When you’re dealing with brewing things, there’s a concern that some kind of infection can creep into your brew rendering it undrinkable. This fear can lead you to wonder if some kind of infection went undetected and could be harmful to you if you drank it. Below we’ll discuss whether or not your mead can make you sick from various pathogens and additives that are in your brew.
There’s an idea in homebrewing that your mead can get infected with something that could harm you. While your mead could be infected with unwanted bacteria or mold, you won’t get sick from your homebrew that you are making. This is due to the alcohol content of your fermenting mead not allowing pathogens to live.
While you’re free to drink your mead without any fear of pathogens from the brewing process, mead can still potentially make you sick from a few other things such as allergies, additives, and reactions with your diet or physical condition.
Before we dive into the specifics, we should first cover the most obvious thing about mead that can make you sick: the alcohol itself.
Alcohol can make you sick
I’ve read a number of questions from people in mead groups or forums on whether their brew would be making them sick. After a little digging, some of them are reporting symptoms of alcohol poisoning or a really bad hangover for a few days more than normal. This is a side effect of drinking too much alcohol and is a feature of the drink itself.
I have been very drunk many times in my life to the point where I’m throwing up. Unfortunately this wasn’t out of the ordinary for me. However, when I talk to people who are normal drinkers, I come to find out that not everyone goes through stuff like this. It only stands to reason that if you start vomiting or have a multi day hangover, you would question whether you were poisoned by your mead or not.
Sometimes mead just hits hard in that respect. It’s usually a little higher abv than your typical brew and that can sneak up on you. When you get sick from drinking mead, your first box to check off should be whether you just straight up had too much to drink. It’s happened to me.
Getting older
I found that when I got older and continued drinking, not only could I not handle my drinks as well, but my hangovers lasted for a few days instead of one morning. When I was in my early 20’s, I could get a bad hangover in the morning, and by the evening be ready to play sports. One of the best games of softball I ever played was after a really bad hangover. It bears the question, can mead be performance enhancing?
However, as I got into my mid 30’s, I started having a hangover for 2-3 days before feeling back to normal. It’s one of the reasons I decided to really cut back on my drinking. So I can really understand the confusion if all of a sudden it’s your 3rd day on a hangover and you’re wondering if it’s not some poison you drank that is out of the ordinary. Sometimes it’s just the body getting old.
Allergies from mead
Ok, now that we’re sure what’s going on isn’t just being extra drunk, let’s talk about other possibilities. Mead can be made in a variety of different ways and some of those ways include various allergens for some people.
The thing about allergies is that sometimes they can pop up later in life for people. You’re living life normally and all of a sudden in your 30’s you have an allergic reaction to something. Other times
Allergic reactions will be quite noticeable very quickly. Usually allergic reactions to something in mead will manifest in hives, respiratory problems, or gi tract issues. The key thing is to figure out what exactly is in your mead that may be giving such a reaction.
Some things that could potentially cause allergic reactions in your mead are yeast, gluten, hops, sulfates, clarifying agents, or casein.
A small portion of people are allergic to yeast. Yeast is made from a fungus and can give people problems. However, many commercial alcoholic beverages are filtered to remove this from the final product. So if you’re finding yourself sick from this, see if you have the same reaction from a commercial filtered product.
A number of people are allergic to gluten. Thankfully most meads don’t contain any gluten in them so it’s a safe product for them. However, some types of meads like braggot will have gluten in it. If you’re allergic to gluten be advised that meads with malt in it will make you have a reaction.
Some people are also allergic to hops. This is again a rare ingredient in mead, but there are certainly recipes out there that have hops in it. It’s unlikely you’ll come across these meads unless you make it yourself and if you’re making it yourself you likely have an idea if you are allergic to hops already.
There’s a number of different additives that people use when making mead that some people could be allergic to. These include egg whites, chitosan, gelatin, isinglass, and casein. Although rare, some people have serious allergies to these and should be careful when drinking mead made with them. For instance, chitosan is made from the exoskeleton of shellfish. If you have an allergy to shellfish, you could be in for some serious pain if you consume this finishing agent.
Sulfites
Most meads contain sulfites in the final product. Sulfites are designed to preserve color, prevent infections, and prevent oxidation for long term storage of your mead. The problem is that many people have some sensitivity to sulfates, more so than other allergens in mead. This can be alleviated to a certain extent by drinking responsibly.
If you find yourself having allergic reactions to sulfites, you’ll have to look into meads that are made without them being added. A lot of the time commercial meaderies add sulfites for efficiency and convenience, but some exist that have responded to this problem by offering sulfite free meads.
The bottom line
If you’re wondering if your mead made you sick, the likely scenario is it was caused by some kind of additive you’re allergic to or just old fashioned over drinking. Don’t worry about being made sick by an infection due to the brewing process.