MattSolar.com
Early stage startup marketing & community management + the great outdoors.

Beer Allergies & Alternatives [Cross Post]

[Note: This is a cross post from the CraftBeerSocial.com Blog]

To make a long story short, I may be allergic to beer.

This is troublesome news for a beer geek, let alone someone who has room designed around a built in kegerator.  My brother and I have always been extremely prone to very serious hangovers (i.e. 2-3 beers can keep us praying at the porcelain goddess until dinner the following day).  In the last few months, however, even one beer has proven enough to keep me up all night with sinus headaches. Histamine, biogenic amines, and ethanol are all known to trigger similar feelings.  I’m hoping it has nothing to do with any of these. [Good read on this here]

This sucks as bad as it sounds.  My collection of bombers sitting behind my twin-kegerator faucets is something to marvel in itself.  Convincing me to keep my hands on it is like telling a mouse not to take the cheese in the mouse trap… and the end feels about as comfortable.

I’m not 100% sure it’s beer, however – I’ve had the wood stove running hard this winter already which might make matters worse or it could be something completely different (I’ve had sinus infections before, is this another one?)  I’m procrastinating going to the doctor in favor of doing some A/B testing on myself to see if I can narrow it down through process of elimination.  Testing hasn’t been very organized so far (lots of cider + spiced rum and various seasonal spirits) but over the next few weeks I want to try experimenting with some alternatives – namely, hard cider.

I know what you’re thinking – hard cider is junk.  We have the giant brewers for helping with that conception.  As Jim Storer pointed out to me, however, there are some really nice ciders .  The first one I tried was with Pete Kuhn – Sam Smith’s Organic Cider.  Both of us were skeptical at best.  It was surprising.  Very surprising.  So now I’m on a quest to try a bunch of the nicer hard ciders and am looking for the CBS group to provide suggestions.  Keep in mind, I know nothing about cider.

Here’s my current list to try, the “Top” Ciders on RateBeer.com:http://www.ratebeer.com/ratings/topbeersbystyle2.asp?styleid=10&show=0

What this page lacks is local availabilityso if there are any you’ve tried and enjoyed I’d love to hear your thoughts.  I’ll continue to post updates on my cider status and probably an occasional bomber as I lapse in judgment.

Cheers,

Matt

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