Different intoxications from different beers

Bolded for emphasis. I agree with everything you've said there, that the situation and other factors can contribute to your buzz. The problem is that the question being asked is whether or not different types of beer get you different types of drunk. Meaning that theoretically, the answer to the question would require the controlling of all factors that aren't the beer. And if you want to be really accurate in your answer, it would also require controlling for the ABV level, so that you can recognize that the difference in buzz is a factor of the type/style of beer, and not just a stronger ABV getting you intoxicated quicker.

So essentially, the question comes down to this: do the non-ethanol components of a beer--things like type of grain, type of hop, type of additives, etc.--have an impact on the way your buzz feels? There is just no scientific evidence for the fact that it does.

Yes, the vast majority of the volume of a beer is not ethanol, but the problem with this reasoning is that the 92% is comprised entirely of inert elements of the beer.

There are two things you mentioned, however, worth exploring:

1) Rate of consumption is clearly a factor in feeling intoxicated. However, the OP's scenario seemed to imply that he was looking for a cause for different feelings of intoxication that is separate from something as simple as how much ethanol he had consumed. Therefore, we need to control for ethanol consumption to get a worthwhile answer--i.e., to determine if Founders RIS gets you a "different" kind of drunk than All Day IPA, you need to look at consuming the volume of each that would amount to an equivalent quantity of ethanol. Otherwise, the difference in drunkness is the level of ethanol, not the different type of beer.

2) Residual sugars is similar to the notion of congeners in the article I linked above, in that it's an inert ingredient that could have an impact on body chemistry, which might have a subtle effect on the "flavor" of your buzz, so to speak. I still think that the level of impact of the sugars compared to the level of impact of the active ingredient is so small that it might as well be nonexistent. Sort of like using a portable fan in the middle of a windstorm. Yeah, that fan is creating some breeze, but is it really having a discernible effect while the wind is whipping around you?

Hop oils are not active ingredients. The variance in the oils of hops used has an influence on the beer, just not in the way your buzz feels.

Let's look at this another way: if you were to drink several glasses of two different types of unfermented wort, do you think you would be able to detect a discernible difference in how each type made you feel? If your answer is yes, then maybe you can detect a difference in the type of buzz you get from beer type to beer type.

But call me a skeptic, I guess...

 

Ok well this is where we need a organic chemist and a brain guy, because I have no idea really.

I think flavor is the main focus, lol. I used to love the argument about using pot in beer, those threads tend to get locked down (FAST) sadly. Are far as I know and I not had chemistry in a long time. But most of that stuff gets boiled off. I am sure some 1 else that is better at this stuff than me, could figure it out?. I really need to goto a Holiday inn express.

Still speaking as one who has done at LOT of chemicals in my day. Booze is booze. People "think" that other booze is worse or better, yep that is what they think. its usually the amount over what time factor. control all those and I bet the results are the same. I am sure that if they break down everything in beer and some 1 funds it one way or another they can prove anything.....lol

I doubt anyone really cares that much.

 

Reminds my of a Wendy commercial: "Parts is parts!"

 

Are you sure about that?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22849837

"Conclusion:
The concentration of 2 mg of hop extract effectively decreased nocturnal activity in the circadian activity rhythm. On the basis of this investigation, administration of non-alcoholic beer would be recommended due to its hop content and consequent sedative action, which would be an aid to nocturnal sleep."

 

Nothing to add to this convo beyond anecdotal observation, but I have found that the ABV printed on the side of the bottle is not always a solid indicator of how intoxicating a beer is to me. Often certain beers make me feel drunker than their ABV should, and in some cases they feel like a "different kind of drunk." Perhaps this is all psychological or whatever, it doesn't really matter. The effects feel real, and when we are talking about subjective experience, the way something feels is all that really matters, and cannot be disputed by others.

 

Got any human studies to that effect?

 

can you get that link on congeners to pull up?

 

I can't quickly find one on humans, but I think it's safe to say it is at least active. While searching, I found one about helping with liver cancer (in humans), though
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18814205

 

Thats what happens when one of those buddies has a bottle capper & a vial of liquid blotter...

 

@LambicPentameter

Hops have long been used in herbal medicine as a remedy for many ailments. One of which @StLeasy mentioned.

When you boil hops in wort, you are very much extracting crucial hop constituents that will be readily available in the beer. When dry-hopping is involved you now have the wonders of alcohol extraction.

I'd recommend you look into the medicinal qualities of the hop to see just how much of an effect it will have on a beer.

 

Pripps Carnegie Porter has psycho-active effects on me.

 

Those who say alcohol is alcohol ignore that the source is far from uniform, and that the context can often be a major factor to how your body reacts to it. Take a low ABV sour, pour it in my stomach. The acid is going to drive me to eat, or I'm going to have pain if I drink too much. If I eat, that will absorb the alcohol as well as the acid, and then I get a slower release of that alcohol, over a longer period, and I'm less likely to get a buzz.

I cannot offer a thought on the OP, because IPAs hit me pretty much the same, but how a beer is composed can most certainly impact how its absorbed, and that can impact how well your body can accommodate the alcohol in the beer (resulting in a buzz, and possibly a hangover). Personal sensitivities may also be a factor - why would we expect that different people react to different medical formulations differently, and not recognize that as complex a chemical combination as beer would not have the same potential effect?

 

You likely feel rowdy either because of the crowd you are with while drinking tequila, the setting your in while drinking tequila, or because tequila is marketed/given a reputation for being something that makes one rowdy and you're acting out some kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. More likely than not you are not rowdy because of the tequila itself.

 

Might be a dumb question here but how regulated are the ABVS of beer? Does the FDA or any other regulatoty authority test for alcohol content? I'm guessing so but not certain...

Just wondering....

 

It was kegs. Great stuff.

 

Fair enough. But there is a pretty wide chasm between something having medicinal properties (and therefore being "active"--which is my bad on a poor choice of words) and having psychotropic properties, which relates to the OP's question of whether or not different beers give a different feel of buzz.

Those of us who are saying 'alcohol is alcohol' aren't ignoring the fact that context can be a major factor at all--at least I'm not. In fact, I would argue that the 'alcohol is alcohol' argument implicitly suggests that it is, in fact, the *context* that contributes to a different feel of buzz far more than the liquid that serves as the vehicle for the alcohol to enter the system.

If you have a different eating pattern depending on what type of beer you are drinking, it's the change in eating pattern that is contributing to your change in buzz--not the beer that prompts the change in eating pattern.

The article I cited earlier notes that in spite of some things that could explain a differential effect in the type of buzz one feels from drinking different types of booze... well, they say it better than me:

"All of the above being said, despite the fact that there are no scientific studies (to my knowledge) that examine the behavioral effects that different alcoholic beverages may or may not have, the most common explanation for the differential effects of booze is that it's all in your head, and that your experience with a given alcohol is dictated largely by the social situations in which you choose to consume it:

"A lot of this is folk memories and cultural hangovers," says pharmacologist Paul Clayton, former Senior Scientific Advisor to the UK government's Committee on the Safety of Medicines, in an interview with The Guardian. He continues:

"A lot of it depends on what mood you were in when you started drinking and the social contex. The idea that gin makes you unhappy probably comes from its nickname "mother's ruin" - the idea that it makes women depressed, which is a cultural idea. But fundamentally, alcohol is alcohol whichever way you slice it."​

 

Years ago, I had a girlfriend that went Mrs. Hyde from Dr. Jekyll with just two drinks of any gin. Those botanicals definitely affect some people and make them angry at the universe. Tequila can operate similarly.

 

I like the article's introduction of "congeners" as a possible explanation for the different drunk states, while also acknowledging it may just be state of mind.

Despite the fact that ethanol is ethanol, it would seem that the other ingredients in an alcoholic substance could have different effects on different people, like the way Diet Cokes give some people headaches, others a boost of energy, and still others an excuse that they can eat a third slice of cake.

 

What kinds of sugars are they using in addition to the grain bill for fermentables?