I also tried a commercially brewed “funky” farmhouse ale last night, and had the same adverse reaction (asthma-like) I waited for the reaction to die down, then followed up with a boring cream ale - no reaction to that!
Good news is I can still drink beer. Bad news is that I must have some wild yeast in my brewing system, and I’m quite allergic to it. I am really surprised that whatever is in my system hasn’t been noticeable. I haven’t gotten any “gushers”, no visible infections in my fermenter, my FG is coming in on target, my beers taste good after 3-4 months of aging, and the PH of my finished beer is always above 4.5. I suppose it must be possible to have “minor” beer infections, rather than the drastic ones people usually worry about? This is contrary to my previous belief that all lacto cultures are stronger yeast strains and would eventually dominate your brews.
As has been mentioned - finishing pH>4.5 is not ideal, and will make your beer more friendly to bad guys.
And on a point of order, by definition a "lacto culture" is
Lactobacillus, and so is a bacterium. But yeah, you can have a real soup of microorganisms that don't always dominate - either because they die out at a certain ABV or because their favourite food runs out. People have tracked the "zoo" in lambics and seen 4-5 different species dominate over the course of a year or two, whilst others are only ever minor presences. Also some bugs are more obvious that others -
Brettanomyces claussenii gives a relatively mild "funk" compared to
Brettanomyces bruxellensis for instance.
At the moment you don't know whether it's a fungus or bacterium causing the problems. At this point I would share some of whiskeyjack's caution, if this thing can start out of nowhere, then it can also get worse. So I wouldn't go swilling down anything of potential concern - take a mouthful and swoosh it round, then spit it out. At least then you may only have a reaction to a small amount in your mouth, rather than a pint in your innards. Might be a good idea to have 3" of something like garden hose around, at least then you can keep your airway clear in an emergency.
But - as a scientist I am intrigued. One place to start would be to take a known "problem" beer like the wild beer and boil it (outside or at a friend's house), to see if it still causes a problem. Likewise filtering it.
You could perhaps make a gallon of extract wort in a friend's kitchen, with just some bittering hops or alpha extract in (you're not going for taste here, just trying to simulate beer chemistry). Split into plastic bottles and play with the yeast catalogues - pure wild yeasts, a yeast/bacteria mix, pure bacteria, even bread yeast as an approximation to wild
Saccharomyces and so on.
But I'd understand if you just didn't want to risk any further exposure.
And in the circumstances I'd say replacing all of your plastics and thoroughly sanitising/sterilising your metalwork is probably the most prudent course if you want to continue homebrewing.
@tjmac5071 It's possible your symptoms are a reaction to sulphites, it's something to bear in mind - have you ever had similar reactions from wine or raisins?
