Homebrew - headaches and gastro-intestinal disturbances

[BlackSands]

I've noticed a much higher rate of headaches and unsettled stomach after drinking my brews. There seems to a certain consumption threshold though... i.e one or two glasses certainly isn't a problem but if I have a bit of a 'session' then I can pretty much always expect a headache and extra time-out in the little room .

 

Drink enough commercial beer and of course a hangover is likely but I don't recall commercial beers causing my guts to do somersaults like homebrew does! Is the perhaps to do with the level of live yeast? And the headaches, is it because there's possibility higher levels of fusels etc in the beer?

 

I wonder if the fauna in flora in my internal plumbing will eventually adapt?

[ChristinaS1]

Fusel alcohol can cause headaches, but judging by the fermentation temperatures you are reporting in other threads, you shouldn't be having much in the way of fusel alcohols.

 

As for your other complaint, I am not sure. A fruit beer in which the fruit is high in sorbital, or beer made with certain non-fermentable sweeteners (ginger beer, cider) can cause loose bowels.

 

You are not gluten intolerant are you? Or are you allergic to yeast?

 

Cheers! -Christina.

[Morrie]

BlackSands

 

I am finding the exact opposite now that I have got back into brewing again. I don't really know what to put it down to. I thought it maybe a preservative thing but I'm not really sure how much preservative commercial beers have. I have mostly stuck with comercial Coopers for that reason. I brew both kits and AG but mostly AG now. We usually have apple cider in the house for SWMBO and its loaded with preservatives and I find I can not drink more than one. Recently she got a bit ill on it and of course I said "told you so". Now she has decided she likes my pale ales and of course I've had to increase production. I'm not sure what in HB could be adversely affecting you.

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

On too many friday's I tend to have a session with family or friends. Usually 7 or 8 beers sometimes more. In the old days it used to be the tooheys new, carlton draught etc.. And too many times on the saturday I woke up a lot worse for wear. Come my home brew days and I do the same but with my much nicer brews. If I stick to Pale Ale's, IPA's, Lagers I have brewed then I'm usually fresh as a daisy come saturday even with ~ 8 beers. One day I decided to give my wheat beers a shake and it was far worse than any megaswill type hangover. Did Belgians once and only had 6 or so and it was the same. From now on will only touch belgians or wheat beers which are fermented >20c one or two at a time. Any session beer has to be fermented lower <20c or preferably 18c or less. Anything over that the fusel alcohols will just kill you the next day in my opinion.

[joolbag]

Im with Blacksands on this one... some of the time.

 

My friend brewed an extract IPA. Simcoe and Sorachi Ace. I suspect he underpitched and bottled early because the beer was waaaaay to sweet and sickly when I first tried it. I had it as my 2nd beer of the night (I drink pints) and it filled me up and I could have no more.

 

Now that it has aged a bit, the sweetness has faded. It's not a great beer, but I can drink it without feeling completely filled up.

 

Re: headaches. Interesting one here. I had one of my smurto golden ale pints and then a hop gobbler on Monday night. Did not feel fantastic the next morning. It could be unrelated to the beer as there is a bit of a cold virus floating around the office. But if it's the beer, it could be because while the golden ale tastes great and I love it, it is quite young, only 2.5 weeks in the bottle at 17-18C. The hop gobbler is 8 weeks in the bottle and I don't really like it. could be the English Bitter kit, or could be the steeped grains, but it has a flavour in there that I don't really care for.

 

Other brews like my short-boil Galaxy IPA (kit-based) I could have 4 pints with no problems. Bizarre! My temp control is spot on in winter with my fermenter in an 18C water bath

[BlackSands]

You are not gluten intolerant are you? Or are you allergic to yeast?

 

Cheers! -Christina.

 

I doubt it's an allergy. I eat plenty of gluten-rich products' date=' bread etc and also yeast... usually in the form of spreads, though with them, the yeast is of course dead.

 

My Summer time hot-fermented "Fusel Ale' was a killer for headaches, but as you say my temps are ok these days. Perhaps this is a scenario where filtration might help?

 

Or maybe I should just drink less! [img']w00t[/img]

 

 

I've actually just been doing a bit of googling and it does seem it's a very common issue....

 

 

[Mark D Pirate]

Maybe a slight infection ?

My brews sit very well in my stomach , except the 86 days pils that was just bloody awful !

Dare say ALL homebrew would have some level of infection , wort being such an ideal environment for unwanted organisms .

Otherwise no idea champ .

[BlackSands]

Maybe a slight infection ? ....... Dare say ALL homebrew would have some level of infection ' date=' wort being such an ideal environment for unwanted organisms[/quote']

 

I have read elsewhere that that is actually true, all wort has infection - just it's usually at such a low level that it's a non-issue. It could simply be that I just have a particular sensitivity to something that's common in homebrew as opposed to commercial beer... and the only thing of significance I can think of is live yeast.

[Gag Halfrunt]

Oh no! An allergy to beer?

That would mean the end of life as I know it.

Having said that I cant drink red wine,just a sniff and I get a headache.

20 years ago it wasn't a problem and I loved the stuff, now Im terrified of it.

[Otto Von Blotto]

Headaches most likely would be from fusel alcohols but given your ferment temps are now where they should be, these shouldn't be a problem at all. As for the other, that could be anything. I haven't had any problems of either sort from my home brews, but I do remember doing an experiment fermenting a couple of bottles worth of a batch with wild yeast I caught in my hydrometer tube, while the rest of it was done with US-05. I drank a bottle of this wild beer and for a few days afterwards had really bad gas and farts all the time. The bottle had a lot of yeast in suspension though and tasted decidedly yeasty, whereas my normal brews don't have any in suspension, visible at least. It could be yeast in your case, or something else. Probably no real way of knowing without getting tested by a doctor.

 

Sometimes I feel like the only person in the world who doesn't have any allergies or intolerances to anything

 

It is also true that all homebrewed beer is infected, it's just most of the time it's to a low enough level that it isn't noticeable. And after all - yeast is in fact a spoilage organism itself, the difference with it is that it's intentional by us to give us what we want.

 

 

 

[Beerlust]

+1 to the cause being related to higher uncontrolled ferment temps + excessive simple sugar ingredients.

 

I don't suffer headaches or hangovers at all anymore since I switched to brewing my own beer.

 

Cheers,

 

Lusty.

[Kradmelder]

Strange. One of the reasons I prefer homebrew is that i don't get headaches, even if I drink 3 litres. Commerical swill bloats me and gives me headaches. So does too much red wine or whiskey. Anything else, never. Maybe because it is so easy to drink large quantities of red wine and whiskey and the sheer volume of alcohol is far more than from beer.

 

I also have no allergies to anything. Well maybe I am allergic to PC liberals and they make me break out in rashes of intolerance, to match their intolerance . I am also allergic to speed limits and traffic and break out in a rage if I am trapped in it in a metal cage crawling on the road

[Jp1525229771]

Well for me, any home brew of craft beer brings on the gas. Swmbo gets rather upset with the late night noises and dutch ovens. But i can say, home brew is my preferred choice for not having hangovers of headaches the next day. Like krad said, i can easily put back a few litres and wake up feeling fine.

[MarkC]

During our recent month in Europe, we each generally drank about 2 litres of beer per day, which was pretty easy since the standard glass is 500ml. We never felt bloated or seedy, and I suspect the reason is that we were drinking 100% malt beers, like we do when we drink my home brews.

When I think about my past years of drinking megaswill, I reckon the reason I've had hangovers is at least partly due to the big breweries using lots of sugar in their brewing process.

 

[Payno]

Hey Blacksands,

I really like my dark beers , especially in winter - but I notice if I drink too many in a row then my stomach gets a bit rumbly and makes all sorts of weird noises.....then there can be the inevitable gas release!

If I mix them up with other beers its not so bad - I put it down to how rich and malty they generally are and so therefore have more for the stomach to digest, and I prob drink them too fast!

 

As regards headaches - for me it all comes down to dehydration. Beer less so than wine as you consume more liquid to consume the same amount of alcohol so less dehydrated. You ofcourse can reduce this significantly by drinking a glass of water in between beers - but what is the fun in that!

I do that sometimes if I crack my first one too early in the afternoon on a weekend as otherwise I am falling asleep on the couch at 9pm!

Otherwise I take a big bottle of water to bed and when I wake regularly with the dry horrors I have a bog swig of water and by the morning Im usually ok. I always go from beer to wine at some stage in the evening on the weekend and its always the wine that will do it to me. Mixing drinks always gives me the worse hangover - especially is there is spirits or cocktails thrown in there aswell.

[BlackSands]

It's Friday today... so tonight...

 

I really like my dark beers ' date=' especially in winter - but I notice if I drink too many in a row then my stomach gets a bit rumbly and makes all sorts of weird noises…[/quote']I've been drinking a porter lately... but I've had a morning headache off other ales too.

 

During our recent month in Europe' date=' we each generally drank about 2 litres of beer per day, which was pretty easy since the standard glass is 500ml. We never felt bloated or seedy, and I suspect the reason is that we were drinking 100% malt beers, like we do when we drink my home brews.

When I think about my past years of drinking megaswill, I reckon the reason I've had hangovers is at least partly due to the big breweries using lots of sugar in their brewing process.[/quote']

It's not hard to get through a couple of litres (or more ) on a weekend night blobbed in front of the telly! I start early in the evening - in the kitchen when I preparing food and pretty much sip away until I quit for the night. The brews in question would contain 200g dextrose at most.

 

I always go from beer to wine at some stage in the evening on the weekend and its always the wine that will do it to me. Mixing drinks always gives me the worse hangover - especially is there is spirits or cocktails thrown in there aswell.

Red wine used to be my neuro-toxin of choice before I started brewing again! The combination is lethal!

 

 

I'll get headaches if I drink enough of anything... I guess that's dehydration mostly (?).

As for the gastro upset/bloating etc etc... well, I might just have to limit my intake! Or not....

[headmaster]

Agreed about the headaches, probably fusel alcohols mainly responsible, then dehydration if you don't keep up with a water here and there.

 

But the gas, one word, oligosaccharides. These are very complex sugars that form especially with higher mash temps, that the yeast don't like to eat, left in sweeter, heavier bodied malt or AG based beers. Your guts (the enzymes and flora etc) have a little bit of difficulty dealing with these sometimes, and you end up with excess gas being produced.

 

Qligosaccharides are also found in, onions and you guessed it, beans.

 

That said there is a guy at my workplace who gets a nasty headache with beers like this, not just gas. He gets it with some wines as well, and it's not fusel related.

 

Luckily I haven't experienced too much of this, sometimes a bit of gas I suppose, but I never drink that much in one sitting these days. Don't want to ruin my beer drinking future, so I have about 8 to 9 330ml bottles a week.

[BlackSands]

But the gas' date=' one word, oligosaccharides. [/quote']

Yes, just been reading about them just now. It's said that your gut eventually adapts and adjusts to them but I've been drinking my brews for 10 months now.

 

As far as the fusel/headache thing goes - while there's no detectable fusel content in the beers I'm currently drinking, as they were all fermented at good temperatures, I do wonder perhaps if very small undetectable traces of fusels, consumed by drinking several beers in succession, could add up to enough to bring on a headache...? . Does clean well-fermented beer even contain undetectable low-levels of fusels?

 

I guess simply drinking some water at the time would also help matters!

[headmaster]

Not sure about some of those questions, but I guess there will always be some higher order alcohols produced, a bit of methanol etc.

 

I remember reading if you drink a litre of 5% ABV beverage, your liver will need 500ml of water to be able to convert the ethanol into acetate, so for every litre you drink, you should probably drink 500ml of water to maintain your hydration. This will reduce hangovers and headaches. This is why you are so thirsty at midnight after a big session, (remembering from the good old days back in the 90's for me (my 20's)

[Farls]

I don't get the headaches on homebrew like I do on commercial beer, but certain homebrews bring on the farts.

[Burton Snatch]

Interesting reports here. I can only say that since switching to home brew (and Coopers for that matter) I've never had a headache from drinking, and hangovers are a thing of the past. I do drink lots of water through the day though. Like a litre when I wake up, and at least two through the day. Commercial beers give me a headache guaranteed.

I have found my home brew actually makes me more regular also. I've been sitting down on the job 3 to 4 times a day.

[joolbag]

the reason I've had hangovers is at least partly due to the big breweries using lots of sugar in their brewing process.

 

Is this true for the major megaswill companies? Srsly?! If so, i had no idea. I thought they just used the cheapest malts, the cheapest hops and the smallest amount of hops for bitterness early in there boil.

 

Only two pints for me tonight + a glass or two of white wine. No headache expected tomorrow!

[Kradmelder]

But the gas' date=' one word, oligosaccharides. [/quote']

Yes, just been reading about them just now. It's said that your gut eventually adapts and adjusts to them but I've been drinking my brews for 10 months now.

 

As far as the fusel/headache thing goes - while there's no detectable fusel content in the beers I'm currently drinking, as they were all fermented at good temperatures, I do wonder perhaps if very small undetectable traces of fusels, consumed by drinking several beers in succession, could add up to enough to bring on a headache...? . Does clean well-fermented beer even contain undetectable low-levels of fusels?

 

I guess simply drinking some water at the time would also help matters!

 

 

Your options are as follows boeta:

 

Quit drinking and become a teetotaler

Buy lots of Panado

Drink lots of water till your eyeballs float and instead of your gut it will be your bladder bursting

Control your brewing or

Get tough, adapt and survive!img]lol[/img]

[mickc1525229722]

No headaches unless I drink a bucket load (literally) then only mild ones(and extremely rarely) not head splitting.

 

I too have read that two much cane sugar/dextrose can increase the type of alcohol that makes the headaches.

 

On the gastro side of things can sometimes make the old bowel movements MUCH more regular than normal but I put that down to the fact I like a reallly malty ale :)

[MarkC]

the reason I've had hangovers is at least partly due to the big breweries using lots of sugar in their brewing process.

 

Is this true for the major megaswill companies? Srsly?! If so' date=' i had no idea. I thought they just used the cheapest malts, the cheapest hops and the smallest amount of hops for bitterness early in there boil.

 

Only two pints for me tonight + a glass or two of white wine. No headache expected tomorrow![/quote']

I used to audit a major brewery, and while they bought a huge amount of malt from Joe White, they also bought loads of liquid sugar from CSR, which I recall was measured in brix. I'm pretty sure the sugar was minimally processed, and way cheaper than malt.