Saisons and hangovers... any correlation?

OP, was it a brett saison of some description?

 

If I have more than one Jai Alai in one sitting, I'll wake up at 3 am with a pounding headache. Sucks, because it's my favorite beer and about impossible to drink just 1.. Never had the problem with Saison's though.

 

BBA stouts hit me like a brick the next morning.

See how long it took me to say that?

 

The OP took all of two minutes to read and it was well written. Do you know what depresses me? Forums full of one liners so people can pad their post counts. As to the actual topic, I've never binged on Saisons before, but I imagine that I could easily handle three glasses, even if it was in a higher ABV range (7 to 8%). It's weird that you could have such a bad hangover off of that. My worst was mixing wine and tequila (not in the same glass - but on the same night.)

 

They do, but fusel alcohols CAN be hidden, and saison's are an excellent place to hide off-flavors. Spices? Funky Yeast? Check and Check. Since Saison's and other Belgians tend to require warmer temperatures, this is most likely the primary culprit. I remember I once made a double amber with a fusel alcohol problem. The dark malts hid the fusel alcohol aroma, but after 1 & bed, I felt like I had downed a case. Mention it to the brewer, if you know them, and let them have some feedback. They may have raised the temperature too fast during fermentation. I'm sure they'd rather have that information, than to sell a beer that won't sell.

 

I'll have to do an all Belgian night and get back to you.

 

Trappist beers are sweet? Saison yeast produces high levels of fusel alcohol? WTF are you people talking about?

 

My question would be, why so many high ABV beers and craft? I know you say you really like the taste but even if I wanted to drink the amount of beer you previously described, I wouldn't be able to taste the second half of those beers. My palate is usually shot after 3 or 4.

 

So do you go to Coors after 3-4? Even if my palate isn't prime like when I'm sober, I've got to have 0 beer options left at a bar before I'm going to PBR or something equally flavorless.

 

Here's some science for those who care. Decent series of three articles, actually. Enough science for those who like that sort of thing, yet easy enough to read for us normal humans. Part 3 talks about the physiology of the hangover and brings up the fusel oil/alcohol topic. I also stumbled across another article mentioning high molecular weight alcohols (fusels) and other "congeners" - other byproducts of fermentation that produce flavors but may or may not impact the unpleasant after effects of consumption - inconclusive, so I won't post the reference because I don't have time to verify it right now. Possible that other factors contribute besides the alcohols, though. I believe that as anecdotal evidence - back in my heavy drinking days, the hangovers always came with the cheap booze, presumably with more impurities in general (as the article suggests with the grappa example) and I associated the headaches with crappy whiskey. DO saisons have more "impurities" as a result of the fermentation technique? Maybe?

http://www.chemistryviews.org/detai...ver__Alcohol_and_its_Consequences_Part_3.html

The main argument I have with this article is actually the fancy chemical analysis. The "significant" spikes in the higher weight alcohols from the different liquors don't really look that huge to my eyeballs. I am not a chemist, so I don't really know. As others have indicated, even without the hangover, there's lots of things going on that add up, so be careful out there, mmmm'Kay?

And this one will short circuit the mind...this abstract says exactly the opposite.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12960505

 

For me it's sours. always sour yeasties. wake up dehydrated and all puckered out

 

i drink saisons regularly and dont suffer from hangovers. not much residual sugars left in those. i would hardly say that thats the problem.

 

Nothing Saison yeast produce if handled correctly cause hangovers. The origin of the style is for working folks. Despite Belgians adding sugar and candi syrups to beer there should be no sugar left in the beer is attenuated prooperly. Sweetness is caused by 1) perception of fruity esters as sweet 2) perception of dextrin or body as sweet 3)lack of bitterness/balance.

Saisons are sometimes brewed at 7-8% ABV, could it have snuck up on you, you really don't notice the alcohol in a good one? Fusels would taste 'hot' and not clean. Maybe the brewery pitched some metabisulfites in there that you are sensitive to.

Sour beer causes farts, no doubt about that.

 

That isn't even 2 pints!

 

I had 6 Heady Toppers this past Saturday. Wicked hangover. Awful bathroom experiences for 2 days. I'm convinced there was a pasteurization issue.....

Or I had 3 more than a reasonable amount.

D

 

I am a newb in the saison/sour world. Ive only had a 750 to my self a couple of times.
Dont judge me bro!!! lol

 

I'd like to back up what others have said and say it has to do with the fusel oils. I've recently begun home brewing and for the first few batches, I didn't understand the importance of temperature control for my stouts. The second stout I made I let sit in temperatures ranging between 75 - 82F. When all was said and done, I kegged it and began drinking it shortly thereafter. I noticed some off flavors right away and began researching it. Found out that the off flavor was fusel alcohol.

Now, I'm not one to get hangovers with beer. I'm fairly good at holding my own when it comes to consuming beer and I hardly ever wake up feeling the repercussions. The only beverage that has ever given me problems in the past is an over consumption of wine (gives me headache every friggin time even when I down a gallon of water before bed). So, even though my beer had an off flavor, I wasn't about to drain pour 5 gallons of beer. I started consuming about 2 - 3 pints of it a day so I could keg another batch. However, I noticed that the morning after, no matter how much water I drank the night before, I woke up with a headache.

After further research, I found that fusel oils are attributed to hangovers. Here's a pretty good article that goes into the science behind it: http://www.winesandvines.com/template.cfm?section=features&content=74439

Combining my experience and yours, I'm fairly certain it was the fusel oils in the saison that did it to you.

 

on a semi-serious response, went on a recent "sour" streak, I was getting a different type of headache, almost sorta like a long term brain-freeze. I haven't really drank that quantity of sours in the past (mostly a hops and stout drinker) It sucked. I didn't really have any "sickness" hangover, just the headache only. In a day or two, if i just had 1-2 beers, the headache would creep back. I took a week+ off of alcohol, and headaches seem to have gone away.

I'm gonna have to try and re-create this scenario this coming weekend with a bunch of loons.