Has this happened to anyone else?

[Spoonmann]

I unfortunately came down with the flu over Christmas. I spent all of Christmas eve and Christmas day in bed, only emerging to put together some of my kid's presents. It was the worst illness I have had in several years.

Since then I have completely been turned off by most beers. It seems that anything north of 20-30 IBU's is undrinkable to me. I opened a boulevard single-wide last night and could not finish it. It feels like my bitter taste buds have become super sensitive.

Has this happened to anyone else? Does it get better?

 

[unionrdr]

I generally stay away from alcohol when I get the flu. Things don't taste right,& the alcohol negates any medicines taken for the flu. It gets better after you get over it ime.

 

[davekippen]

For sure. It comes and goes for me. If I have a heavy couple of weeks of beer (beer fest followed by homebrew club followed by tailgating....) I often can hardly stomach a beer for a week or two.

Luckily that awful feeling of not wanting beer goes away fairly quickly

 

[JR_Brewer]

My taste buds are off after a bad cold, flu, or virus for about a week. Coffee, beer, and a lot of other foods/drinks I normally enjoy don't taste right.

However, you're going on 2 weeks; do you still have symptoms? Has your flu caused a sinus infection that's affecting taste?

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah,I even go from hoppy or roasty to a lighter pale ale or lager at that point for a while. I eventually get back around to the hoppier ones tasting better again. But the flu must be delt with first. They always taste bitter/funky to me when I'm sick with it. Oddly enough,sometimes the flu acted more like sinitus,or so I thought.

 

[Spoonmann]

Flu is long gone, but aversion to beer remains. I'm not saying that I expect beer to taste great while I'm under the weather, I've been better for a while.

 

[Rockn_M]

It will probably take a while for your taste buds to get back to normal. Once I was sick I get a high fever and nothing tasted right for about 2 weeks after the fever broke.

 

[flars]

It is an old remedy to get back to normal. Chicken noodle soup with a lot of white pepper. It has always helped me regain the appetite and taste buds after the flue.

 

[peterj]

Yeah I'm in the same boat right now. I've been sick off and on for the past month and I've probably only had about 4 beers during that time. I feel like I didn't fully enjoy them either. I'm feeling better now, but still not really wanting any beer. It's happened before and my taste for it came back after a while. I did have some Anejo Tequila with tacos last night that I thoroughly enjoyed though!

 

[Homercidal]

Always happens to me when I have a head cold or sinus problem. Sometimes it takes weeks to get cleared out and feeling like stuff tastes good again.

 

[Spoonmann]

Thanks guys, I figured it was temporary.

 

[unionrdr]

^I like your avatar! Reminds me of last call at the bar I frequented across from plant #1 in Cleveland. "Last call for alcohol! Time to face reality!" she'd always yell. Funny stuff.