Feeling kinda sick after brew....

[northernltz]

Alright, I finally did it. I got a great kit for Christmas and brewed up a great beer, I think. Here is how it went. I have read tons about sanatizing being the true "KEY" to a good beer, so when I made this brew, I first cleaned the hell out of my kitchen, and even used the sanatizer on surfaces. I used an extract for the first batch. I made the wort with 6 Lbs of extract and 4 1/2 gal of water. I even used filtered water for the risk of off taste. I only used cleaned and double sanitized pots, buckets, carboi, tubing and utensils the whole process. I boiled the wort for the 60 minutes as recmended, and at 15 min before the end I put my wort cooler in the pot to sanitize it as well. Its a coil wort chiller I made from copper coil, plastic hose (all food grade). I chilled the wort from 205 degrees to the 80 degrees in about 8 minutes, drew off a sample for the hydrometer, racked into a cleaned and sanitized carboi and pitched yeast. I put a overflow tube on for the first 3 days and then put a standard "bubbler" for venting. I waited for 16 days for the ferment to finish completely. I did not use a secondary. I drew another sample for the hydrometer and got a calculation of 5.5%. I racked into a sanitized bottleing bucket, stirred in the carbonating sugars, and began to bottle up. I had new bottles, so I rinsed them and again twice sanitized them and soaked the caps in sanitizer prior to capping. I checked the beer at 2 weeks and the beer was wonderful. Great amber color, nice aromas with no off smells and I even had a fairly clear beer. The head was strong and retained well with a nice amount of carbonation. The taste was real smooth with a nice hoppy finish. I was super proud, and still am! Now, I had 2 the first night, 1 the next, and began to feel a little queasy. I let the beer continue to chill in the fridge so the carbonation would be finished. I tryed 2 more 3 days later and again I felt queasy. I asked a friend to try, and after 2 he also felt sickly. (now thats a good friend) Its been 2 weeks now and I have had the beer twice again with the same results. I can't go on making people sick!!!

Any thoughts at all???


Thanks,

Kurt

 

[LovesIPA]

Your process and procedure sound really spot-on. That's exactly the way I brew beer and mine doesn't come make me feel sick. I would suspect the kit ingredients are responsible but I don't know what could have gotten into the extract to cause this. It can't be a living organism because nothing can survive a 60 minute boil.

Don't get discouraged. Try again but source your ingredients from somewhere else.

 

[mike_in_ak]

I'm guessing it's in your head.

 

[WyomingBrewer]

hmmm.....nope, I got nothin. Maybe just getting used to live yeast in your beer? There is a good thread here from a ways back about your stomach getting adjusted and the gasses that leak in the process.....outside that it all sounds great the way you describe it. Send me a few bottles and I will tell you if I get sick from them.

 

[helibrewer]

What are you sanitizing with?

 

[CBMbrewer]

Sounds like your stomach is getting used to homebrew. Definitely no biological contaminants.

 

[More_Hops_Please]

Make sure you are leaving most of the yeast in the bottle when you pour. If your stomach isn't used to digesting live yeast, it can cause a bit of queasiness.

Alternatively, drink a lot more homebrew to get used to the yeast

 

[Revvy]

1) Nothing that can harm you, i.e. nothing pathogenic can exist in beer. It's that simple.

2) Some folks who have only ever drank filtered and pasteurized mass market beers may have some stomach cramping or excess gas because their gi-track is not used to the large amount of yeast in homebrew and many bottled conditioned beers. There's tons of threads on this. It's from oligosaccrydes, just like folks get gas from the beans in chilli, but over a period of time you gi track will adjust and you'll have health benefits from the probiotics in our beer.

3) Some folks are allergic to gluten and also yeast and can be affected, but usually they couldn't eat bread or drink commercial beer either.

4) New brewers are often frightened of their beer, not knowing about #1, and usually start threads like this blaming everything from yeast infections, to food poisoning to the myriad types of flu that are going around, on their new hobby. But like we say, nothing pathogenic can exist in beer. But remember "Correlation does not imply causation," especially since nothing pathogenic can exist in beer.

I vote for either 2 or 4.

 

[beertroll]

This might be a stretch, but if you've never had bottle conditioned beer before perhaps it could be the yeasties making you queasy. If that is the case, you should be able to get past it pretty quickly with practice. By which I mean drinking.


*Edit*... aaand 4 other people beat me to it.

 

[WyomingBrewer]

Not to thread jack but, uh, Revvy....what is a.....uh..... Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc?

 

[Revvy]

Not to thread jack but, uh, Revvy....what is a.....uh..... Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc?

If you google it, you'll know...

 

[Ridire]

Not to thread jack but, uh, Revvy....what is a.....uh..... Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc?

Latin for "never eat spinach with a stranger".

 

[WyomingBrewer]

Post hoc ergo propter hoc, Latin for "after this, therefore because of this", is a logical fallacy (of the questionable cause variety) that states "Since that event followed this one, that event must have been caused by this one." It is often shortened to simply post hoc. It is subtly different from the fallacy cum hoc ergo propter hoc, in which two things or events occur simultaneously or the chronological ordering is insignificant or unknown, also referred to as false cause, coincidental correlation, or correlation not causation.

Deep man, Im gonna think on this for days Im sure!

 

[BrewerinBR]

OP what did you clean and sanitize with? Over doing the sanitizer and leaving a residue can be transferred. It was asked before but I did not see a reply

 

[lumpher]

I'm believing it's because you're just not used to the yeast in homebrew yet, also. You'll get there, and you'll see the hangovers don't happen, as a side benefit

 

[jethro55]

If it was heavy with acetaldehyde, then there is a chance it could be from that. But you should taste the strong green apples if that is in play.

 

[alane1]

maybe a water report?Magnisium in exess amounts of 125ppm can have a laxative effect, but at this level I'm sure the beer would be undrinkable.

 

[Ricechex75]

Post hoc ergo propter hoc...I'm always amazed at what I see on HBT. And people think that home brewers are a bunch of alcoholic rednecks.

 

[PastorofMuppets]

if you swallowed the yeast settle from the bottle then that could be it.
i know thats been mentioned, wanted to second it.

 

[northernltz]

I use the sanitation product "Starsan". I think that's the name. It comes in a bottle that allows me to mix it in a concentration up to 5 gallons. Do you know of another quality product. I have a friend that uses 1 tablespoon bleach to 1 gallon water, but I prefer to use a product that is made for beer brews.

Kurt

 

[LovesIPA]

Star-san is what most home brewers use. I use it and have no issues like the one described.

 

[Dynachrome]

I asked a friend to try, and after 2 he also felt sickly. (now thats a good friend) Its been 2 weeks now and I have had the beer twice again with the same results. I can't go on making people sick!!!

...if the yeast are healthy, it should be OK.

 

[northernltz]

Well, after I looked over these reviews, it looks like I just need to get used to the home-brew type of beer. After reading the messages, it seems like the yeasties in the beer must be the culprit. Now I feel real stupid. But hey, I got a great beer!!! As I said, it is very tasty.

Thank you to all who took the time to read my post and comment.

Thank you so much,

Kurt

 

[PastorofMuppets]

Well, after I looked over these reviews, it looks like I just need to get used to the home-brew type of beer. After reading the messages, it seems like the yeasties in the beer must be the culprit. Now I feel real stupid. But hey, I got a great beer!!! As I said, it is very tasty.

Thank you to all who took the time to read my post and comment.

Thank you so much,

Kurt

im sure you read this already but make sure to pour gently and leave the bottom yeast layer behind. I recently had a friend who didnt believe me when I told him not to sample the starter i made for a batch. He had the most miserable day of his life. lol

 

[wilserbrewer]

I doubt it is your sanitation...as you seemed overly thorough IMHO....just a heads up that you only need to sanitize things tha contact the wort post boil and post chilling. The boil kills unwanted items and after that is when you need to be alert to sanitation.

 

[EPS]

This same thing happened to my brother when he first started drinking homebrew. He got over by drinking more and now the yeast have no effect on him. I have even caught him taking beers from my closet drunk and drinking straight out of the bottle warm.

 

[mike_in_ak]

Drink dregs 4 life

Never not drink dregs

 

[Dynachrome]

I use the sanitation product "Starsan". I think that's the name. It comes in a bottle that allows me to mix it in a concentration up to 5 gallons. Do you know of another quality product. I have a friend that uses 1 tablespoon bleach to 1 gallon water, but I prefer to use a product that is made for beer brews.

Kurt

I use Starsan now.

FYI - "The Complete Joy of Home Brewing", page 18 recommends using chlorine bleach. I did that for my first few batches and had really good results.

I recommend using clean water as hot as you can stand and letting the parts air dry before using them. I've gone straight to using them with no problems though.

 

[Dynachrome]

Drink dregs 4 life

Never not drink dregs

Nice post.

The winters get long up there.

I'd like to meet you over beer someday.

 

[Revvy]

I use Starsan now.

FYI - "The Complete Joy of Home Brewing", page 18 recommends using chlorine bleach. I did that for my first few batches and had really good results.

The complete joy of homebrewing was also written 40 years ago, before starsan or iodophor were readily available, AND homebrewing was illegal federally. You would think that pappa charlies would ever do a true new edition and update some of that stuff....