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I appear to have a yeast intolerance that stops me drinking some (but not all) beers. I can drink Guinness though! I didn't realise it used a distinct strain of

by galeos 3y ago

I appear to have a yeast intolerance that stops me drinking some (but not all) beers. I can drink Guinness though! I didn't realise it used a distinct strain of brewers yeast. If only breweries listed the yeast they used in the ingredients, I could narrow down which one(s) are problematic...

mewse-hn 3y ago
Many beers are filtered to remove the yeast since it's not really desirable once fermentation has completed. BUT - and a big "but" - there are styles like hefeweizen and other unfiltered beers that deliberately leave the yeast in for flavour.
- redblacktree 3y ago
  Many (most?) craft brewers also skip this step. "Desirable" is in the eye of the beholder, and crucially, it saves effort/time/money to leave it in. You can even market it as "bottle conditioned," if you allow the final bit of fermentation to do the carbonation. (i.e. add a bit of sugar at the bottling step, rather than bottling carbonated beer.
- humbleferret 3y ago
  Really interesting point about yeast being left in beers. I always assumed yeast was removed at one point in all beer due to its role in fermentation. The idea that styles like hefeweizen intentionally keep the yeast for added flavour surprised me. On a similar note, as someone who only drinks non-alcoholic beer, I've noticed that while most use yeast, some opt for 'simulated fermentation' without it. Yet, to my taste, there isn't much difference between the two. This makes me curious about what specific flavour characteristics yeast is supposed to add. What should one look out for?
  - kevinmchugh 3y ago
    If it doesn't taste like hops or grain, it's a yeast flavor. At different temperatures it contributes different flavors. Banana and clove flavors are hallmarks of a hefe yeast, and are produced at relatively higher fermenting temperatures. The chemical categories are esters (the fruit flavors) and phenols (the spice flavors). Many esters are reminiscent of fruits because fruits in nature begin to ferment with the same yeast. Beers are also sometimes fermented with organisms other than Saccharomyces. These organisms contribute a wide variety of flavors, generally funky or sour. Many beers are unfiltered because the filtering process can remove other, desirable flavors (mostly hops). Filtering used to be very rare in American craft beer for this reason.
    - tharkun__ 3y ago
      This sounds funny "a hefe yeast". Hefe literraly means yeast in German. So a Hefeweizen translated literally would be a "yeast wheat". Very tasty beer though. And I have the same issue. Still my favorite beer: Erdinger Weizen. Preferably the dark one. But it has a ton of yeast on the bottom. And I get gastro issues very quickly when I start drinking them again. Non alcoholic versions don't help.
      - humbleferret 3y ago
        Wheat beers are my favourite, but agree they cause gastro issues fast, particularly the Erdinger Alkoholfrei. I've discovered that Schneider Weisse 0.5% and, to some degree, Rothaus Hefe Weizen 0.5% are less likely to provoke gastro issues while closely mirroring the taste of their alcoholic equivalents. If you like lagers and don't drink alcohol, I've found those from Fee Damm (Estrella)[1] and Luckysaint[2] to not cause any issues either, particularly the 'Tostada Amber' from Free Damm and the larger from Luckysaint (Their Hazy IPA is great too!). [1] https://www.damm.com/en/beers https://www.damm.com/en/beers [2] https://luckysaint.co/ https://luckysaint.co/
    - humbleferret 3y ago
      Cheers for the brew wisdom! Really opens up a new world next time I'm sipping a beer.
doctorhandshake 3y ago
If you don’t mind sharing, what are the symptoms you experience when you have a yeast you can’t tolerate? I ask because I believe I might have a yeast intolerance of my own.
- galeos 3y ago
  Relatively fast onset gastro symptoms. Used to be fine with any beer but at about 21 started noticing the problem with a lot of largers. Asahi, Tsing Tao, seemed less of a issue. Not formula diagnosed.
  - bongodongobob 3y ago
    Those are rice beers. You might have an issue with the grains used rather than yeast as there's no active yeast in the vast majority of beer.
    - FrankoDelMar 3y ago
      And I suppose if someone really wanted to test out the beer-yeast theory, they could pasteurize the suspect beer and see if it causes the same issues.
      - throwawaymaths 3y ago
        You'd still get yeast peptides and glycans in there
      - TrueSlacker0 3y ago
        All mass macro beer is pasteurized.
  - doctorhandshake 3y ago
    Interesting. I have what are basically eosinophilic esophagitis symptoms (feels like a food impaction) that seems to be acutely triggered by unfiltered wheat beers but I’m not bothered by rice beers. I had also homed in on yeast as a possible culprit.
winslow 3y ago
How did you find you have a yeast intolerance? Was there a test you took? I've had some GI issues that have also limited my consumption of beer despite having previously brewed beer along with many other things I can no longer eat. If you took a test that determined it was a yeast issue disregard but I'm curious if you've tried things like hop water (carbonated water with hops from beer). If you've had any reactions to that when it's just hops and water. Does bread give you issues? What about sourdough bread vs traditional bread yeast bread?
- ellisd 3y ago
  At least for me, all it took to discover an intolerance to certain yeasts was visiting a tasting room for yeasts (https://www.whitelabs.com/ https://www.whitelabs.com/) and sniffing a beer containing the specific type of yeast (Note: all the beers I was tasting were variating just the brewing yeast). The reaction caused a massive nasal congestion and a runny nose that essentially ended my ability to taste or enjoy further tastings for the day. I've also seen this reaction occur across very similar beers: Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier non-organic is totally fine, but the organic one will cause the nasal reaction.
- galeos 3y ago
  Not tested. No issues at all with bread.
bregma 3y ago
Is it an intolerance to the fungus itself or to one of their metabolic products, like a particular complex sugar or fusel oil, that end up being metabolized by your own intestinal flora to your detriment?
throwawaymaths 3y ago
Pretty much every beer uses a distinct "strain" of yeast so that information is unlikely to be useful and it's probably full of noise[0]. As per this paper one thing makes Guinness interesting is that it's strain is fairly divergent. [0] There are strain banks like white labs that perform lots of analysis on the various beer strains.
- 2024throwaway 3y ago
  > Pretty much every beer uses a distinct "strain" of yeast I am a professional brewer and this is hilariously incorrect. _Some_ beers have their own strain of yeast, but banking a yeast strain at a yeast lab is prohibitively expensive for most breweries. The vast majority of breweries will have maybe 2 strains in house, an ale and a lager yeast. Sometimes they'll throw in a strain for NEIPA / Hazy beers as well. These strains are not specific to that brewery however, just a strain they like and will reuse for several pitches until starting fresh with a new batch from the lab. To put it in White Labs terms, WLP001 aka Chico yeast is used in the overwhelming majority of IPAs. As referenced elsewhere in this thread almost all stouts are brewed with Guinness yeast aka WLP004. For the Hazy, WLP008 or WLP066. For the lager, WLP830 or WLP840 typically. This is not to say that plenty of breweries don't have and maintain a proprietary yeast, especially at the macro level, but to say "pretty much every beer" has it's own yeast is incredibly off the mark.
  - CoastalCoder 3y ago
    > I am a professional brewer and this is hilariously incorrect. Could you elaborate?
  - samplatt 3y ago
    I assumed they meant "pretty much every beer _type_" has a different strain, which you pretty well proved in your reply. That might just be an assumption, though.
    - 2024throwaway 3y ago
      Well that would also be incorrect. There are many strains that can be used for any one style, and many styles that can come from any one strain.
hackernoteng 3y ago
Those hazy-style IPAs absolutely wreak havoc on my stomach. I think the unfiltered yeast that does it. I also do drink Guinness without issues. Mostly it's hoppy IPA type beers that dont agree with me. More filtered traditional beers are ok.
- mywacaday 3y ago
  I only recently discovered the hazy IPAs, I find them much easier to drink. Evolution is strange when 8t comes to tolerances.
- ch4s3 3y ago
  A lot of those go from tank to serving so fast now that they're still fermenting actively when served. They're also brimming with hop matter, organic alcohols, and odd yeast byproducts that get produced when certain yeasts eat a lot of certain hop compounds. Some people don't tolerate that mixture very well.
  - TrueSlacker0 3y ago
    "that they're still fermenting actively when served" That was true of beer brewed hundreds of years ago so it would have some carbonation and its sourness would be tolerable but it is not true of any modern brewery. Unless they want exploding cans. Even though hazies are best drank fresh they go through all the normal fermentation as any other ale. Otherwise they would be rough, estery, butter bombs from not giving the yeast time to clean themselves up. Many breweries just screw them up as it's one of the harder styles of beers to do properly. If the hazy your drinking has yeast sediment in the bottom of the glass/can it was done wrong.
    - ch4s3 3y ago
      I could name half a dozen breweries that have had exploding can issues in the past few years. My wife used to work for one of them in NYC. > Otherwise they would be rough, estery, butter bombs from not giving the yeast time to clean themselves up Yeah, that sounds like a lot of trash hasizes people are cranking out these days! Except for "butter bombs", you have to work pretty hard to produce diacetyl. I've done some homebrew club experiments and you can do almost everything wrong and not get that textbook buttery flavor. > If the hazy your drinking has yeast sediment in the bottom of the glass/can it was done wrong. Yeah, I agree it's just not uncommon in my experience.
gwbas1c 3y ago
How much beer can you drink before you have issues? I used to get really sick around 16-24oz in. Then, one day someone explained to me that corn syrup has a lot of the reagent still in it, and I noticed that when I didn't consume drinks with corn syrup, I could consume more beer. I'm still limited to about 36oz, though.
dublin 3y ago
About 15 years ago, I developed an unfortunate reaction to drinking beer: heartburn that made me wish I was dead. Kinda ruined Mexican and BBQ dinners, both of which are not just tasty, but cultural events here in Texas. The condition got progressively worse, but I still stepped up for the abuse from time to time,until I tried a thick, chewy porter or stout that did NOT trigger the dreaded heartburn. I still have the heartburn (I manage it with an unusual mineral supplement), but can almost always enjoy a good, dark, porter or stout (the darker, the better), which has improved life quite a bit!

by galeos 3y ago

mewse-hn 3y ago

Many beers are filtered to remove the yeast since it's not really desirable once fermentation has completed. BUT - and a big "but" - there are styles like hefeweizen and other unfiltered beers that deliberately leave the yeast in for flavour.

redblacktree 3y ago
Many (most?) craft brewers also skip this step. "Desirable" is in the eye of the beholder, and crucially, it saves effort/time/money to leave it in. You can even market it as "bottle conditioned," if you allow the final bit of fermentation to do the carbonation. (i.e. add a bit of sugar at the bottling step, rather than bottling carbonated beer.
humbleferret 3y ago
Really interesting point about yeast being left in beers. I always assumed yeast was removed at one point in all beer due to its role in fermentation. The idea that styles like hefeweizen intentionally keep the yeast for added flavour surprised me. On a similar note, as someone who only drinks non-alcoholic beer, I've noticed that while most use yeast, some opt for 'simulated fermentation' without it. Yet, to my taste, there isn't much difference between the two. This makes me curious about what specific flavour characteristics yeast is supposed to add. What should one look out for?
- kevinmchugh 3y ago
  If it doesn't taste like hops or grain, it's a yeast flavor. At different temperatures it contributes different flavors. Banana and clove flavors are hallmarks of a hefe yeast, and are produced at relatively higher fermenting temperatures. The chemical categories are esters (the fruit flavors) and phenols (the spice flavors). Many esters are reminiscent of fruits because fruits in nature begin to ferment with the same yeast. Beers are also sometimes fermented with organisms other than Saccharomyces. These organisms contribute a wide variety of flavors, generally funky or sour. Many beers are unfiltered because the filtering process can remove other, desirable flavors (mostly hops). Filtering used to be very rare in American craft beer for this reason.
  - tharkun__ 3y ago
    This sounds funny "a hefe yeast". Hefe literraly means yeast in German. So a Hefeweizen translated literally would be a "yeast wheat". Very tasty beer though. And I have the same issue. Still my favorite beer: Erdinger Weizen. Preferably the dark one. But it has a ton of yeast on the bottom. And I get gastro issues very quickly when I start drinking them again. Non alcoholic versions don't help.
    - humbleferret 3y ago
      Wheat beers are my favourite, but agree they cause gastro issues fast, particularly the Erdinger Alkoholfrei. I've discovered that Schneider Weisse 0.5% and, to some degree, Rothaus Hefe Weizen 0.5% are less likely to provoke gastro issues while closely mirroring the taste of their alcoholic equivalents. If you like lagers and don't drink alcohol, I've found those from Fee Damm (Estrella)[1] and Luckysaint[2] to not cause any issues either, particularly the 'Tostada Amber' from Free Damm and the larger from Luckysaint (Their Hazy IPA is great too!). [1] https://www.damm.com/en/beers https://www.damm.com/en/beers [2] https://luckysaint.co/ https://luckysaint.co/
  - humbleferret 3y ago
    Cheers for the brew wisdom! Really opens up a new world next time I'm sipping a beer.

doctorhandshake 3y ago

If you don’t mind sharing, what are the symptoms you experience when you have a yeast you can’t tolerate? I ask because I believe I might have a yeast intolerance of my own.

galeos 3y ago
Relatively fast onset gastro symptoms. Used to be fine with any beer but at about 21 started noticing the problem with a lot of largers. Asahi, Tsing Tao, seemed less of a issue. Not formula diagnosed.
- bongodongobob 3y ago
  Those are rice beers. You might have an issue with the grains used rather than yeast as there's no active yeast in the vast majority of beer.
  - FrankoDelMar 3y ago
    And I suppose if someone really wanted to test out the beer-yeast theory, they could pasteurize the suspect beer and see if it causes the same issues.
    - throwawaymaths 3y ago
      You'd still get yeast peptides and glycans in there
    - TrueSlacker0 3y ago
      All mass macro beer is pasteurized.
- doctorhandshake 3y ago
  Interesting. I have what are basically eosinophilic esophagitis symptoms (feels like a food impaction) that seems to be acutely triggered by unfiltered wheat beers but I’m not bothered by rice beers. I had also homed in on yeast as a possible culprit.

winslow 3y ago

How did you find you have a yeast intolerance? Was there a test you took? I've had some GI issues that have also limited my consumption of beer despite having previously brewed beer along with many other things I can no longer eat. If you took a test that determined it was a yeast issue disregard but I'm curious if you've tried things like hop water (carbonated water with hops from beer). If you've had any reactions to that when it's just hops and water. Does bread give you issues? What about sourdough bread vs traditional bread yeast bread?

ellisd 3y ago
At least for me, all it took to discover an intolerance to certain yeasts was visiting a tasting room for yeasts (https://www.whitelabs.com/ https://www.whitelabs.com/) and sniffing a beer containing the specific type of yeast (Note: all the beers I was tasting were variating just the brewing yeast). The reaction caused a massive nasal congestion and a runny nose that essentially ended my ability to taste or enjoy further tastings for the day. I've also seen this reaction occur across very similar beers: Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier non-organic is totally fine, but the organic one will cause the nasal reaction.
galeos 3y ago
Not tested. No issues at all with bread.

bregma 3y ago

Is it an intolerance to the fungus itself or to one of their metabolic products, like a particular complex sugar or fusel oil, that end up being metabolized by your own intestinal flora to your detriment?

throwawaymaths 3y ago

Pretty much every beer uses a distinct "strain" of yeast so that information is unlikely to be useful and it's probably full of noise[0]. As per this paper one thing makes Guinness interesting is that it's strain is fairly divergent. [0] There are strain banks like white labs that perform lots of analysis on the various beer strains.

2024throwaway 3y ago
> Pretty much every beer uses a distinct "strain" of yeast I am a professional brewer and this is hilariously incorrect. _Some_ beers have their own strain of yeast, but banking a yeast strain at a yeast lab is prohibitively expensive for most breweries. The vast majority of breweries will have maybe 2 strains in house, an ale and a lager yeast. Sometimes they'll throw in a strain for NEIPA / Hazy beers as well. These strains are not specific to that brewery however, just a strain they like and will reuse for several pitches until starting fresh with a new batch from the lab. To put it in White Labs terms, WLP001 aka Chico yeast is used in the overwhelming majority of IPAs. As referenced elsewhere in this thread almost all stouts are brewed with Guinness yeast aka WLP004. For the Hazy, WLP008 or WLP066. For the lager, WLP830 or WLP840 typically. This is not to say that plenty of breweries don't have and maintain a proprietary yeast, especially at the macro level, but to say "pretty much every beer" has it's own yeast is incredibly off the mark.
- CoastalCoder 3y ago
  > I am a professional brewer and this is hilariously incorrect. Could you elaborate?
- samplatt 3y ago
  I assumed they meant "pretty much every beer _type_" has a different strain, which you pretty well proved in your reply. That might just be an assumption, though.
  - 2024throwaway 3y ago
    Well that would also be incorrect. There are many strains that can be used for any one style, and many styles that can come from any one strain.

hackernoteng 3y ago

Those hazy-style IPAs absolutely wreak havoc on my stomach. I think the unfiltered yeast that does it. I also do drink Guinness without issues. Mostly it's hoppy IPA type beers that dont agree with me. More filtered traditional beers are ok.

mywacaday 3y ago
I only recently discovered the hazy IPAs, I find them much easier to drink. Evolution is strange when 8t comes to tolerances.
ch4s3 3y ago
A lot of those go from tank to serving so fast now that they're still fermenting actively when served. They're also brimming with hop matter, organic alcohols, and odd yeast byproducts that get produced when certain yeasts eat a lot of certain hop compounds. Some people don't tolerate that mixture very well.
- TrueSlacker0 3y ago
  "that they're still fermenting actively when served" That was true of beer brewed hundreds of years ago so it would have some carbonation and its sourness would be tolerable but it is not true of any modern brewery. Unless they want exploding cans. Even though hazies are best drank fresh they go through all the normal fermentation as any other ale. Otherwise they would be rough, estery, butter bombs from not giving the yeast time to clean themselves up. Many breweries just screw them up as it's one of the harder styles of beers to do properly. If the hazy your drinking has yeast sediment in the bottom of the glass/can it was done wrong.
  - ch4s3 3y ago
    I could name half a dozen breweries that have had exploding can issues in the past few years. My wife used to work for one of them in NYC. > Otherwise they would be rough, estery, butter bombs from not giving the yeast time to clean themselves up Yeah, that sounds like a lot of trash hasizes people are cranking out these days! Except for "butter bombs", you have to work pretty hard to produce diacetyl. I've done some homebrew club experiments and you can do almost everything wrong and not get that textbook buttery flavor. > If the hazy your drinking has yeast sediment in the bottom of the glass/can it was done wrong. Yeah, I agree it's just not uncommon in my experience.

gwbas1c 3y ago

How much beer can you drink before you have issues? I used to get really sick around 16-24oz in. Then, one day someone explained to me that corn syrup has a lot of the reagent still in it, and I noticed that when I didn't consume drinks with corn syrup, I could consume more beer. I'm still limited to about 36oz, though.

dublin 3y ago

About 15 years ago, I developed an unfortunate reaction to drinking beer: heartburn that made me wish I was dead. Kinda ruined Mexican and BBQ dinners, both of which are not just tasty, but cultural events here in Texas. The condition got progressively worse, but I still stepped up for the abuse from time to time,until I tried a thick, chewy porter or stout that did NOT trigger the dreaded heartburn. I still have the heartburn (I manage it with an unusual mineral supplement), but can almost always enjoy a good, dark, porter or stout (the darker, the better), which has improved life quite a bit!