Prevent the infamous Hangover Humbug

not have been faced with the infamous holiday hangover after indulging in some “festive spirits”.  A question that might have crossed your mind is how you could have minimize these unpleasant after effects while not having to forego your favorite brew with friends and families. Well, the answer is…get to know your Congeners!

Congeners “contribute to an alcohol’s unique color, odor, and taste, and punish your head and belly the morning after”.  CNN health delves into more detail about this in a recent article titled “Being Choosy about booze helps avoid hangovers”.  According to the article, the rule of thumb is the darker the liquor, the bigger the hangover.

In the study, 95 people between the ages of 21 and 35 were served either Wild Turkey bourbon or Absolut vodka (which have roughly the same alcohol content) mixed with caffeine-free Coke, which was designed to mask the taste of the liquor. According to the study, bourbon, which is aged in oak barrels, has 37 times as many congeners as vodka, which is heavily filtered to remove impurities.

The people who drank bourbon reported more severe hangovers than the people who drank vodka, but they weren’t any less alert.

This is all well and good, however this is a Burlington Brew Tour blog, so what about the beer…

The staff at BBT did some reading to help out our fellow beer enthusiast and unlike liquor, color or hue in beer does not affect a beer’s likely hangover potential. In brewer’s yeast, especially lager yeast, there are natural chemical byproducts which form during the fermentation process. One of these chemical byproducts is Acetaldehyde.  This chemical usually imparts a green apple flavor in beer. Beer behemoth Anheuser-Busch has been said to have the highest level of this hangover catalyst. Acetaldehyde is typically inappropriate in any beer style, though Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser has integrated it within their flavor profile by using beechwood chips in the fermentation to drop the yeast out of the solution before it can be reduced to ethanol, a byproduct of yeast breaking down sugar.

So, what can we gather from this? We at BBT pride ourselves in supporting our local Vermont breweries that do not focus on quantity, yet quality, and have a much more intimate and involved role within their brewing processes. With smaller staffed outfits, ownership that takes the time to engage and get to know their consumers, and a more organic brewing style than the “big guys”, going local ensures that we say bye to the byproducts and hello to a more enjoyable experience during and after indulging in your favorite brews.

Don’t forget, this is only part of the formula to preventing a hangover, and much of it relies on your own responsibility and ability to monitor your intake at the company jingle ball or Grandma’s holiday gathering.

We hope you all had a very hoppy holiday season and this information helps you enjoy some local brews with macro taste and micro adverse effects the day after!

Switchback Porter & Mussels at RiRa's on Church St.

These conditions, however, did not stop my weekly ritual of microbrews and half-price burgers at RiRa’s, located along Church Street market place.

If you haven’t been in Burlington for Christmas, colorful lights shine throughout the streets, families bustle around to get their last minute shopping in, and to top it off, a thin layer of snow covers everything. A true winter wonderland!

Due to temperature drops, I knew tonight’s microbrew of choice had to be the new Switchback Porter.  Unlike ice-cold light beer, porters warm you from the inside out. After checking out the wide range of menu options, I decided to skew from my usual Guinness barbecue burger and go with mussels in whiskey garlic butter sauce.

The porter’s rich creamy flavor paired splendidly with the mussels.  It was so tasty that I had to snap the picture after the 2nd round. Switchback released this new brew December 6th, so I was very excited to see more pubs and restaurants carrying it.  Next time, I‘ll probably have to go back to my usual burger, but this dish and drink combo were exactly what the doctor prescribed on this frosty winter night.

The moral of this post; bundle up and whether it be RiRa’s or the local liquor store you frequent,  go out and try the new Switchback Porter!