Did tea give me a hangover?

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BuonAnno

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My wife requested that I brew a Peach Cream Ale for the summer and I was happy to oblige. I used my usual Cream Ale recipe (7# 2 Row 1# Flaked Corn) as the base. I didn’t really feel like using real peaches so I did something I have never done before, I used herbal tea. I went to a local store and picked up 2 oz of herbal peach tea and added it to the boil at the 15 minute mark. Oh and I also threw in a half pound of Crystal 40 to give it a darker “peachier” color and add some sweetness.

So the brew day went perfectly and I hit all of my numbers (OG 1.051). After 14 days the US 05 gave me a FG of 1.009 so I put it on gas at 12 PSI for two weeks and it was perfect. The taste was really good with tons of peach in the nose and aftertaste but it still tasted like my Cream Ale.

Now here is my problem. Two days ago I tapped this and had 4 pints. I went to bed and woke up with one of the worst hangovers of my life. It lasted all day yesterday and I still feel it a bit this morning. I looked at all of the possibilities and it had to have been the brew. My wife and son felt fine and we all ate the same meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner so it couldn’t have been something I ate.

Has anyone else had this experience when infusing tea? I’m actually nervous to try it again so I’m looking for some support.
 
give it another go and see if it was the beer.

maybe it was related to something else?
 
perhaps caffeine from the tea addition may have increased dehydration (increasing hangover)? Or was it caffeine free tea?
 
perhaps caffeine from the tea addition may have increased dehydration (increasing hangover)? Or was it caffeine free tea?

I was told when I bought it that it contained "very little" caffeine but there was enough that it could not truly be considered caffeine free.

That may be it.
 
Generally speaking, yes. Fusel alcohol will give a 'hot' taste to the beer... like you get with harsh liquor.

In my case, I couldn't really taste it. You can attribute that to 2 things. First, I don't have a very developed beer palate (I know what I like and don't like, but can't NAME what I am tasting). Second, it was a Stout, so there were lots of other strong flavors to hide fusels (if that is indeed what my problem was).

You could always to a little test, heat some beer up to ~150 F for a while to get rid of the fusels, chill, drink and see if it gives you a hangover. It will change the flavor, but should still be drinkable.
 
Perhaps it just happens like that sometimes. I can typically drink pints of whatever (not barleywine, but typical ales) all night without a hangover. But every now and then, I get terrible hangovers from 1-2 pints. Perhaps it's how hydrated you were, or what you ate that day, but I'm not sure. Take some advil and drink a water, you'll be alright.
 
All about your hydration, unless you somehow got a lot of tannins out of the tea during boil, but I wouldn't imagine you added so much tea that the tannins would be an issue. My guess is hydration.
 
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