Hangover beer mistakes

[earthwormgaz]

Hi forum,

Do you think homebrew is worse for hangovers? And what can be done about it?

I have read to keep temperature down for fermenting. Will it ferment outside? Even if it takes 4 weeks instead of 2, that's better than headache beer?

Anything else but temperature?

 

[uDicko]

Not had a hangover from my own beer yet strangely. Probably due to the lack of time I've e been drinking my own stuff.

I personally try and keep fermentation at the low end of the yeasts tolerance levels apart from when making Belgian.

I use a demiijon heatmat, blanket and an STC controller taped under a sponge on the side of my fermentation bucket. Cheap ghetto way of keeping temp control.

 

[Cwrw666]

Worst thing for hangovers is the kind of s**t beers they used to sell in the 70s and 80s. Don't really get hangovers from my homebrew but there again I use malt and hops and not fermented coloured sugar water like the big breweries used to use back in the day.

 

[Mrobson]

Depends how much you drink?
I certainly feel worse the day after twelve bottles than I would do after four.

One more never seems to be just one!

 

[Leon103]

Does an hangover relate to the drink or is it the drinker I.e. the amount they drank, sleep, food etc.

I only get hangover if I drink excessive alcohol. Doesn't matter what alcohol or who made it.

If you get an hangover from your homebrew cut down a little

 

[stz]

Use yeast strains at temperatures with ingredients known to limit higher alcohol formation? Thing is, these are fractions of a percentage differences here so at normal consumption levels it makes very little difference. Don't drink too much and don't drink on an empty stomach. If you drink too much a hangover is almost inevitable.

I used to think that the empty stomach thing made very little difference and might even leave me at greater risk of being over the limit the following day. Get it all in me, let my liver sort it out sooner? An empty stomach has faster absorption, a higher total blood alcohol concentration is reached and sooner, a greater differential is present, therefore greater losses to respiration and so on? Because alcohol metabolises at the same rate irrespective of total blood alcohol concentration it doesn't really work like that. But yeah, I believe you metabolise 0.06% per hour on average and if the rate of absorption is slow enough to be not much greater than the rate of elimination then your blood alcohol concentration will spike much lower lessening the impact of alcohol poisoning and a potential hangover. As elimination starts from pretty much the moment you start drinking total time to elimination is pretty much fixed.

The older I've gotten the less interesting being really drunk has become. I'm bored of it, I've done it enough times. The hangover is almost existential these days, why did I do that? What were the reasons? I feel disappointed more than anything, it prevents me from doing what I want to be doing, rattling around with blurred vision until 8pm the following evening. I try not to hit it like that very often!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I thought the main cause of a hangover is dehydration not what you drink (beer or wine)

 

[The Baron]

Technically most homebrew is purer i.e has less chemicals that commercial beers which I deem a good thing but the main reason for hangovers in my opinion is that the strength of homebrew is that little bit higher than the average pub beer and drinking the same amount will naturally imbibe in a higher alcohol to blood ratio. Just be aware that is generally stronger than most supermarket beer and the dreaded hasngover should never arise except on special occasions

 

[Nicks90]

Ah to be young again - going out and supping 12 pints of lager, clubbing, kebab and a night of drunken monkey-*** if you were lucky.
Alarms goes off 8am and cycle 10miles to work like nothing happened.
Rinse and repeat 2 or 3 times a week.

Nowadays 6pints is my absolute limit, or I'm like a very annoyed fascist dictator with a bad case of brain hemorrhage for the next 24 hours

 

[Clint]

Going out on the town gets me a hang over....I don't get the same from my beer.
FWIW...eating does not stop you being over the limit the next day!!

 

[matt76]

Weirdly, the only homebrews so far that have left me feeling anything but tip top (and it could just be coincidence at that) were weaker ones.....

- A 3.8% bitter (mashed at high temp, dunno if that could be a factor aunsure....)
- A 4.5% witbier - could be the yeast i was knocking back with it. Or possibly the number I had on an empty stomach!

 

[Llamaman]

I thought the main cause of a hangover is dehydration not what you drink (beer or wine)

Yup. If I know I’m going to have a big night, I have a rehydration sachet before and after the session (and another in the morning).
Can’t tell if it helps (no way to do a controlled study when in your cups) but I think the principle is sound.

 

[earthwormgaz]

I am somewhat prone to a headache and a bad hangover, I should have added that.

Also, in this instance, I only had two bottles.

 

[Llamaman]

I only had two bottles.

2x 2L pop bottles of Imperial stout?

 

[pottsworth]

There are 2 part to a hangover.

One is the dehydration, which leads to the "my brain is pulling on the back of my eye balls" headache, due to the membrane surrounding the brain actually shrinking.

The second part is the chemical bit. Alcohol (ethanol) breaks down in the body by oxidation into an aldehyde (ethenal), and finally a carboxylic acid (etanoic acid, aka acetic acid, aka vinegar). The aldehyde is what makes you feel ill (and potentially need to have a little chat to god on the big white telephone). When I was a student you used to be able to buy the RU21 supplement fairly cheaply, which (allegedly) worked by speeding up the oxidation of ethenal into the harmless carboxylic acid, but having tried to buy some during a particularly bad hangover recently, it would appear that it is now rather extortionately priced!

 

[phildo79]

Might be an idea to check your blood pressure if you awake with a thumping headache. I was never one for getting headaches or hangovers but then started getting severe headaches. I thought it was age catching up with me and hangovers were starting to kick in. Was only when I got a serious headache that I couldn't blame on the beer that I went to the doctors. Turns out I have high BP.

As for the other type of hangover, i.e. a dicky tummy. Well I think that's your body's way of saying, 'hey, you poisoned me last night - deal with it!' (plenty of sleep usually sorts this out for me).

 

[IainM]

There is one particular beer I made as my first AG and the pitching and fermentation temperatures were too high. For the last couple of years I've tried one every few months to see if it has improved. It has, but the taste is still a bit hot/solvently/fusally, and without fail one bottle is enough to make me wake up with a headache and red eyes glued together. Evil stuff.
EDIT: Otherwise, I never really have bad hangovers.

 

[-Bezza-]

Someone was saying to me the other day that stronger concentrations of alcohol aren't as easily absorbed into the blood, so you're more likely to get drunk and hungover by drinking 20 units of 3% beer than you are 20 units of 8% beer. Or gin and tonic will make you worse than the same quantity of neat gin.

Not sure if that's true but I think there's the basis of some sort of scientific logic in there.

I do however think there's something about the purity of the drink, with homebrew just being less processed.

 

[Banbeer]

First ever hangover I had was drinking a neighbours home brew just over 30 years ago, I was 23 and thought I could drink for England(as you do)only had 4 pints. After that when I went out on the lash I got a hangover , I don't get hangovers nowadays I just stay p*ssed

 

[MmmBeer]

I've read that certain (largely undesirable) chemicals in beer are responsible for hangovers. I made a strongish beer last year and decided that one pack of yeast might not quite be enough, so I chucked a 6g pack (of doubtful vintage) in as well. The result was a cloudy beer that had an apply aroma and unpleasant taste. I managed to force half a pint down before tipping it down the sink. The following morning my head was uncomfortable, to say the least.
When I looked through my list of off flavours, I discovered it was acetaldehyde (a.k.a. ethanal as Pottsworth mentioned above) and can be caused by old unviable yeast. The other 30+ bottles are still in my garage, in the vain hope they will someday improve and become drinkable. aunsure....