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Hops and Hangovers

HoosierDanny

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I remember reading somewhere that the AA of some hops, used for bittering I believe, have something to do with hangovers.  I couldn't find anything on it and I think i remember reading about it here.  Any input is greatly appreciated.
 
Personal anecdote, but when I drink too much highly-hopped brew, I am much more likely to have a headache next AM. 
 
Quantity is a factor. I also regret too much variety.  Particularly mixing a big belgian in. 
 
I've never seen any correlation between hops and hangovers, other than Maltlickers.

But Fusel alcohols just wipe me out, common cause, fermenting too warm.  there are other factors as well.
 
One downside of brewclub is after 10+ tastes of different beer, I get a fuzzy head the next day.  No way to control everyones brews.
 
bonjour said:
But Fusel alcohols just wipe me out, common cause, fermenting too warm. 

NO kidding.  Made a decent triple, but it ferm'ed hot.  Man, it was tough deciding whether to drink it or dump it.  I think you just made me rank fermentation temp control #1, even over wort chilling.  You can make a decent beer with mediocre chilling, but let a ferm run hot, and you will pay dearly with every bottle. 
 
I believe that hangovers are the result of  by products of the ferment.
There are aldehydes, amyl alcohol, esters, ketones, fusel alcohols (DMT), Lactic acid, and other impurities that  can result from the fermentation process.  I rather suspect it's got a lot to do with the kinds of sugars used and the ferment variables such as temperature and oxygen content available to the yeast.
 
When distilling clear spirits, it is best to use a  reflux column and not a pot still exactly to eliminate those things from the final product.
The Cheap Vodkas make for worse and more hangovers and from less consumption because of the lower quality of the equipment and lesser attention paid to purity and precision which causes the impurity content to be higher.

I've made some steam beers that were most unkind  to me the day after consuming.

I've never heard of anything that suggests that it's the hops that causes headaches.
However, the potential for an allergy  might not be too far out there. 






 
 
I believe that hops affect people differently. I am a big fan of IPA's but if I have more than two IPA's in a night, I get a terrible headache the next day.....sooooooo sad.
 
Had one of the worst hangovers of my life after 4 Stone IPA's and one Clipper City Marzhon (sic) the other night. Not a lot for me, by any means, but something did my head in!
 
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