Grateful Dead Music Forum

why is a draft beer hangover so much worse than a normal hangover? I had 4 draft blues and a shot of crown last night. I didn't even get drunk, just slightly buzzed, and yet my head is pounding this mourning as if I'd been binge drinking.
Do anybody else have this problem?
Is there scientific reasoning behind the draft hangover?
either way, praise Allah for fine Columbian coffee. A life saver till the very end

I've never really had a problem with it, or at least never noticed the difference. If I had to guess there could be a difference in the carbonation amounts between bottled and draft beer. Since you have to add an extra CO2 pack to get the already carbonated beer out of the keg.

spilly wrote:why is a draft beer hangover so much worse than a normal hangover?

i don't have the same problem. got a kegerator at the house and notice no difference between a night on that and a night drinking bottles of the same beer. except maybe the freshness of the kegged beer

I've had similar unexplained wicked hangovers after drinking a "normal" amount of beer.

I have heard from my buddy who runs a bar that I should never trust tap lines at most bars. He said that in Michigan, the rules for cleaning your lines aren't strict enough to make sure there is no schmeg in them. He cleans his much more frequently because he sees it, and, well, he sells lots of draft beer.

So, I've stopped drinking draft beer outside of places that I know clean their tap lines all the time, and only drink out of bottles.

Not saying this is your problem, but you could have been a victim of a dirty line.

Word on the tap lines. When I was in the fraternity, we ran a lot of beer. We would clean the lines and fittings about every two months. Every year we would change all the lines and any fittings that had become gunky at all (like, if I couldn't wipe it away with a paper towel), got replaced as well. We were known for having good tasting beer at parties, and we mostly ran Old Milwaukee, so it's not like we bought expensive stuff.

I never really understood why the lines got gunked up in the first place though. The beer inside a keg is incredibly clean, it has to be as part of the brewing process. Contaminants in the beer will deactivate the yeast and ruin the beer. I guessed at the time that most of the gunk came from the process of tapping and untapping kegs, but if someone has a better explanation than that, I would be interested to hear it.

Party at steve's!!!

aha, I never even thought about the tap lines. That could explain it.
A friend of mine had a theory that tequila wouldn't get you that drunk if it wasn't for the salt and lemon. as these items tend to dehydrate you further, I tend to agree with him.

Tap Lines need to be cleaned. It friggin kills me. Also clean glasses help.

Seriously, back in the 80s I used to hang out in a bar on the Ocean in Daytona Beach. The pithcers of Beer would give me a killer hangover. At the time I thought it was because of my bad wisdom teeth. which it was but not completely. On tuesday they would have 2 for 1 well drinks. So I would have Vodka/ cranberry. And not so bad a hangover as a similar amount of beer.
The beer was giving me an almost allergic reaction, with congestion in my sinuses. Which made a bad hangover worse.

I also probably have a small allergy to hops or yeast, which is why lower hop beers are better for me.
I mean what am i supposed to do,?, stop drinking beer cause I get a runny nose ?
ta ha hehe that is a funny one I kill me

Typical hangovers are 2 part:
1 - dehydration
2 - body's recovery of expelling the alcohol toxins

I think we all agree on this...

Now here is my theory: mold in the lines impact people who are more susceptible to mold and spore allergies. That is why some people aren't impacted by draft and others are.

I didn't develop allergies until my mid-20s. In my college years I could drink draft beer at any bar any where any time and if I drank in moderation no hangover.

Then in my mid-20s it all changed and draft beer almost always gives me hangovers. Guiness is an exception but I've been told that stouts are less susceptible to mold and the lines are charged with nitrogen vs. carbon dioxide.

MMMMM.Guiness. MMMMMM

Yeah, but the really good sh*t is in Ireland Somehow the Guiness just doesn't taste the same here...

milobender wrote:Yeah, but the really good sh*t is in Ireland Somehow the Guiness just doesn't taste the same here...

Guinness sent me to Ireland back in 2001. Per them there is no difference in what is available in the US vs Ireland. The only times there is a difference is for states that have laws on what is called a "stout".

Now the main diff is that Guinness has 2 varieties: stout & extra stout

In the US only the regular stout is on draft. In Ireland they have both or if only one the extra stout.

But you can still buy the extra stout in the US at any liquor store that sells Guinness. They are sold in the smaller bottles.

Well duh yer in the middle of Wyoming !

All the beer tastes good over there.Even the Heineken.They love beer.The biggest friggin glasses of beer I ever saw or even attempted to drink.
They could out drink me ,but they couldnt out smoke me !

Well, I've only had it in bottles here, and on tap there, and there is definatley, postively, I think, totally subjectively and non-scientifically, a difference...

I know what you mean! You "go for a pint" over there, and watch out Two of em and I'm on the way...