I’m allergic to IPA’S, which taste like onion juice and oregano, and cause Hop Droop AND the sniffles….
Every once in a bit I get a crashing headache after drinking one or two beers. It’s always hoppy IPA and it’s always much later after drinking them. Later in the night or the next morning depending on when i drank them. Feels like a bad hangover headache but since only having one or two I have equated this to a hop thing. No other style, not most times, and I have not tracked what beers it happens with. Guess it could be other things too. Interesting topic. Enjoy
Some IPAs make me sneeze. Don't know if it's an allergy, but if I take a whiff of for example Tröegs Perpetual, I'll immediately sneeze. Takes the fun out of drinking a beer. I can drink a Dogfish head 120 with no problem though. It's something in the cut grass-lawnmower smell of hops that gives me the sneezes.
NEIPAs are often the worst hangover I'll get if I drink too much, especially since I love having one before a BBA stout (something about the fruity bitter to vanilla chocolate bitter), but I've never seen a worse craft beer response than in my dad. Any beer that's not under 4.5% with low hop presence upsets his stomach the next day like he's sick, and that includes non-hoppy styles. He loves a good beer and I've gotten him into some nicer offerings (current favorites are Troegs Sunshine Pils and Allagash White) but it just makes him gross the next day, so I haven't drank with him for over a year now. Kind of weird, but I personally think it's the alcohol content since he never takes proper breaks. He unfortunately drinks Yuengling Premium religiously, and anything besides that is reserved for football Sundays. We play cards and drink sometimes, so over Thanksgiving I brought over a 4pk of New Trail Double Broken Heels, which is a lovely beer, and it didn't seem to have much of an ill effect the next day.
Good to see this thread. A couple of years ago my wife would have an itchy throat after drinking different beers. She hates IPA's so the reaction was from different styles of beer. The last beer she had her throat began swelling up. Fortunately benadryl helped relieve the symptoms. This thread and subsequent research has led to hop allergies being an actual thing. There are several reports of people being allergic to the "C" family of hops. The question is will an IgE test differentiate between types of hops? I will gave to do some more research after the holidays.
I probably don't have an allergy to high levels of hops because I rarely drink brews with high levels of hops. However, I might be developing an allergy to yeasty Belgians; so I am thinking of reducing that intake. On second thought, maybe not.
I have an “aversion.” Anything hoppier than Kona Big Wave and I won’t like it. My gf seems to react poorly to certain ingredients in beer. As an example, we recently tried a New Glarus Framboise. After two sips she couldn’t breathe through her nose. Being the gentleman that I am, I selflessly offered to drink it for her.
An allergy is an immune mediated reaction, and I suspect that your runny nose (as long as it's not accompanied by lip/tongue swelling, watery itchy red eyes, hives, sneezing fits, wheezing) is not a true allergy but more a reaction to an irritant...Like chili pepper, chemicals, cleaning agents, strong odors. I mention this because if not, it's unlikely to be anything dangerous, just bothersome. And benadryl and other antihistamines won't help that. So keep drinking if you want to.
I frequently sneeze when drinking hoppy beer. I frequently sneeze just in general, as my lovely wife would tell you through clenched teeth. I'm also blessed with photic sneeze reflex, AKA sun sneezing. What I'm saying is that my charming personality has a lot to overcome.
