"JK" <jeffk329@mail.com> wrote in message
news:f3476120.0306240138.2f724837@posting.google.com...[color=blue]
> I love beer but it doesn't love me. It tends to plug my head up. It
> seems the darker the beer the worse it plugs me up. The sad part is I
> love amber and dark beer and ales. What is in it that does this? And
> why the difference between light and darker beers?[/color]

I'll admit right off the bat that I am not a doctor, but I can make a few
reasonable guesses and proposals for experimentation anyway.....

Your allergy is likely due to one of three things: 1) malt, 2) yeast, or 3)
hops.

I seriously doubt the malt has anything to do with it... it's mostly just
sugar... unless you are also allergic to all sorts of breads, crackers,
biscuits, pie crusts, oatmeal, flour, etc., I wouldn't think this would be a
problem. Therefore I also believe the darkness of the beer has very little
if anything to do with it, since malt gives beer its color.

Yeast could be the culprit, however in most commercial beers the yeast is
filtered out. Certainly in pilsners such as Bud, Miller, and Coors, there
is little if any yeast, because the masses all want to drink something that
is crystal clear and as close to water as possible. Whereas in your
so-called "darker" beers, these are generally of more interesting quality
and come from a variety of different brewers with varying degrees of
yeast-filtering capabilities. In fact, many German and Belgian ales are
SUPPOSED to be cloudy and full of yeast. If you want to see if this is your
problem, suck down a nice Hacker Pschorr Weisse sometime and see if your
head plugs up. Or have a local homebrew or microbrew. Have the phone
number of the ambulance handy just in case. However, once again, if you are
not allergic to yeast breads, then yeast is not likely to be your problem
either.

Which brings me to my conclusion.... I'm guessing you may be allergic to
hops. As discussed above, pilsners have very little hops, and are
well-filtered. "Darker" beers have varying degrees of hops. If you want to
find out if hops are your problem, first try a McEwan's Scotch Ale. This
beer has very little hops and tons of malt. If this doesn't kill you, then
malt is definitely not your problem, but hops still could be. Then try a
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale or an Anchor Liberty Ale. Those are loaded with
hops. If they swell you up, then the hops could be the problem.

In general, I should mention that homebrews may have more of a tendency to
bother you than commercial beers, simply because the commercial brews are
usually filtered, while homebrews generally are not. So if hops or yeast is
your problem, homebrews will often cause trouble.

If you are willing to run some of these experiments, and you find out which
of the three is the cause of your allergy, then do a little research on beer
styles and do a little more drinking to find out which ones you can get away
with. I, too, would be very disappointed if I couldn't drink any dark beers
at all. However it is not reasonable to lump all dark beers together in one
category, because there are zillions of differences between different styles
and different breweries. I believe you will be able to find many dark beers
that will suit you just fine. It's just a matter of finding out first what
to avoid: malt, yeast, or hops. Good luck to you.

--
Dave
"Just a drink, a little drink, and I'll be feeling GOOooOOooOOooD!" --
Genesis, 1973-ish