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Developing allergies to darker beer?

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  • Developing allergies to darker beer?

    Howdy all,
    I have a customer who has been drinking my stout for years. Lately, whenever he has a darker beer, amber to stout, he starts to get an allergic reaction. One that is relieved with Benadryl. This happens if it's my beers or another brewery's beer. Anyone have any insight what might be going on with this?
    thanks,
    Prost!
    Dave
    Glacier Brewing Company
    406-883-2595
    info@glacierbrewing.com

    "who said what now?"

  • #2
    What are the signs and symptoms of the allergy?
    ie breathing difficulties, rash, itching.

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    • #3
      Interesting...
      Does he get the same reaction when drinking coffee? Or eating any well-roasted foods?
      Maybe he could eat a few grains of pale malt and a few grains of black malt and see if there is a difference.

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      • #4
        Are only you lighter beers filtered? If you only filter your lighter beers, he could be having a reaction to the yeast.

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        • #5
          He'll have a couple of pints on my oktoberfest, amber, stout, or kolsch (all are filtered except the stout), then he starts to get a little wheezy, nose runs, and he coughs a little. This continues until he takes a benedryl. When he was in yesterday I brought out some yeast, hop pellets, dark roasted grain, and medium roasted grain. All for him to rub on his arm to see if there would be any reaction; nothing. When he drinks the pilsner or EPA, he has no reaction. When he drink MGD, nothing. Only when the beer is darker than a pilsner. As I've said, he has been drinking my beer for years with no problem. This has popped up in the last few months.
          Glacier Brewing Company
          406-883-2595
          info@glacierbrewing.com

          "who said what now?"

          Comment


          • #6
            Immunologically speaking, THEORETICALLY, one can mount an immune response on ANYTHING other than one's own tissues.
            but then again, THEORETICALLY, there should be no need to mount an immune response on food we consume through the digestive tract, since we should never be eating our own tissues anyways.

            of course we all know it's not exactly the case in reality. We get food allergies all the time, as well as autoimmune diseases.

            In terms of food allergy, it definitely has something to do with the genetic predispositions of the MHC (no need to explain it here... they are series of genes). Therefore some people are more prone to food allergies while others are fine.
            It also has something to do with antigen/allergen "priming" (or "vaccination" if you will)... our immune system do "learn" to do different things, and it is actually how we develop allergy or antibody against pathogens.

            That said, can he have developed an allergy to some of the goodies in dark beer? definitely possible. I am sure there are many tasty goodness chemicals/fermentation byproducts in dark beer that's capable of inducing allergy.
            There are supposedly large numbers of histamines in beer from fermentation and people sensitive to histamines can have allergic symptoms. (I am not sure if dark beer necessarily has more than light ones...) (but again, dark beers often do ferment differently from light beers? or is that just an artifact of yeast re-pitching, light to dark scheduling?)

            It's also tricky to tell if his reaction is purely alcohol allergy or really to dark beer when he had so many beer in one night, and only drink dark beer at the end... (try having him drink 1 or 2 dark beer ONLY, and on a separate day, 1 or 2 light beer only, should be able to tell.)


            I really will not recommend Benadryl though! It's going to make him all drowsy and sleepy, not a good thing especially if he drives home after beer!
            try Claritin BEFORE drinking instead!

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            • #7
              I'm curious if you can compare hopping rates. I would understand a hop allergy pretty easily. Same with the difference between an ale or lager yeast but it sounds like the yeasts are the same in your case.

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              • #8
                We are in Montana, so a customer can have only three pints in our tasting room (state law). I've seen him have one dark beer pint and start the reaction. The hopping rates of the darker beers that affect him are (relatively) high and low, just as are the lighter beers (pilsner and pale ale) that don't affect him. It seems the common thread is the darker color.
                Glacier Brewing Company
                406-883-2595
                info@glacierbrewing.com

                "who said what now?"

                Comment

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