What are the ingredients of beer and lager which preserve it?

Question

If I drink too much beer or lager, which I believe have added-ins-or ons to preserve, it gives me a hangover which I didn`t want or paid for. What are the ingredients in the beer and lager that causes this?
I have made my own in the past and there`s absolutely no hangover next morning.

Mike L
Yes, I know I make my own, but it has to be drunk within a certain time gap.
Canned beer has to contain preservatives, and that`s what I want to know.
Try again

JOE H
There`s two things I know about beer and lager.
1. Too much alcohol will give you a hangover and...
2. Canned beers have a chemical ingredient to stop it going bad.
The question is: what is the name of the ingredient.
`Scuse me, but I thought it was a very simple question, but it must be the answer which is hard.

Answer 1

Alcohol and hops are both preservatives.Homemade beer still has all the B vitamins in it which helps stop you from getting a hangover.Lower grade beers use formaldehide to break down the grain and increase production quantities.This is supposedly removed during filtering process but still can't be good for you.Some premium beers have rice or corn added,these can also cause hangovers.A B-complex multivitamin and vitamin E before drinking will help with keep that hangover away.

Answer 2

I make my own beer and wine, and enough of it will likely give you a hangover. And I can guarantee you my stuff is all natural and that I don't put any funny ingredients in it to make it last longer, nor are any preservative chemicals used in commercially-made beers than I'm aware of. I don't believe that hangovers are even caused by the alcohol itself, but are rather probably caused by various other chemicals that are also normal byproducts of fermentation. Anytime I've had shots of Everclear (pure grain alcohol) I absolutely never had a hangover the next morning.

TO THE FOLKS ABOVE:

The only reason pasteurization is done to most beers to make it last longer, is because all the yeast sediment has been filtered out of it. Beer that has been neither filtered nor pasteurized can last for years on the shelf (much like wine) because the yeast displaces and overwhelms any other rogue bacteria that can ruin the beer. The only problem with unfiltered beer is that if the yeast that settles on the bottom gets stirred up, it tends to make the beer taste yeasty and bitter, which is why such unprocessed beer is not ideal for the average Joe Public type of beer consumer.

Answer 3

The only ingredient which causes hangovers and preserves beer at the very same time is the alcohol.
If you have enough of that in your beer, you are biologically and chemically guaranteed to get a hangover if you drink enough of it.
There are no other preservatives present in a can of beer which have been determined to cause or promote a hangover.

**I've changed my answer a bit to help you understand it.

Answer 4

Stick to Pils(ner) lagers that are made with only hops, yeast, barley(?) and water. It's the original German method and the difference is really noticeable. Most Czech beers are made that way, that's why they're so good.
I think it's called the rheinhetsgebot (?!) method.
You'll never touch a pint of Stella again, but you'll still get a hangover because that's the alcohol...

Answer 5

Beer only contains water, hops, malted barley and yeast. There are not added preservatives. Sometimes an adjunct (cornmeal, for instance) is used in place of barley (it's still malted), and sometimes there are odd fruits and other nonsense added...but not preservatives.

Beer is preserved because it's pasturized, because it's fermented and because it contains alcohol. Great Lakes Brewing Company (Cleveland) refuses to pasturize its beer. As a result, it's only shelf-stable for two weeks without refrigeration. It's not that it lacks preservatives; it's that it's not pasturized. And it still gives you a hangover if you drink too much of it.

I don't know what to attribute your lack of hangover in homemade beer to, but it's not lack of additives and/or preservatives. Maybe it has less alcohol.

Answer 6

Some beer certainly use adjuncts, by and large I don't drink them.

Have you ever heard of the Reinheitsgebot, the German Purity Law? This is an English translation from part of it:

"Furthermore, we wish to emphasize that in future in all cities, markets and in the country, the only ingredients used for the brewing of beer must be Barley, Hops and Water. "

The beer I drink when I'm not drinking my own is Sam Adams, which meets this standard, that is barley, hops, and water.

Answer 7

amancalledj is right. pasteurization increases the shelf life of beer by killing off some of the naturally occurring bacteria. home brewed beer and beer produced at local breweries will only last a few weeks once bottled because bacteria levels build up and "skunk" the beer. there are no added preservatives.

if you are getting hangovers after drinking draft beer out, it could be from dirty beer lines. Lines should be cleaned at least two weeks, but I've worked in 5 different bars, and only one--a brewpub--regularly cleaned its lines.

Answer 8

Sulfites.
A lot of beers contain sulfites which, like in wine, halt the fermentation process and protect against infection. Since you typically don't add sulfites (found most commonly as Campden Tablets) to beer when you make it at home, this is the most conspicuous difference.
Not all beers contain sulfites. Most micro-brewed beers don't...particularly (that I've noticed) hefeweizens.

Answer 9

1 forced Co2
2 HHB haze clearing agent

Answer 10

the single ingredient is YOU.
visit each brewery you FEEL is a problem
and inquire there.
If you have made beer then you should know what is in it.
you should know beer needs NO preservatives
the fermentation process is all that is needed.
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