Draft Beer and Hangovers???
Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2016 10:48 am
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!
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!