Alright Grendel!! Finally, someone else is ready to take this to a field study! I am eagerly anticipating the results.
As to the several theories and suggestions above, thanks. However, I just want to clear some things up here. First, Bud Light, to me, is the friendly beer, it was Miller Lite that caused the never-ending head pounding.
Second, I have a bit of a problem accepting the “it depends on the other factors involved” theory. I drink Bud Light all the time without waking with a headache (though still hungover). Surely if the other factors were to be blamed, I would sometimes have a headache when hungover from Bud Light and sometimes not have a headache.
Also, using regular Bud instead of Bud Light may skew the results a bit, but hey, the more beers tested, the wiser we’ll be right? I’m up for the challenge.
I can offer personal testimony that Budweiser causes me to have hangover headaches. In fact, it is the only beer that causes me to have headaches WHILE I’M STILL DRINKING IT!
I noticed on several occassions, when I was forced to drink Bud (nothing else available), that about an hour or so into the evening I’d have a hangover-style headache.
None of the light/lite beers ever did this to me. I assumed that, since they are just like water anyway, they had offset any dehydration problems.
My assumptions as to the cause were that Bud’s additives didn’t sit well with me. Bud does NOT follow the rules of the Rheinheitsgebot (or however you spell it), what with rice and other grains being used. I’m pretty sure if they broke the grain rule, they’ve probably gone all the way and added all kinds of unfriendly chemicals.
As backup proof, I’ve never had headaches from drinking Guinness, Becks, San Miguel Dark, Negra Modelo, Tsing Dao, Samuel Smith’s Taddy Porter, Coors, Old Milwaukee, Anchor Steam, Shiner Bock, Fosters, or Whitbread (unless I really overdid it).
There was a confounding factor in my experiment last night. While everyone stuck to their drink for the first hour, after they got a little tipsy it was difficult to enforce the separation between Miller and Bud. Then the hard liquor showed up…when I saw the birthday boy (the occassion was, yes, a birthday) doing shots of a “Patriot missile” (I don’t know what is in it, but when he smelled it he nearly gagged, which is pretty impressive as he was most likely numb in most of his sense). Experiment didn’t work.
I do, however, have a theory. <possible urban myth alert> i had heard several years back that certain cigarrette companies design the cocktail of chemicals in their product so as to innure you to the effects of other brands of cigarrettes. Smoke Camels for a year and then at a bar try and smoke Marlboros and nothin happens. Perhaps this is the explanation for what is happening. The result of a Milwaukee vs St. Louis feud???
Grendel
PS I hope you will excuse me this once from digging up info as I sacrificed ever so much in the name of science last night.
PPS Possible hijack…What about best hangover remedies. I remember Cecil writing something about it a while back, but some input from y’all might be instructive.
Sledman claims the same is true with him WHILE drinking Miller Lite. (I beg Cecil to step in here anytime and assist us in getting to the bottom of this)
Grendel - thanks for the attempt. I’m a little worried myself about shots getting mixed into the equation on Friday as well (there were no shots involved last weekend when this discussion began).
Well, I’ve conducted a very unscientific poll with the folks over in MPSIMs and via e-mail with some friends.
What I came up with was 12 good reports on Bud Light compared to only 1 negative response. Miller Lite had 3 good reports compared to 9 negatives.
(Others of note - Coors Light was reported as headache inducing by 3 respondants, Bud also had 3 negative reports. Molson and Guiness received nothing but positive results)
One interesting correlation is that of the 12 people who reported that they regularly drink Bud Light without getting a headache, 7 reported that Miller Lite DID cause headaches. (Brand Loyalty???)
It has also been suggested to me that the method of carbonation may play a factor (there was mention of it affecting oxygen going to the brain). Any comments?
As I feared, many shots became a part of the equation which would surely skew the results. I drank Bud Light without headache incident again. Sledman reported a slight headache (he also drank Bud Light). Two drinkers of Miller Lite reported headaches as well (one was severely hungover, but I have no idea what else she may have consumed!).
As for me, I’m just going to stick with Bud Light and be happy that I don’t wake up with a pounding head.
