… That gives you a hangover where Homebrew doesn’t?
It’s gotten to the point now where if I go out to eat and have just 2 beers (and I limit myself to 2 because of this) I will wake up the next morning with a damn headache. Yet I can drink 5, 6, 7 of my Homebrew and wake up at 7am ready for yard work.
This applies to any store bought beer I’ve had. Big name or micro.
I don’t know for sure. My best guess is that some brewers may want to rush the process by fermenting to warm thereby producing fusels. But I’m fairly sure it isn’t the majority… So I don’t know.
Yes, it certainly isn’t all of the breweries but I know of a bunch that really push the time on fermentation and ferment warm. I know of one brewery that was contract brewing for a client and pushed the beer to 4 days.
wow. reminded me of a song-so i took the liberty of modifying for just this occasion…
I need beer, beer to ease my mind
I need to find time
A beer to call mine
But Denny said
You can’t hurry beer
No, you’ll just have to wait
Denny said beer don’t come easy
It’s a game of give and take
You can’t hurry beer
No, you’ll just have to wait
Just trust on my good times
No matter how long it takes…(The Supremes and Phil Collins)
Cannot compare fermentation times between Homebrew and commercial. I vote placebo effect.
Great stuff ken!
My theory is that our homebrew isn’t filtered like most commercial beer. Every time I drink a bunch of oktoberfest beers from Germany, I feel like total sh!t the next day. But I can drink, like you said, 5, 6, 7+ pints of homebrew and, not while still I won’t feel great, but not feel too bad either. I never get headaches, I just get really tired and sometimes a little nauseous. I really try to not drink that much, but I’m not doing very well, especially when there’s a special occasion.
+1 to filtration as the culprit.
I’ve read (Papazian, I think) that filtering beer removes much of the yeast in suspension. Brewer’s yeast is high in B vitamins, which get depleted with all the peeing that you inevitably do when you drink 5-7 beers during a session. The resulting deficiency in vitamin B is one of the things that makes you feel bad. Many of the members of my homebrew club take Vitamin B complex when they know ahead of time that they might overindulge.
It seems to make sense, though I’m not a doctor, just someone who absolutely hates a hangover.
I won’t rule out placebo affect but there are certainly breweries who are pushing their beer through the tanks as fast as possible. There is a comparison between homebrew fermenting times and commercial fermenting times so I don’t know what you are talking about there. Commercial fermentations can tend to be faster but every advanced brewer on this forum knows what happens when you ramp the temps up - you speed up finishing times and increase fusels.
l was at a 4 day old brewery last night. I think they rushed the 3 house beers they were serving. They were all tasty, but the kolsch was not even close to clear. They kegged up 14 bbl of kolsch , IPA, and porter for the opening. They started brewing about 12/4 according to their FB page. Not sure how long it takes to condition 14 bbl of kolsch but I don’t think it had enough time. I will again emphasize that I liked the beer though
I’m just saying there are factors in larger commercial tanks that are not generally available to homebrewers. Mainly pressure from the sheer volume as well as fermenting under pressure. I know some of the newer conicals allow fermentation under pressure, but vast majority of homebrewers are using carboys/buckets of one style or another.
I’m sure I’ll catch heat for saying this, but bud and bud lite are ~30 days grain to glass. That’s pretty damn quick for a light lager. From what I understand the horizontal lagering tanks play a large role in the quick turn.
What size fermenters are you using out at yellow hammer?
I’ve never bought into the ‘less hangovers for homebrew’ argument , all things being equal. Too many beers is too many beers to me. BUT drinking a beer (home or big brewery brewed) that’s fermented too warm definitely stands out to me as a headache bomb. And beer that’s cranked out quickly to maximize profit margin seems a lot more likely to have more fusels than one we painstakingly ferment @ home. Honestly though, I’ve politely tried some fuselly homebrews over the years that I regretted the next day, too. All about fermenting cool !
My two flagship beers are lagers and I can have them turned around (30 bbl tanks) in 3-4 weeks. They are unfiltered and fermented at 50 degrees ramped up after 72 hours vigorous fermentation but never higher than 60-62. I don’t consider that pushing but I generally have fermentation finished and cleaned up in 10-14 days then lager for 7-10 days then bright tank and package.
I’ll say that my flagship beers do not give me head aches at al and I regularly have 4-6 pints at a time. 
That’s the thing I love about good craft beer, Keith- you’re totally driven to make great beer, and assume profit will follow as a result, as opposed to cranking out something ‘palatable’ as quick as humanly possible in massive quantities.
That is quick. Let me know when you get distribution to North Texas.
It’s really not that quick - and that’s what I am saying: some breweries are pushing it much faster. I go by sensory judging, when the beer is clear and smells good and tastes right I package and ship. Now, the beer may improve a week or two later but remember, after it is packaged it continues to be aged cold and usually it is at least 2 weeks before the beer hits the shelves.
Exactly. I’d see this to be as much a culprit in a bad hangover, or more, as the turning-around-beer-too-quickly point.
Hangover doesn’t just include headache…if you feel like sh!t, you’re deplete of those important B vitamins (as well as being dehydrated) that the yeast provides that many commercial breweries filter out… And I definitely notice I have more of a hangover after drinking commercial beer rather than homebrew.
And I like the think that most craft breweries out there are following this philosophy too, but unfortunately I know of some who don’t. I, too, have suffered the dreaded craft beer hang over. 
I also find that Belgian beer generally cause me to get a head ache if I imbibe too much.
Well, I’m lucky when I turn an ale that fast. Grain to glass that is.
It’s a hobby to you. I do this almost every day. If you were brewing from sun up to sun down most days a week you would find ways to speed up the process. You wouldn’t miss racking or packaging days because work got in the way.
FTR I brewed 12 gallons of 1.090 baltic porter with lager yeast at 50 degrees the other week and it was done fermenting in less than 2 weeks. It tastes very clean, and I could have almost served it a week later but I’m going to age it for a month or two.