Green beer question

[snazzy]

O.K. bear with me I am curious about a thread I read. Someone gave another advice not to serve his apfelwein to early or all his guests would go home with headaches.

Is there a science behind green beer or in this case green cider giving extra doses of pain in the head.

 

[Yooper]

I don't know about green beer (or wine) causing headaches, but I've heard that it causes some unpleasant intestional issues. For people accustomed to "live beer", it's probably not a real issue. But for non-homebrew drinkers, giving them green beer might be like spiking their drinks with ex-lax.

 

[snazzy]

So someone who is used to live beer or wine there should be no diff with drinking it as soon as it is done fermenting or 4 months down the road? Besides the taste, just speaking of the physical effects.

 

[menschmaschine]

One cause of headaches is supposed to be fusel or higher alcohols caused by fermentation temps being too high. I don't think these alcohols subside with age, so I don't see how that relates to green beer. Green beer might have more yeast still in suspension which can cause intestinal issues in individuals not acclimated to homebrew or commercial bottle-conditioned beer, but other than that, I don't know of any physiological responses to "young" beer.

 

[bottleopener]

my roomates couldn't stay out of my green keg.

they have been punishing the bathroom all day long.

 

[ddwill]

This is sort of an offshoot but it seems like this thread may be able to answer my question...

Brewed a malt and apple beer (im a NEWB) which has a weird Plastic? aftertaste and I think gives me a slight headache (although that could have been placebo effect) Sounds kinda like this whole thing with green beer and fusels (higher alcohols)

Wondering if anyone had any thoughts?

 

[casebrew]

My guess is a secondary problem. You need to let any brew stay in the secondary until all the 'ex lax' settles out, then bottle/keg.

Loquats work better than an apple a day. Yet copious quantities of the wine caused no ill effects.

 

[MgMt_Home_Brew]

I always thought that if there was a high amount of sugar you would get a pretty bad head ache. So maybe if you are drinking green apfelwein all of the sugar hasn't been consumed by the yeasties yet. But I'm no expert

 

[Yooper]

I always thought that if there was a high amount of sugar you would get a pretty bad head ache. So maybe if you are drinking green apfelwein all of the sugar hasn't been consumed by the yeasties yet. But I'm no expert

If you're drinking a dry beverage (like wine or apfelwein) there isn't any sugar to speak of. It's the alcohol, and in high temperature fermentations, you'll get more fusel alcohols which will give you a rip roaring headache and/or hangover.

I NEVER get hangovers from homebrew. I drink quite a number of beers and never a headache. Two commercial beers, though, and I could be in trouble.