No Headache...nice!

[johnyb]

Well fellow brewers the weekend saw me over indulge myself in some month old Coopers Pale Ale (albeit done as a mid-strength at about 3.8%)

I started with a few tallies over a long lunch, and the mood continued and lest I say I imbibed beyond my normal limits. I think 10 tallies completed the afternoon/evening session.

What amazes me after a return to brewing after a 5 year absence enduring megaswill is that I awaoke during the night with no headache or raging thirst! Just a mild sweat and a desire for a glass of water...amazing...as the equivalent amoutn of commercial beer would have me taking a couple of panadols and regretting a Sunday session!!

Here I am at work, clear headed and feeling great...now, what am i doing next Sunday....

 

[zoidbergmerc]

I personally think it's the preservatives in the commercial beers that give me the hangovers, I can have all the home brews in the world and not get a hangover.

 

[pyrobrewer]

I personally think it's the preservatives in the commercial beers that give me the hangovers, I can have all the home brews in the world and not get a hangover.

What preservatives are those?

 

[johnyb]

What preservatives are those?

Preservatives may not be added to beer, but rather chemicals are, as the linked article shows can be a problem at least in Europe in 2006. Maybe they add these chemicals here to beer, and for those of us who saw the story on 60 minutes last night Australia has some lax laws regarding chemicals in some areas of food production.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4942262.stm

 

[gunbrew]

I had heard home brew does not give a hangover.
Did not fully believe that.

After supplying 46 litres of my beer for an engagement party I had several people call to ask why they did not have a hangover...
Most of the people at the party had never drank home brew.

Since then and years of "testing" on myself and others I will agree you are not very likely to get a hangover from my homebrew.

Not sure why commercial beer gets you so bad the next day, just know that it does.
So keep enjoying the Homebrew.
Cheers.

 

[pyrobrewer]

Preservatives may not be added to beer, but rather chemicals are, as the linked article shows can be a problem at least in Europe in 2006. Maybe they add these chemicals here to beer, and for those of us who saw the story on 60 minutes last night Australia has some lax laws regarding chemicals in some areas of food production.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4942262.stm

Thanks for the link a good rap for purity brewing :beer:

Did you know Hops was originaly added to beer as a preservative!

This is the headline for the article you linked to
Fancy a refreshing pint of betaglucanase? Or maybe a thirst-quenching glass of propylene glycol alginate?

Betaglucansae is a naturaly occuring enzyme in malted barley without which the mash would probably be to viscous to lauter and I belive is denatured during the boil.
Granted, PGA has been added to enhance foam stability. Alginates were also added as a finning because of strong negative charge and ability to bind to proteins. PGA is an ester of alginate and propanol and pretty much flocs out.

 

[RobH]

my 2 cents worth to this thread is that I too have observed the absensce of a hangover after imbibing numerous home brews ... but with Aussie commercial beers ... even "premium" ones, a sore head is almost certain the next morning.

something like a German Pilsner however has nowhere near the hangover effects as an Aussie commercial beer

 

[Nick JD]

I wonder if it's not what's in commercial beer, but rather what's not in commercial beer...

 

[manticle]

I'm drinking homebrew at the moment to remove my headache.

 

[sinkas]

not again

 

[Ivan Other One]

Have to agree to an extent.

Have had a few good sessions on the home brew without the resulting hangover,,, even on a recent brew that was a high temp ferment.
Then once washed this brew down with a couple of xxxx and payed for it the next mornin.

Bah, Humbug to that comercial crud. :icon_vomit:

Ivan.

 

[Thorby]

Years ago working as a cellar man at a large club, I was told by a CUB rep that kegged beer has a certain percentage of arssenic in them as a preservative due to them being transported by truck in the sun. Not sure how true that is but could be a clue.....

 

[RobH]

mentioned this discussion to a mate at work who used to brew alot with his dad ... his dad always told him it's because of the vitamins in the yeast

 

[Melthar]

I do believe that is what Nick was implying..

I certainly can see how it makes sense, considering vitamin b is one of the main vitamins that gets depleted by ethanol.

So when drinking commercial beer, keep some vegemite on standby?

 

[MarkBastard]

Years ago working as a cellar man at a large club, I was told by a CUB rep that kegged beer has a certain percentage of arssenic in them as a preservative due to them being transported by truck in the sun. Not sure how true that is but could be a clue.....

The funny thing is I definitely get more hungover from megaswill on tap than I do by something like little creatures in a bottle.

Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure it's real.

I mean you always get the dehydration part from excessive alcohol intake but that really crook feeling I reckon comes from somewhere else.

 

[Scruffy]

No Headache in your Craft Brews... well yes and no - ferment your wort at higher temperatures and it'll produce fusel (high order) alcohols. Now, you're 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 metabolised as well. They tend to build up and are slowly oxidized into less favourable molecules, leading to hangover. So it's up to the quality of alcohol... The production of acetaldehyde in the body really screws you up the next day, its caused when you overload your alcohol dehydrogenating system iirc, its also responsible for that feeling of being really drunk ie not tipsy from the ethanol, but falling down, can't stand up drunk from the acetaldehyde, you might as well be sniffing paint thinner if you over indulge in a big way:
Ethanol we can deal with (and the B vitamins in home brew yeast will help - B12 is a cofactor that helps you break down ethanol). All other alcohols (fusels) generally have less than optimal 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 (or worse... ). If you drank a beer with all 1-propanol or isopropanol (rubbing alcohol) you could have largish GI haemorrhage, 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 35C, it is unlikely that there would be enough of those fusels to do anything to you other than give you that nasty headache.
Acetaldehyde and it's mates can be soaked up by using activated charcoal (B12 and activated charcoal are main ingredients in some hangover pills...)
Alcohol is also diuretic (tell that to guys who boast about 'not even breaking the seal' on a night out...), so a pint or two of water after the bender will help enormously!
As I'm on about hangovers, beer brewed at home doesn't usually contain any preservatives - so steer clear of the sulphites when you're next formulating your recipe (even campden tablets in wine or cider...)
And whilst I'm on about it, there's one thing that all beer has in common - farting... but alas I don't know how to stop!!

 

[manticle]

A good fart is a sign of appreciation for a good beer.

 

[pcmfisher]

I just read something about fusels and hangovers. Only an animal test but interesting all the same.


linky




Also, I wasn't aware that methanol was a fusel alcohol B)

 

[Nick JD]

I just read something about fusels and hangovers. Only an animal test but interesting all the same.


linky




Also, I wasn't aware that methanol was a fusel alcohol B)

Brew high people, brew high.

These results suggest that the fusel oil in whisky alleviates hangover, contrary to the common belief.

EDIT: I'm thinking that small quantities of fusel alcohols possibly kick the liver into some serious enzymatic activity and whisk the ethanol away quick-smart as well. A bit of fusel in your beer might be a bit like initiating an immune response with a toxin. Like putting a bee sting on eczema - the body didn't care before - now it's sent in the troops. Guessing though.