Brands of Beer and Headaches

[axebrian]

OK, I'm not sure what or why some people get a headache from simply drinking a particular kind of beer, but I'd love to know the reason.

Thoughout my decades of beer drinking, I've run across many people in clubs and close friends that can't drink certian kinds of beer as it gives them a headache. Here are the most common situations I've ran across throughout the years.

I can't drink draft beer as it gives me a headache. I've heard that one many times.

I can't drink any Anheuser beer product, as is gives me a headache. I've heard that many times as well.

Recently, while going back to my hometown, out of state and 650 miles away, one of my best friends for 30 plus years came to visit me. I offered him a beer and when he seen the cooler full of Bud, Bud Light and Michelob, he said "man, thanks but do you have anything besides Anheuser products"? Well, I was like ...all I had besides that were Zima's and some other wine cooler "chick types" of drinks. He told me that for the past 4-5 years or so he couldn't drink any Anheuser products without getting a headache, and he was serious. This statement was from my bud that had drank literally hundreds of gallons of Anheuser beers with me for decades and since we were teenagers. In southern Illinois, where we grew up, Anheuser beers were THE beverage of choice. He didn't know why and I don't either. He said Miller and Coors products doesn't give him a headache.

Does anyone here know what the hell the reason is for this?

Any vhlinks bartenders or knowledgeable folks in the house that can shed some light on this subject?

Thanks in advance

[sisca]

well, it COULD be an allergic reaction to hops. miller lite gives me a headache and clogs up my sinuses. corona also gives me sinus problems as well. lower quality beers like lone star give me the shits. i stick with bud light for domestic beer, and dos equis or pacifico for mexican. heineken doesnt bother me, and most microbrews are pretty good in quality. little known fact: many domestic draft beers use formaldehyde as a preservative, which results in a brutal hangover.

[Axxman300]

Budweiser makes me sick too.

I think it's because I drank a couple hundred gallons of it when I was young. I worked in a pizza parlor where we served Bud, Bud-Light and Lowenbrau Dark. Since I was the manager and 18, I drank many a pitcher after hours

By the time I was 21, Bud either made me sick or gave me a nasty headache BEFORE I went to bed.

Today I drink wine or Ale, if I drink at all.

[Michaels]

The blue moon hangover is pretty bad, sadly this is my fav beer.
Rolling Rock is a really horrible one for me.
Any draft usually does the trick to me as well.

[MBMM]

I typically avoid draft beer. Always thought the CO2 was the guilty headache party. Anyway, I'll stick with my Labatt's Blue/Blue Light. Never had any issues with Bud/Bud Light. In fact, I don't even recall any issues with Busch "Pounders" -a fine college staple- back in the day.

[Mikey Metalhead]

I was once given an explanation about Bud products. It was something that they put in there beer that is an impurity, so causes headaches, I have never researched to see if it is true, although MOST bud products give me a headache. and I am not talking hangover, I mean within an hour.

interesting, some bud products do not, like mich.

[LoveWalkinIn]

The worst beer for headaches/hangovers, IMO, is Keystone. I've only ever drank the stuff when it was free, as it just tastes brutal. I know the reason that it gives a bad headache/hangover, is because it is in fact a malt liquor, which is not advertised.

As for Anheiser products, Budweiser is my American beer of choice, don't really drink any of their other stuff though, mainly because I don't drink any light beer except when its given to me for free. And I never have a problem from Budweiser, ever. Pabst has also given me some fairly brutal headaches as well. Natural Light will give you a headache before bed too. I think to be completely in the clear, you probably just shouldn't drink your average golden beer (99% of American Beer), I've NEVER had a problem with things like Newcastle or Guiness, and thus typically stick to those.

[muffdiver]

Wussies, all of ya's....

[amorton]

As far as Budweiser goes, they use rice in the formula, wheras most brewers don't. That's the reason I have heard before.

[Bostonian]

Drink Longtrail Beer from Vermont Good stuff!

[axebrian]

Interesting comments... "formaldehyde"

From www.straightdope.com
Below, this Cecil Adams dude says that beer makers legally don't have to list their ingredients. If that's true, why are they exempt? C'mon, too expensive? as stated below


Dear Cecil:

A friend of mine who brews beer told me something quite startling recently. He said he read in a brewer's magazine that Budweiser uses chicken hearts in their beer. Is this true? Why do they use them? Does anybody else? I assure you this is not a case of professional jealousy--we can't stand Bud anyway. --Sparky H., Chicago

Why are alcoholic beverages exempt from having to list their ingredients? How can the consumer tell if a beer has preservatives, chemical additives, or artifical flavors and colors? Mass consumption of alcohol is unhealthy enough without also having to ingest assorted chemical horrors. --Steve N., Phoenix

Dear Boys:

There is no question that a disquieting amount of chemical crud goes into the nation's beer (not to mention its wine and liquor), but Uncle Cecil must humbly confess that he does not know exactly what goes into which. That's because the booze industry has successfully resisted all attempts to force it to list ingredients, on the ridiculous grounds that doing so would be too expensive.

The real reason, needless to say, is that if you, Joe Consumer, knew what kind of sludge went into your favorite brand, you would probably drink a lot less of it. I don't know about chicken hearts, but some brewers use seaweed extract as a foam stabilizer, and some wine makers use fish glue to prevent cloudiness.

Queasy as these things sound, they're probably harmless, which is more than you can say for some additives. In the mid-60s, for instance, about 50 people died when brewers began putting cobalt sulfate into their products as a foaming agent. Beverage manufacturers don't intentionally murder their customers, of course. But the fact is that a fair number of people are allergic or otherwise sensitive to booze additives, and in the absence of labeling the only way to find out if there's anything bad in a given brew is to take a hefty swig of it and see if you keel over.

Anheuser-Busch claims that Budweiser contains only natural ingredients: water, barley malt, rice, hops, yeast, and tannin, an anticloudiness agent that is mostly removed from the final product. They say there's no chicken hearts or anything else. On the other hand, Miller, Anheuser's chief competitor, uses quite a bit of chemical goo.

We can prove this by performing the following easy 'n' fun test for the presence of foam stabilizers. Get two clean beer glasses, and into each put one drop of milk diluted 70-to-1 with water. Then pour Bud into one glass and Miller into the other. Unless the manufacturers have changed their formulas in the last couple weeks, the head on the Bud will die like a dog within two minutes (which it should--even a tiny trace of milk is deadly to beer foam), whereas the one on the Miller won't, indicating the presence of false drugs.

The preceding exercise in handy home chemistry is supplied by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer group based in Washington, D.C., that recently made a not-very-successful effort to get manufacturers to voluntarily reveal their ingredients. I don't mean to single out the Miller company, but you may be interested to know that Miller Lite contains propylene glycol alginate, water, barley malt, corn syrup, chemically modified hop extracts, yeast, amyloglucosidase, carbon dioxide, papain enzyme, liquid sugar, potassium metabisulfite, and Emka-malt, whatever that is. I would venture to say that light beers as a class tend to have more additives than others, simply because they'd be totally flat and tasteless otherwise.

For more info on this subject, see Chemical Additives in Booze, available from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, 1755 S Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20009.

--CECIL ADAMS

[graeme]

I'm as good as allergic to wheat beer. Once in Germany I was drinking (moderately) a Cologne local brew. the next day, all day, I had a headache that felt like a vice gripping my head and needles being stabbed into my eyes.
Never had a hangover even remotely close.
The additives also get me in a lot of lagers; most of them are full of absolute shit; additives, flavourings, anti this and anti that....
Same with wines, the whites are fine but drink a cheap red and you're pumping untold rubbish into yourself. For spirits the clear ones again are OK but the whiskies, brandies etc have a shit load of colourings and other stuff.

Stick to Guiness. You can live on Guiness. You can Guiness on life.

[Wolfgang Bob]

Yes, Anheiser-Busch uses formaldehyde to "age" there beer quicker. That's what gives you a headache/hangover. I can't the $hit either...........

[Wickett]

For some reason Miller Genuine Draft gives me the worst headaches. Not sure why. I've drank more than my fair share of all kinds of beer and not had the same response (unless I drank 42 at a sitting and I deserved it, of course).

[smithjc]

Wussies, all of ya's....

Wow how unsurprising from our Canadian pal.

I never had the headache thing with the brewage. Wines do that for me. So if I want a headache I'll take the wine.

Miller? Yech! Coors? Yech! Corona? Yech!

Think I'll stick with good ol' Budweiser and Michelob; and none of that light crap either.