Bad Gastro-Intestinal Response

I'm a beginner. I've probably brewed 10 batches of ales. I enjoy my homebrew but it makes me ridiculously gassy. And generally I have less than form stool immediately after drinking my homebrew. My friend said he was having the same issue after drinking my beer. Now I'm wondering if it's my beer. Did I do something wrong? I never get the ****s like this with bottled beer from a brewery. Is it the yeast in my beer? Any thoughts?

Nope, it's pretty common in the beginning. We're not accustomed to "living beers," beers with live yeast in it. It's actually very good for us, but initially our stomach may be affected, and we get "yeast farts."

The good news is that after a period time (mine I think was 6 months or so) your gut bacteria gets used to it and you go back to your usual level of flatulence.

There's a ton of threads on it here, if you want you can search for yeast farts.

There is one long thread about it in the similar threads box below. See "beer and intestinal gas."

It's much worse if you drink young beer where most of the yeast hasn't settled out.

Yep, just the yeast. Once your body gets used to it you'll be fine, took me like 5 months to get normal after drinking homebrew.

I get this way after drinking too much beer, or drinking extra young beer. But I haven't noticed it in a while. Even after drinking a bit too much recently I seemed normal in that way. (But my head was a bit sore...)

Yeah, my head is still a bit sore from last night. I haven't gotten used to it at all. I don't drink a lot... maybe a few beers every other night. It's like having my own personal symphony! The craps I get are ridiculous. I feel like my insides just gave up. That's normal too? If it didn't taste so damn good I'd stop drinking it because of that.

geoguy1978 said:

Yeah, my head is still a bit sore from last night. I haven't gotten used to it at all. I don't drink a lot... maybe a few beers every other night. It's like having my own personal symphony! The craps I get are ridiculous. I feel like my insides just gave up. That's normal too? If it didn't taste so damn good I'd stop drinking it because of that.

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I have 3 words for you "Man Up Sissy". Seriously though, the headache is probably because of the "higher alcohols" (ethanol) in the beer, these are usually caused by a higher than ideal fermentation temp. Your insides will get used to your beer eventually, and you'll probably start making better beer by controlling your ferm temps, pitching large starters, etc... ...it'll all balance out in the end...

I recommend cold crashing before bottling so most of your yeast stays in the bucket.

Although I don't really have any of the Rhino farts I used to get, homebrew does keep you quite regular, and as others have said the yeasts is good for you. Lots of B vitamins.

Dammit! It's not just yeast - don't forget about the oligosaccharides!!!!!

Why does chili give you gas? It ain't the yeast

Notice how drier (lower FG) beers give you less gas than higher FG beers? Well, they both have yeast, yet the higher FG beers have more oligosaccharides.

I had the same thing at first but now I have no problems. The problem for me comes when I share with others.
I recently took a couple kornies of cream ale to a company outing; tailgating at a Brewers game. Everyone loved the beer but the next day I got quite a few comments, even from the ladies, about "dropping bombs" and "blowing chow". It's hard to explain that there's really nothing 'wrong' with your beer and it's them.

Can you imagine what the bathrooms were like at the very first National Homebrew Competition?

I do get headaches after just two of my beers. So the suggestion about fermentation temps is something I will have to pay more attention to.

Pop a Beano or two before starting the session. It will break-down the maltodextrins, etc that your existing flora can't handle into something they can. This can delay adaptation.

Live yeast will also ferment simple sugars in your gut creating extra CO2.

I must have been extra gassy to start with I never noticed a difference.

david_42 said:

Live yeast will also ferment simple sugars in your gut creating extra CO2.

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I don't think that's the case (but I may be wrong). Yeast probably can't survive the pH of the stomach.

What's happening is the wild fauna in your intestines are munching on the oligosaccharides that your stomach doesn't digest....

Take a simethicone capsule. You can get generic ones at a Grocery store or Drug store. Worked for me when I started out.

AZ_IPA said:

What's happening is the wild fauna in your intestines are munching on the oligosaccharides that your stomach doesn't digest....

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Guess what, I was just watching an Alton Brown Good eats episode on Creole Rice and beans and he did a great spiel on oligosaccharides. But like I have mentioned repeatedly that our gut bacteria eventually gets used to the yeast and can digest it easier without the toots over time, and YOU have made a comment about how come we don't get over the toots from beans and eating chilli? And I would say I bet if I did every day, my gut would adapt to the oligosaccharides from the beans as well.

Well Alton said, "The only way to control your emissions is to train your system by eating more beans."

It's the first minute and a half of this video.



We drink a lot more beer and a lot closer apart than most of us eat chilli, or beans. I mean I sure as heck don't eat chilli or kidney beans every day, or every week, or even every month, but I have drank beer, and especially living, bottle conditioned beers nearly every day since I started brewing. So that's why after the first year or so, my yeas farts greatly reduced.

I know I'm bumping an old thread but I know how you like your Oligowhatevers and this was the first thread I came upon in search.

So I was right.

Actually we both are.

This is such a peculiar and fairly common phenomena....

I have never had a single adverse reaction to yeast sediment or my home brews. Maybe it's my generally healthful diet.

Lol maybe it's beer's way of letting you know you need to eat better. Come to think of it, my little brother has mentioned a couple of beers that are bottle conditioned that don't sit well in his system. And despite liking fruits and veggies doesn't usually go out of his way to make sure he eats them.

Revvy said:

I know I'm bumping an old thread but I know how you like your Oligowhatevers and this was the first thread I came upon in search.

So

I was right.

Actually we both are.

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good find...

AZ_IPA said:

good find...

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And the rice and beans recipe looks yummy too.

I'm a newbie too and have noticed this problem. It is definitely reduced by aging the beer, friging it for a week at least, and pouring into a glass leaving the sediment behind. Went through several last weekend and had no worse result than if I'd had the same number of store bought. Had far worse results when I wasn't following the above.

I did a google search for Oligos and brewer's yeast and came up with this headline from a scientific journal.

Brewers dried yeast as a source of mannan oligosaccharides for weanling pigs...

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So it looks like the Alton vid is a good descriptor of why we get the toots from our beer initially.

I got all my startup brewing stuff from a neighbor who couldn't handle the stomach upset from the yeast/sugars. A really good setup for a really good price - so there is good in beer farts.

My guts have periodically been a real challenge, but in recent years have calmed a bit. Shoot, when I got a #40 Lab Stopper for a going-away present from a job when I was in my early 20's, it was an understatement of my proclivity to fumigate. For some reason, being an old fart now, I don't get hit too hard gas-wise from the beers - like one real nasty if I have a pint of homebrew, but the loose stool happens when I have a pint of my porter. More sugars? Whatever, its worth it!

Bad news folks. It ain't that your gut gets used to the yeast after 5months of drinking home brew. It's that you and SWMBO get used to you stinking up the joint with your rhino farts.

So with oligowhatevers, why don't commercial craft beers cause it as much? Or is revvy suggesting that the yeast itself has olies in it:

Brewers dried yeast as a source of mannan oligosaccharides for weanling pigs...

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curlyfat said:

So with oligowhatevers, why don't commercial craft beers cause it as much? Or is revvy suggesting that the yeast itself has olies in it:

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A lot of craft beers are filtered and pasturized. I bet that we have more farts with those craft beers like Belgians for instance, than we have with something from stone.

A woman walks into a doctor's office and says,

'Doctor, I have the worst gas. It doesn't make any noise or smell bad, but I fart constantly!'

He gives her a prescription and tells her to come back in a week. One week later she comes back she says,

'What did you give me? My gas didn't get any better, but now it stinks like something died up there!'

And he says, 'Now that we have your sense of smell fixed, lets work on your hearing, shall we?'

Now back to your regularly scheduled thread.....