How my brews landed me in the ER

[Revvy]

Maybe it's the lack of filtration?

Beer increases your chance of gout more than other alcoholic beverages because beer has lots of purine and your body makes that into uric acid. If you've got more uric acid than you can get rid of, you get gout. Maybe I should go have another glass of water and put that last slice of pork loin I was going to snack on in the fridge....

yeah that sounds like what I read. I didn't know about the water part. That's good to know.

 

[OrdinaryAvgGuy]

Had a roommate in school that came down with the thrush.

... And it wasn't from drinking beer.

Just sayin...

 

[cluckk]

everyone that i know that has had gout was from drinking and eating way way way to much red meat. steak and burgers for 3 meals a day on top of heavy drinking.

I have gout and this doesn't describe me. It only takes a diet of high purine foods, which includes far more things than you might think. I use Black Cherry Extract supplements to keep it in check.

 

[overflow]

I am not a doctor, but as a frequent "thrush getter", I can tell you with certainty that it's not from beer. There is a constant balance of yeast and bacteria in your mouth and throat. The bacteria usually keeps the yeast in check. However, if something upsets this balance, yeast can take over and thrush results.

This usually happens (at least in my case) when you have recently been on antibiotics that have killed both the good and bad bacteria, giving the yeast the upper hand. If you also suffer from asthma, as I do, your inhaler (Ventolin HFA, Advair, Symbicort) will exacerbate these symptoms due to the steroids they contain. If I am on antibiotics, I usually will temporarily stop inhaler use. If you keep using your inhaler, make sure you are rinsing (including gurgling) with warm water frequently, especially after use.

Hope that helps some; thrush sucks. Once you get it good, breathing feels like someone has a towel over your face.

 

[Johnnorton61]

I know it seems like I've been having a lot of problems with my brews lately, but I have been trying new things, changing my techniques plus brewing a lot lately. When I used to just brew the same old extract kits over and over, I never had any problems, but it got boring.

So I switched to all grain about a month and a half ago, been brewing like crazy. Also have been very eager to give them a try to see how they compare to extract kits with some steeped grains. So not fermenting long enough, bottling too soon. And seems like they are taking forever to clear up so I've started racking to secondaries to speed things along. This has given me access the very young beer(racking in just 5-7 days in some cases). And of course I must "taste" it. Not sure at what point tasting it becomes drinking it. Since I've been home alone most of the time, wasn't really worried about the, um, flatulence. Figured that was the worst it could do to me.

But then I got this sore throat about a week ago, felt swollen and even a little difficult to breath at one point. Completely lost my voice. I know I should have gone straight to the doctor, or maybe even to the ER, but just took benadryl and ibuprofen instead. It seemed like the sore throat was related to the beer, so laid off the beer for a couple days, sore throat seemed to be getting better. Then got back to trying out my latest brews, and "tasting" the half-fermented ones, no problems for a couple days. Then after a day of heavy "tasting", sore throat was back with a vengeance and my whole mouth and tongue even felt sore and a little swollen. Looked in the mirror last night and noticed a bunch of little red bumps in my mouth. So I figured this morning, I'd go straight to the doctor, even if I had to go to the walk-in clinic and wait.

But I didn't make it to morning and ended up in the ER. Got to the point where I felt like I could barely breath. I told them I thought I might be allergic to beer. Which was my worst fear. They swabbed my mouth and back in my throat area. Turns out I had oral candidiasis and they suspected also esophageal candidiasis. More commonly known as thrush. Since I am otherwise perfectly healthy, besides being under a great deal of stress lately, they think it was directly related to the drinking the yeasty beer. So they sent me home with some pills to take for 14 days and told no beer, no wine, no bread until after treatment is complete. They said the pills should clear it right up but keep taking them for the whole 14 days. Oh, and no more yeasty beer, ever.

So, no more tasting for me until the beer is completely finished. Also going to at least double the times in the fermenters and bottles. And looks like it'll be a while before I'll be doing any beer drinking. This really sucks, but won't stop me from brewing.

I don't know how much yeasty beer it is okay to drink, but I do know that "quite a bit" can be way too much. From now on for me, I'm going to completely stay away from tasting unfinished beer. I'll get to taste it when it's finished, patience. According to the ER doctor, drinking too much yeasty beer can cause thrush and he thinks that's exactly how I got it. Also said it can be dangerous when it gets in your esophagus. So let my experience be a warning.

I am currently undergoing a couple weeks treatment of anti fungal meds (fluconazole) pill and Nystatin rinse. I know for a fact that it was due to a one night binge drinking session of IPA beers. I ended up with oral thrush and esophageal thrush as well. Don't let anyone tell you that its impossible. Its quite common actually. One is especially susceptible after taking a course of antibiotics.

 

[Angell]

Hell yea its possible. I bet I can drink enough beer to weaken my immune system. I know I could chug enough green beer to wipe out beneficial oral bacteria and give C albicans an opportunity to take over... Most of us will get diabetes or a fat liver first.

 

[Dancy]

After all that’s been said here, I have to ask — what’s the appeal of drinking your beer before it’s ready??

 

[OldDogBrewing]

I am currently undergoing a couple weeks treatment of anti fungal meds (fluconazole) pill and Nystatin rinse. I know for a fact that it was due to a one night binge drinking session of IPA beers. I ended up with oral thrush and esophageal thrush as well. Don't let anyone tell you that its impossible. Its quite common actually. One is especially susceptible after taking a course of antibiotics.

Well it's not posible as the candida yeast gets inhibited by hops, as any other gram positive thingy, so it's even less posible in a heavily hopped beer, so the issue was somewhere else, maybe in the rim of the bottle due to bad hygiene in the handling (not yours, at some point of the storage chain) or maybe in the glasses or who know, but the yeast that causes candida, it's highly improbable as it's gram positive and hopping would inhibit it's growth, gram negative bacteria it's another world

 

[BrewZer]

After all that’s been said here, I have to ask — what’s the appeal of drinking your beer before it’s ready??

Don't you want to taste the flavor profile at various stages of fermentation?

I know I do...

 

[Dancy]

Don't you want to taste the flavor profile at various stages of fermentation?

I know I do...

TBH, my discretionary tasting ability is not so great — somewhat embarrassed to say so. I think it’s “fun” to taste it when the wort cools and at bottling time but I can’t say what am tasting means this or that. I wonder if tasting during, say, the middle of fermentation tells one anything important?

 

[BrewZer]

TBH, my discretionary testing ability is not so great — somewhat embarrassed to say so. I think it’s “fun” to taste it when the wort cools and at bottling time but I can’t say what am tastings means this or that. I wonder if tasting during, say, the middle of fermentation tells one anything important?

If during the fermentation I get any major off flavors, I'll extend the time in the fermenter to see if the yeast cleans them up.

 

[Maxkling]

I am currently undergoing a couple weeks treatment of anti fungal meds (fluconazole) pill and Nystatin rinse. I know for a fact that it was due to a one night binge drinking session of IPA beers. I ended up with oral thrush and esophageal thrush as well. Don't let anyone tell you that its impossible. Its quite common actually. One is especially susceptible after taking a course of antibiotics.

Are you a doctor?

Pretty sure the people back from 2013 especially Revvy know what they are talking about. Do you think there is any chance that if you didn’t have a single beer that night that you could have woken up thrush, one of the most common mouth infections?

 

[verboten]

Don't you want to taste the flavor profile at various stages of fermentation?

I know I do...

Not one bit, either sweet wort or finished fermentation for me. I can wait until it's done to see if it needs more time.

 

[bobeer]

Not one bit, either sweet wort or finished fermentation for me. I can wait until it's done to see if it needs more time.

I agree. I never think actively fermenting beer tastes good. Some parts of the world do drink their beer when it's super young and turbid but they're usually pretty low gravity and they've been drinking it that way for a long, long, time.

 

[gunhaus]

I remember this thread! I always wondered how everyone forgot about hefeweizen when they were worrying about drinking beer yeast? I rocked a lot of bottles of hefe to stir things up before pouring without suffering ill effects. Bet i ain't alone

 

[Miraculix]

German wheat beer is traditionally full of living yeast when drunk and it does not cause any harm to anyone unless allergic to something in it.

In other words, the connection between candida and brewers yeast is not there.

It was not the beer.

 

[Miraculix]

I remember this thread! I always wondered how everyone forgot about hefeweizen when they were worrying about drinking beer yeast? I rocked a lot of bottles of hefe to stir things up before pouring without suffering ill effects. Bet i ain't alone

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