiting hops. I gave myself 2 months to deal and then forced myself back into it. I wasn't going to have that ruined for me.

 

[mkorpal]

The only possible thing I can think if would be a sudden onset of yeast allergies. I'm not even sure if it's possible.

 

[beerkrump]

I was just vomiting hops.

Dry hop heaving?

 

[Revvy]

If you think you got FOOD Poisoning or something like that, look to another source, NOT your beer..

If there was stuff that could live in beer and kill you, the human race would have died out a hell of a long time ago! If something toxic could come from our homebrewing, it wouldn't be a legal hobby!


I came across this from a pretty well known and award winning homebrewer railing against a fellow brewer (it was on one of those "color coded" brewboards where they are a little less friendly than we are.) I just cut and pasted it and stuck it in a file...here it is.

Can you get a PATHOGEN from beer. No. NO *NO* Did I make that clear? You have a ZERO chance of pathogens in beer, wine, distilled beverages. PERIOD!

Pathogens are described as organisms that are harmful and potentially life threatening to humans. These are some 1400+ known species overall encompasing viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and helminths. Of that group, we are only interested in those that can be foodborne. Quite simply, if it can't survive in food, it isn't in beer. That knocks out all but bacteria and fungi. Viruses need very specific circumstances to be passed around... like on the lip of a glass or bottle, not the beer in it. **Ahhh...CHOOO!**

Pathogens as a rule are very fastidious beasts. Meaning that they want very specific temperatures, acidity, nutrients and other conditions to thrive.

Bacteria that *could* live in wort, cannot survive even a little bit of fermentation. There are several reasons for this. One is in the 'magic' of hops. It is the isomerized alpha acids that provide a preservative effect to the beer, which happens to inhibit pathogens! Good deal for fresh wort!

Another reason is the drop in pH from fermentation. Next, yeast emit their own enzymes and byproducts, all in an effort to make the environment hostile to other creatures. The major one is alcohol, of course, but their enzymes will break down less vigorous organisms and they become sources of trace nutrition. Now the latter is very minor compared to the effect of alcohol, but it exists! Most of the time these enzymes work on the wort, not organisms until late in the process. Good deal for beer! ...uh, wine too.

Oh, Botulism specifically... did you know that this is an anaerobic pathogen? It's toxin is one of the few that is broken down by boiling. Did you know tht it is strongly inhibited by isomerized alpha acids, even in water? Since fresh wort has a healthy amount of oxygen in it, the beastie cannot even get started, then once the O2 is used up, it doesn't have a chance against the hops or the yeast.

All that is left are a handful of acid producing bacteria that'll ruin a batch of beer. Overall, there are less than 200 organisms that can survive in beer and lend flavor effects. None of these for very long, or very often. Lambic being the sole exception, and if pathogens *could* survive, that'd be the style where you find 'em.

Sorry, it ain't possible to get "food Poisoning " from beer....nor a "yeast infection" like some people actually believe.....You could have an allergy to ingredients like gluten or yeast, but that would spill over to OTHER things like bread, or other types of beer.....

We get these sort of superstitious threads quite alot....I know you all think this is such a mysterious endeavor, making beer..But it is actually more benign than some cooking (like using mayonaise in potato salad, or handling chicken/salmonilla)

That stuff is more dangerous than making and drinking our homebrew....in fact a big part of making beer is early times was because you could get sick from drinking the water. But the boiling of the water and the adding of the alpha acids from the hops KILL OFF ANYTHING THAT COULD MAKE US SICK.

So please, rather than blame homebrew, look at what else you consumed over that time....

 

[LibertyBrewer]

As others have said, its probably not the beer BUT (and hopefully not) you might not be able to drink that type of beer again. Its called Taste Aversion and I've had it on multiple occasions. Once with alcohol, when I started drinking, I used to LOVE Jack Daniels wiskey. One night, Ol' Jack and I got into a fight and, well, Jack came out the better man. All night paying homage to the porcelain god and a morning cursing Tennessee. Turns out, after that the simple THOUGHT of Jack Daniels made my stomach clench up. For a while, I wasnt able to drink ANYTHING hard. In fact, thats what drove me to beer and why i prefer it still. I can drink hard alcohol again but still not Jack Daniels (or any whiskey for that matter).

Slight digression and more just a off topic 2 cents. cause I've been doing too much tonight.

This happened to me. Not with alcohol, but with italian sausage. It's been about 10 years, but to this day, the smell of italian sausage, makes me nauseous. It took me a while to be able to stomach brats. Even brats cooked in beer.

 

[MMW]

This happened to me. Not with alcohol, but with italian sausage. It's been about 10 years, but to this day, the smell of italian sausage, makes me nauseous. It took me a while to be able to stomach brats. Even brats cooked in beer.

Chicken Salad. I can't even look at a can of chicken and it's been almost 15 years.

 

[registereduser]

Its called Taste Aversion and I've had it on multiple occasions. Once with alcohol, when I started drinking, I used to LOVE Jack Daniels wiskey. One night, Ol' Jack and I got into a fight and, well, Jack came out the better man. All night paying homage to the porcelain god and a morning cursing Tennessee. Turns out, after that the simple THOUGHT of Jack Daniels made my stomach clench up. For a while, I wasnt able to drink ANYTHING hard.

I've got a similar story, which has resulted in me absolutely despising cider.

 

[buzzkill]

this is why I can't drink natty light,or any cheap swill. was sick for 3 days from that night. so it wasnt all bad.

 

[Clayton]

ok buck up you sissy's!
if i quit eating a drinking every think that i
have violently puked up, there would be little
I could still eat or drink.

At this point i would have to get my weekly menu
made by anthony bourdain & andrew zimmern.

 

[snipper_cr]

A little FYI reading on the topic
Taste aversion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So even if our beers get "infected" and have stuff growing on them, it is not harmful to humans? That was always my big fears and encouragements to make sure I REALLY sanitize stuff.

 

[carnevoodoo]

A little FYI reading on the topic
Taste aversion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So even if our beers get "infected" and have stuff growing on them, it is not harmful to humans? That was always my big fears and encouragements to make sure I REALLY sanitize stuff.

It isn't harmful, but your beer will not be drinkable. It will smell like rotting ass and you will have wasted your money and effort on making it. Sanitation is important.

 

[Rick500]

<--Taste aversion to Sam Adams Black Lager. Stuff isn't all that great going down, much worse coming back up.

 

[Synovia]

Turns out, after that the simple THOUGHT of Jack Daniels made my stomach clench up. For a while, I wasnt able to drink ANYTHING hard. In fact, thats what drove me to beer and why i prefer it still. I can drink hard alcohol again but still not Jack Daniels (or any whiskey for that matter).

21st birthday, whiskey, still have trouble with the burn of any hard stuff making me almost gag.

 

[EvilTOJ]

I had a taste aversion to whisky for about a year. I can drink it now, but it took a long time. I can't ever drink tequila though, since I've thrown up every time I've tried it.

 

[womencantsail]

It's whisky for me as well. Bourbon, if you want to get picky about it.

The smell of the stuff makes me want to puke. Strangely, I've had a few beers that were aged in Bourbon barrels and I found them to be delicious. But the real stuff...

 

[BADS197]

i don't know what happened. i've been drinking my 2nd batch for a few weeks now, a cream stout. the fermenting went a little awry and i added amylase enzyme to it.

it was all fun and games until tonight. after 3 beers it hit me like a fire truck. ( i've had 3 of these before many times ) felt like i'd downed a 12 pack, i've been puking all night. i'm afraid to touch the beer again.

the last beer i drank fizzed over when i opened it. i should have known something wasn't right.

I'm going to have to go with the general vote here, that it wasn't the beer that did you in.

A bad allergy to Yeast or something you ate.


Alcohol and the acidity of the hops is definately not the place for germs/virals to live.

I made a batch of Heather Ale and it spoiled/got infected and was very sour... I drank a bit of it and it was alcohol but tasted nasty to me. I tossed it except for a case of 22's in the hopes that a miracle would happen. I didn't however get sick from it.

 

[pingi]

I brewed a cream ale friday evening. 8 hours later my blowoff was going crazy.3 days later, no bubbles. could fermentation be complete in 3 days? heres the recipe:

5# American pale malt
3.3 # light LME
12oz honey malt
4oz bicuit malt

.75oz willamete (60min)

 

[arover]

I brewed a cream ale friday evening. 8 hours later my blowoff was going crazy.3 days later, no bubbles. could fermentation be complete in 3 days? heres the recipe:

5# American pale malt
3.3 # light LME
12oz honey malt
4oz bicuit malt

.75oz willamete (60min)

lolwut? Don't think I've ever seen a more OT post.

 

[boo boo]

I would say that you either picked up an infection in some of your bottles or the AA you added caused a further fermentation in the bottle that caused fusels along with a increase in ethenol.

 

[misteradam]

thanks for all your input, guys.

i'm leaning toward Boo Boo's explanation. If it's possible that some of the bottles kept fermenting, that would fit what happened. I added additional lactose at bottling time to about 25% of the batch. I'll have to look up what fusels and ethenols do to my stomach.

the leftovers from yesterday tasted great. despite what happened, i didn't have the heart to dump the 4th beer i took a sip of before the vomiting began. It's mellowing out in the fridge until I recover.:cross:

What happened is that after that 3rd beer, I just got ridiculously drunk. I was kind of pissed off that three beers could do that to me. From now on I'm keeping my limit of these to two!

Thanks again all!

pingi- leave it alone and get a hydrometer to test it once a week. when the reading is the same 3 or more days apart, it's done fermenting. so far all my brews stopped visible fermenting signs pretty early, but kept on going for a while.

 

[CiscoKid]

21st birthday, whiskey, still have trouble with the burn of any hard stuff making me almost gag.

With enough practice, you'll get over it. Trust me.