Draft Beer and Hangovers???

[jason.loxton]

It's a cliche that draft beer gives you bigger hangovers than bottled beer. Google it. The Internet is pretty much in unanimous agreement (including bartenders, etc.). Even scientifically informed friends will often invoke that fact as a truism, while plopping down the extra cash for a bottle over draft. Now, I certainly recognize that draft beer is often of inferior quality to bottles, if the cellarmanship of the place is poor, but this is simply going to result in off flavours, low carbonation, etc. For the life of me, I cannot think of a pathogen (or other variable) that might appear in the draft system that could cause a hangover. I firmly believe it to be an urban myth, but given that it is one with such deep penetration, there must be some basis of reality. So, fellow Brewnosers, I throw the debate open to you: Does draft beer cause hangovers, and if so, how? (Below are my conjectures.)

Jason's Conjectures:

1. People conflate having off tasting beers with 'poison' and perhaps selectively recall bad beers they've drank when they have an unrelated hangover.
2. People drink more and faster when drinking draft, and therefore get worse hangovers. (More, because the servings are normally 16 or 20 ounces rather than 12, and faster because of the shape of the glass.)
3. Draft beer might be more carbonated, which, if the story kicking around from awhile back about champagne holds up (and it looks a bit uncertain: <http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/201 ... ou-drunker>), then higher carbonated draft might lead to more rapid intoxication, which might also lead to more rapid drinking.

That's all I can come up with. Not only can I not come up with an actual chemical or pathogen that could cause (common) illness, I have a really hard time imagining, given how concerned the food inspection people are with every aspect of the running of kitchens (food temp, stainless, etc., etc.) that they would ignore this source of food borne illness, if it existed.

Thoughts!

[MitchK]

I'm willing to bet its 100% number 2.

Draught makes it harder to keep track of how much you've drank. Full stop. Same reason people claim mixing different liquors is worse than sticking with one. Alcohol is Alcohol is Alcohol for the most part, it's just about how easy it is to keep track of and in the case of hangovers how much water you drink.

[KB1138]

My only thought to add here is that very hopp beers tend to lead to a dry mouth feeling in the morning which contributes to the overall hangover effect. I've never noticed much of a difference between draught and bottle

[jacinthebox]

I don't seem to get hangovers with homebrew/craft beer. Some reason get a pounding headache when I have coors light on tap...it only takes one

[jtmwhyte]

I don't seem to get hangovers with homebrew/craft beer. Some reason get a pounding headache when I have coors light on tap...it only takes one

The obvious remedy is to not ever drink Coors Light, lol

[jacinthebox]

I don't seem to get hangovers with homebrew/craft beer. Some reason get a pounding headache when I have coors light on tap...it only takes one

The obvious remedy is to not ever drink Coors Light, lol

That is way easier to do these days...not so much a short while ago

[MitchK]

well I drank a debatably unwise amount of draught homebrew last night and thanks to a decent amount of food and water alongside I'm somehow not completely written off this morning.

[Jayme]

To me the biggest issue when I'm out drinking is lack of water. If I'm home all night, I tend to drink about a glass of water with every beer. If I'm out, easily don't drink any sometimes. Case and point, Peche day absolutely killed me.