I’ve been making my Daughter a special Brown Ale, for about 15 years. She and I adjusted the recipe to just what she wants. She is allergic to the last batch! I had some of the previous batch for comparison, and they’re just fine, we repeated the comparison, and it’s consistent. Most of the ingredients were identical. The only thing that appears to be different is the yeast. I always used Chico yeast, either 1056 or US-05, but on this last batch, I used a repitch of WLP007 English Ale Yeast, from a local BrewPub. Is it reasonable that this yeast could cause an allergenic reaction? Anyone have a similar experience? Thanks!
I think it is possible that there is some ester/compound that 007 produces more of than 001/1056 to a level that it causes an adverse reaction to her, sure.
not sure what the reaction was, but if its not dangerous, i would see if some other beers cause the same reaction - perhaps a growler from the brewery you got it from.
First the disclaimer…I am not a doctor. That said, I have to admit it seems kinda far fetched.
She could try something brewed with that yeast from the pub. Otherwise, its certainly not something I’d have expected … but??
could be diacetyl.
the correct advice is to seek medical guidance. but the imitation butter flavor you can buy in the spice isle or even movie theatre popcorn would have at least as much as your beer. does she react to those things?
Could basically be anything:
Whodathunkit: if all else was the same-
"Yeasts
Although found in low levels in alcoholic drinks, yeasts can cause true allergic reactions. The symptoms include wheezing, sneezing, diarrhea, nausea, heartburn, dizziness, white coated tongue, sore throat, skin rashes and abdominal pain."
A few of those are why I do not like yeasty beers! Not all though.
Thanks for all the good suggestions. I think she has had beers from the same brewery, and he often uses that British Ale yeast, WLP007. I’m passing all your comments on to her, and we’ll see if anything falls out.
If it’s diacetyl, I may fade with time in the bottle. I’m very insensitive to the taste, so I could easily miss it, but I’ll ask a couple good judges to see if they taste it. I have over 4 cases of this batch, and I don’t really care for it, the beer is mainly for Judy, so I hope I can fix it with time. I’ll try warm aging some.
Thanks again.
Could she be developing a gluten intolerance?
It can’t be much of a change on Judy’s part, like Gluten intolerance, since she can drink the JBA from the previous batch, and has no reaction to it. She tried the new batch, had the scratchy throat, then drank one from the previous batch, no problem. We can’t experiment too much, since allergic reactions can get much stronger with repeated exposure.
I wonder, rather than it being a byproduct of fermentation, like diacetyl, if it could be something they brewed with in the batch of beer they took the repitch from. If it is something she’s highly sensitive to, it could be present in the slurry at parts per million.
Update from Judy. She recently had a similar reaction to an Indian Brown Ale from Dogfish Head. She also recalls some other Brown Ales from a good while ago, not all, causing the itchy throat. Sounds like maybe a malt. Ring any bells? I was going to try remaking, but not sure what to change now. I’m taking it to another BIER meeting, to see if the membership can detect Diacetyl or other difference?
Thanks, again for any suggestons.
One thing it could be is a fining agent used by the brewpub (as well as other breweries) that you got a larger than normal volume of in the slurry that caused the reaction.
I’d be surprised if a particular grain is causing the problem if there is no gluten issues. I guess there could be rye or oats or something you don’t normally use in the DFH beer but I’d imagine she has come across those grains elsewhere.
Whirlfloc B was used in the batch the English yeast came from. I’ve never used it, only Irish Moss.
You don’t have to search online too hard to see people mentioning allergic reactions to whirlfloc.
I took a sample of the offending batch of JBA to a BIER club meeting, and no one detected Diacetyl, so
I’m going to make another batch of JBA, no Whirlfloc (I’ll use Irish Moss), or English Ale Yeast (I’ll use US-05). I’ll be using the normal grist, which includes rye & oats. It’ll take a month or so to see how it goes. Thanks, All.
I gotta say if it turns out to be the whirlfloc I’ll feel a bit vindicated in sticking to good old irish moss all these years.
I am just cheap and have been going through a pound bag of it!
I went over to Google and searched ‘allergic to water’ thinking I’d find some crazy claim on blog somewhere. Maybe a group of people trying to eliminate water from their diet!? Instead I found stories from actual news companies about people who get hives when their skin gets wet. So … I guess it could really be anything.