Brew Chemistry troubleshooting

[capt82]

Good morning to you all, not so good here!

I'm a "seasoned" beer drinker but just had a "rookie" experience. I woke up this morning with a "Budweiser" like hang over after only a couple of my new brews. I was once told the reason for the "Budweiser" hangover was due to a byproduct from their brewing process. I'm wondering if I did something to my brew that created that same "Budweiser" like byproduct.

I brewed an Anchor Steam. A few things different about this brew that has never happened to me before.
1) badly stuck sparge - I had to dig out 12lb of grain from my mash tun to fix? I let the grains settle again and ran several quarts back through the top of the mash tun again until wort cleared some before continuing sparge.
2) Fermented with a very fresh WLP810 with a starter. According to the calculators, I still under pitched by 67 billion cells, but I had a very, very active bottom fermentation that blew wort out everywhere. I fermented it for a month because activity would not stop.
3) got a 79% brew house efficiency on this with a 7.75 ABV. Calculators estimated I should have got a 5.4 ABV at 75% brew house efficiency.

Can it be a "Budweiser" like byproduct I recreated causing this unwanted "rookie-like" feeling or is it possible that I no longer have my college day, keg party, ETOH tolerance I once had?

 

[ajdelange]

I doubt your numbers. An increase in extract of 5.5% does not produce an alcohol concentration increase of 44%.

As to the headache: Hangovers from Budweiser (sometimes referred to as "headache in a can") generally get blamed on acetaldehyde which gives it the apple like flavor. A hangover is largely acetaldehyde poisoning as it is the first step in the metabolism of EtOH in vivo. So if your beer tasted strongly of acetaldehyde then perhaps it is indeed a Budweiser like component that brought you to grief.

 

[capt82]

So in my case, would you think acetaldehyde was created because the high ETOH level this beer had, possibly too high for the WLP810? My FG was 1.013 and per the calculator, was supposed to be 1.021

 

[ajdelange]

I wouldn't think there was any acetaldehyde at all unless you reported:
1)An apple like flavor or aroma
2)The flavor or aroma of rotting fruit
3)A nasty aldehydic flavor or aroma reminiscent of diesel fumes (which contain formaldehyde)

which you didn't even though I conditioned my supposition that acetaldehyde was responsible on you sensing it.

Also, acetaldehyde is created in all alcoholic fermentations

CH3COCOOH + NADH + H+ ---> CO2 + CH3CHO + NADH + H+ ---> CO2 + CH3CH2OH +NAD+

Whether it is present in finished beer or not depends on how completely it is cleaned up by the yeast during conditioning. Infection also produces it in large quantity.