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damo

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is it true you get a bigger hangover from homebrew i am currently drinking my first batch should i regret it when i wake up or is it a myth
 
I think it's the opposite- I usually get wicked hangovers if I drink too much commercial beer or wine. With homebrew, I can put away quite a lot and not have a hangover at all.

I think it's temperature dependent, too. Fermenting at a high temperature (as in the summer) can cause more fusel alcohols and that can have some unpleasant flavors as well as cause some hangovers. I now ferment my ales at 62-64 degrees, and never had a problem. (And yes, I do tend to drink too much beer!)
 
The Complete Joy of Homebrewing has a nice section on hangovers for the layman. Basically he says, homebrew (if fermented at the correct temperature) produces less of a hangover because of the yeast present in it. The yeast are high in B vitamins which are depleted in your body by alcohol consumption. Commercial beers are typically filtered to remove yeast. Drinking homebrew just replaces what is lost. B vitamins are essential to alcohol metabolism.

But as Yoop said, fermenting at higher levels produces fusel (high order) alcohols. If you are of anglo descent, you are probably quite capable of dealing with ethanol (grain alcohol), but not the fusel alcohols. These fusels enter your cells nearly as well as ethanol, but are not metabolized as well. They tend to build up and are slowly oxidized into even less favorable molecules. These lead to a hangover.

Additionally, just drink enough a pint or two of water before you go to bed, and when you wake up take ibuprofen, or some other NSAID w/o acetaminophen.
 
chase said:
The Complete Joy of Homebrewing has a nice section on hangovers for the layman. Basically he says, homebrew (if fermented at the correct temperature) produces less of a hangover because of the yeast present in it. The yeast are high in B vitamins which are depleted in your body by alcohol consumption. Commercial beers are typically filtered to remove yeast. Drinking homebrew just replaces what is lost. B vitamins are essential to alcohol metabolism.

But as Yoop said, fermenting at higher levels produces fusel (high order) alcohols. If you are of anglo descent, you are probably quite capable of dealing with ethanol (grain alcohol), but not the fusel alcohols. These fusels enter your cells nearly as well as ethanol, but are not metabolized as well. They tend to build up and are slowly oxidized into even less favorable molecules. These lead to a hangover.

Additionally, just drink enough a pint or two of water before you go to bed, and when you wake up take ibuprofen, or some other NSAID w/o acetaminophen.
are you saying that dark skinned peoples can handle more potent alcohols ??? or as u say fusal lol (ethanol/jet fuel) lol
 
Yes homebrew is fine by my experience - except one batch I brewed in the summer - it fermented at about 76f . It tasted ok going down but man - drink too many and youd feel pretty rough the next morning. As long as you keep fermentation down at 70 or so you should be fine
 
First off. Let me preface my response by saying this: skin color has no effect of alcohol metabolism. Ethnicity does. But ethnicity does not imply inferiority of intellect, culture, stature, wealth, etc. I'm not that guy.

Grain alcohols such as beer, wine, sake, etc are historically drinks of Europe and Asia. Being so, people that come from European or Asian descent are typically more capable of dealing with ethanol, metabolically. Simply, we've adapted to a diet with ethanol. The common counter example is the Native American people. Alcoholic drinks were not common among these people.

There is much research on the topic of alcoholism. Some of this research is showing that Native Americans lack an important mutation in the gene for alcohol metabolism. What this means is they are less capable of dealing with alcohol metabolically than an anglo or asian.

One thing to understand though is that humans of all races are only capable of dealing with one alcohol in large amounts; ethanol. All other alcohols (fusels) generally have bad physiological side-effects (hangovers or worse). For example, if you had a single beer with methanol instead of ethanol, you would go blind, and suffer irreversible liver and kidney damage and then die. If you drank a beer with all 1-propanol or isopropanol (rubbing alcohol) you would have massive GI hemorrhage, and likely go into a coma.

Thankfully, these and other high order alcohols are present in extremely small amounts. Even if you fermented your beer at 100ºF, it is unlikely that there would be enough of the fusels to do anything to you other than give you a nasty headache.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusel_alcohols
 
I have never even felt the slightest bit off from drinking one too many homebrews. However, there is a local brewpub that I routinely get headaches from their beer. It never fails.
 
I haven't had a hangover in a very long time because I normally only drink homebrew. The last hangover I had was off of commercial beer, or when I mix homebrew with commercial.

Homebrew tastes better and you feel less crappy the morning after.
 
it seems like the homebrews are simply weaker. I don't know this for a fact, but so far, (probably because of my inexperience), they are less carbonated, and don't seem to have the immediate "buzz" impact that commercial beers do.

Just an initial reaction, though.:drunk:
 
Umm. Maybe you should leave your homebrew in the bottle longer so they get properly carbonated. And maybe you should make a beer with a higher ABV.
 
nothing's harsher than a strong mead hangover.

but the party the night before is always worth it!
 
TheBone said:
it seems like the homebrews are simply weaker. I don't know this for a fact, but so far, (probably because of my inexperience), they are less carbonated, and don't seem to have the immediate "buzz" impact that commercial beers do.

Just an initial reaction, though.:drunk:

not to me. I can feel my porter after a mere half glass....it seems to me that just the opposite is true, but like in all things there are bound to be exceptions.
 
I have never suffered ill effects from home brew. As a matter of fact, I have always felt better after a night of over indulgence from home brew than I have from commercial beer.

On a side note, Last night I drank an entire bottle of home made wine by myself. What can I say. It was really good! It definitely made me tipsy and I was afraid I'd get a really bad headache but I woke up this morning feeling fantastic!
 
Properly fermented homebrew is a lot easier on the hangover than much of the commercial stuff, no doubt about it.

Now, if you're talking about that morning after, GI symphony, that's a wholly different matter.


TL
 
TheBone said:
it seems like the homebrews are simply weaker. I don't know this for a fact, but so far, (probably because of my inexperience), they are less carbonated, and don't seem to have the immediate "buzz" impact that commercial beers do.

Just an initial reaction, though.:drunk:

I currently don't have anything in primary thats under 7.2% ABV. I only know a couple "big brewery" commercial brews that even come close to that. Molson XXX is the only thing that comes to mind without getting into craft brew. Home brew DEFINITELY has the capacity to get you drunk FAST. You should have been at a Belgian get-together I had at my place... the brew started at like 7% ABV and went up to 12% ABV. Bobby_M brought his wife... DD :p

Homebrew is lacking sulfides too... wine can give you nasty hangovers from it.
 
I have been hurt by homebrew, but I think it had to do with the amount consumed.
 
Homebrew was one of the greatest things to happen to me for many reasons, one of them being the nearly penalty free aspect. I rarely have a hangover and part of that is because the beers are heavier and I just don't feel like drinking as much. But there's a definite correlation between commercial and hangovers that isn't present with homebrew.

Keep in mind that as a brewer you can decide what you want your alcohol content to be. I prefer lower ABV beers because I'm really enjoying not having a hangover or getting sloppy drunk. I'm starting to think of those as the bad old days. In fact, I was getting worried that I was a developing alcholic. Now I probably drink more often, but ingest less ethanol. I don't have to get hammered on the weekend because I can drink whenever I want to and not have to worry about the hangover.
 
TheBone said:
it seems like the homebrews are simply weaker. I don't know this for a fact, but so far, (probably because of my inexperience), they are less carbonated, and don't seem to have the immediate "buzz" impact that commercial beers do.

Just an initial reaction, though.:drunk:

You are confused. You can make homebrew in any strength you want.
 
I got hungover from homebrew. But that's cuz I drank waayyyy too much for me and my friend's "first batches" party.. But it was worth it. Usually after I'm done drinking, I'll have to bottles of water before I go to sleep and I end up fine the next day.
 
Yup. I just drank a glass of...um...hydrometer sample from my first batch of apfelwein and I'm feeling it a bit.

(Oh, who am I kidding, the hydrometer never touched it. ;) I'm just flat-out drinking it earlier than is recommended...but man. It's tasty. And strooong.)
 
aliu630 said:
I got hungover from homebrew. But that's cuz I drank waayyyy too much for me and my friend's "first batches" party.. But it was worth it. Usually after I'm done drinking, I'll have to bottles of water before I go to sleep and I end up fine the next day.
If you felt fine the next day you didn't have a hangover...;)

The trick is to re-hydrate your brain before passing out...drink lots of water.;)
 
Hangovers are mainly due the lack of water in your system, causing your liver to metabolize ethanol to acetaldehyde, a bad byproduct that gives you the symptoms of hangovers. That is why they sell those "no hangover" pills, they convert the acetaldehyde to a less toxic metabolite, i think acetate, but I'm not sure. Anyways, drink lots of water BEFORE you go to bed and you will have less chance of having a hangover.
 
Jayfro21 said:
Hangovers are mainly due the lack of water in your system, causing your liver to metabolize ethanol to acetaldehyde, a bad byproduct that gives you the symptoms of hangovers. That is why they sell those "no hangover" pills, they convert the acetaldehyde to a less toxic metabolite, i think acetate, but I'm not sure. Anyways, drink lots of water BEFORE you go to bed and you will have less chance of having a hangover.

I meant to include that in my earlier post, but it slipped my mind. Rehydration is definitely the most important part of preventing/curing a hangover. In equal measure is the need to replace lost electrolytes like sodium. I've found that drinking a couple pints of water, and a can of tomato juice will prevent just about any hangover.

And I'm pretty sure you're right about EtOH -> acetaldehyde -> acetate -> Acetyl-CoA -> CO2 + H20
 
in my experience, hands down the best prevention for a hangover is a fructose rich beverage like apple juice, which my friend swears by. For me cranberry juice can't be beat though, don't know why but 32 oz. of juice before bed greatly mitigates even the worst night of drinking--although the very worst never involve the such foresight. Never tried tomatoe juice, but i've been told that fructose works by metabolizing alchohol, and of course fruit juice does restore some of the nutrients depleted by alchohol.
 
I have definitely noticed a difference in homebrew vs. commercial beer. I drink in moderacy in general, but on the occasion that I've drank a more-than-moderate amount of homebrew, I could definitely see a difference in drinking the same amount of commercial beer (all things equal, like water consumption before bed, etc.). I don't know if it's the higher amount of nutrients in homebrew or the lack of fusels, but I've never even had a headache from homebrew. (Now, my methane production certainly did increase the first week or so of drinking homebrew, but I'm back to normal now... I guess my body got used to it.)
 
homebrewer_99 said:
If you felt fine the next day you didn't have a hangover...;)

The trick is to re-hydrate your brain before passing out...drink lots of water.;)


Yes. The time I got hungover is when I didn't drink the water at the party. I guess I didn't phrase my sentences too well :drunk:

But yeah, re-hydrating is the way to go!! :mug:
 
damo said:
is it true you get a bigger hangover from homebrew i am currently drinking my first batch should i regret it when i wake up or is it a myth

What do you mean you are drinking your first batch? Dude, that's five gallons of beer! At least try to spread it out over a couple of days.:D
 
I would say that home brew definitely causes hangovers, but much less than BMC.

a few coors lights will kick my ass(not drunk, but hangover-wise), but I can drink a lot more homebrew and feel pretty good the next AM.
 
My wife and I have both noticed that the hangovers with homebrew are no where near what they are with commercial beers. Homebrew has saved me many a headaches. Unless I mix some shots in then all bets are off.
Homebrew > Commercial beer
 
I still get headaches from homebrew if I drink too much. What I DON'T get is the all-day-long brain-bless that usually accompanies hard liquor and keystone light.
 
it seems like the homebrews are simply weaker. I don't know this for a fact, but so far, (probably because of my inexperience), they are less carbonated, and don't seem to have the immediate "buzz" impact that commercial beers do.

Just an initial reaction, though.:drunk:

what do you normally buy at the store? BMC is actually low on the alchohol level.
 
My homebrews are certainly stronger then BMC. I can drink 6 of my homebrews, have a monster buzz, drink a bottle of water and never even notice a hangover at all. Now if I drank 9 or 13 of them like I used to do with Bud lites that could be a different story. I try to be a little more careful now than I did in my younger days
 
I still get headaches from homebrew if I drink too much. What I DON'T get is the all-day-long brain-bless that usually accompanies hard liquor and keystone light.

Yeah, I had pretty much given up drinking because the hangovers were so bad The whole next day was ruined. 12 bush lites or some other lite beer,probably about 3.5% ABV. I can drink 10 homebrews with an ABV about 5% and not get hungover at all. of course after about 4 I start drinking the yeast in the bottom.....Homebrew has made getting drunk a pleasure again....
 
I have been hungover from my homebrew, but simply because I drank too much of it or didn't eat enough prior to getting stuck in.

I will say, though, that I have never been viciously and wretchedly HUNNNNG from homebrew. My take (completely unscientific, mind you) is that homebrew is fresher, unfiltered and all-natural. IMHO it's what mitigates the hangovers.
 
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