What's your tipple?

Mick is clueless. Malt gives you a far worse hangover in similar quantities than a good quality vodka that is far purer than any whisky.

Frederik,

Do you suffer hangovers after a few vodkas?

Toy

Once again you demonstrate your total stupidity.

No one will suffer a hangover after a few vodkas. However you will have a far worst hangover if you drank a large amount of the stuff compared to the hangover you would get if you drank an equal amount of whisky.

Vodka is well know for being the cause of some horrific hangovers.

Mick

Gin = flavoured Vodka

The problem with vodka is the sheer quantities that can be imbibed before feeling ill. (I am only talking top quality vodka not the shite distilled in England with added razor blades.) Any alcoholic beverage consumed in sufficient quantity will give you the effects of alcohol withdrawal, i.e: a hangover, but it is the impurities in darker-coloured alcohol like red wine, brandy and whisky that exacerbate the unpleasantness.

If you drink similar quantities of any whisky you feel far worse. As they say regarding Malt - don't hit it too hard because it hits back twice as hard. Malt is for a tipple; if you want a binge, vodka is the stuff given its purity.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Toy:
the impurities in darker-coloured alcohol like red wine, brandy and whisky that exacerbate the unpleasantness.

Well you are quite right, if somewhat damning in your use of the word "impurities". Plenty of research into the whole hangover phenomenon - unsurprising perhaps given student stereotypes - and what has been discovered (although its precise cause is still elusive) is that wood-matured alcohol DOES give rise to greater, more intense or longlived hangovers (it is actually quite hard to quantify what exactly a hangover is - dehydration can occur for lots of other reasons - so the research will never really be empirical)

The wood used for the maturation of almost all wines and spirits is European oak (there are a handful of Italian wines still matured in Chestnut wood)

The wines that spend the longest time in oak are Tawny ports and Aged Sherries (Amontillado, Oloroso) and ubër-traditional Rioja. The spirits that have the longest wood maturation are Cognac, Armagnac and Malt Whisky (American Whiskey tends to have a relatively brief maturation, but in charred American oak hence the darker colour). What also occurs during this process is oxidation and evaporation (the so-called "Angel's share").

Triple-distilled charcoal-filtered Vodka is about as pure as (drinking) alcohol gets, having only a small amount of glycerin added for texture. It cannot possibly give a person a greater hangover than any other spirit (if the same amount of alcohol is consumed). The only Malts that are triple distilled are Lowland Malts which tend to be the least tasty in my experience (although I'm not really a huge fan of whisky).

So Mick is wrong, however he may be referring to poteen-esque moonshine type filth, whether produced industrially or domestically. These spirits may have the higher and lower alcohols (the "heads" and "tails" in distilling parlance) some of which (e.g. methanol) can cause rather more permanent hangovers, and minor side-effects such as blindness and even death - forget not that alcohol is in itself a poison. Such spirits are totally illegal, and unlikely to get into the EU (the profit is simply not worth the risk). They could form the basis for anything, including whisky, gin, raki or anything else. In fact they are more likely to be flavoured in some way to disguise their inherent unpleasantness. To tar the whole of vodka with such a brush is just plain silly.

However, I stand by what I said earlier - better off drinking wine, certainly than neat spirits. Even in moderation, your liver will struggle to tolerate spirit consumption far more than it will with wines.

Cheers

Rod

PS it is also worth remembering that a hangover may actually be a good thing if it prevents you drinking again until your body has regained equilibrium. Personally I'd rather be able to remember the evening before, and stopped drinking to excess years ago. I can't remember the last time I was drunk, or my last hangover.

quote:

Originally posted by erik scothron:
For some it has enhanced life, myself included. I adore a glass of wine with friends or dinner or both. However, for some, it has led to alcoholism, violence, rape and unwanted pregnancies. Wine is no universal panacea for the ills of the world but the practice of true widom is IMO and I would love to discuss this with you over a glass....of nice red wine.

Erik, wholly reciprocated. I might only add that it is important to draw the distinction between "wine" (or indeed "alcohol") and the "abuse of wine". Many beneficial (and occasionally essential) things experienced to excess will cause harm: sunshine for example.

I quoted Pasteur because I am perfectly sure that he would be spinning in his grave if he knew his name had gone down in history as the creator of a treatment for milk. Not to put too fine a point on it he was an old lush whose research was almost all booze-related and after the fledgeling 'pasteurisation' was discovered to have adverse flavour effects in wine (it cooks it), he came to London and tried to sell it to the brewing industry (it cooks that, too). In fact I'm led to believe that milk taskes a whole pile better straight from the cow - unpasteurised cheese certainly has the edge. So the poor bloke deserves our pity*.

Santé

Rod

*In seriousness, Pasteur's work has probably saved more lives than almost anyone else's (he developed Jenner's work and inspired Lister's), so kudos to him.

quote:

*In seriousness, Pasteur's work has probably saved more lives than almost anyone else's (he developed Jenner's work and inspired Lister's), so kudos to him.

Rod,

Haha I did not know old Pasteur was a lush. I remember reading quite abit about him when at school as I was very interested in the history of medicine but my school history books omitted any detail of his drinking habits. I agree with your last point about the lives he has saved. A great man but flawed as so many great men are I supose.

Cheers,

Erik

I wonder how people reacted when some licquored up guy insisted that they were under constant attack of armies of invisible creatures.

That said, I was taught that the main reinforcers of hangovers were sulphur and dehydration. Which would mean that sweet white wine is the way to go. I never looked it up because I'm not really into hangovers. But now I'm getting curious if the wood would be a more important factor than the sulphur. Is it even true about the sulphur...

Lastly, isn't it a striking facet of our culture that people start a discussion and then have to work (hard) to avoid getting into an argument over things they mostly or completely agree on?

quote:

Originally posted by AlexanderVH:
Which would mean that sweet white wine is the way to go.

White or red is different tastes and different points of view.
Wine comes direct from the ground and that can't kill me.
So...........Salute!

quote:

Originally posted by Tarquin Maynard-Portly:
Bloody hell I'm off to dig a well.

Now you have the exact meaning of "comic".

quote:

Originally posted by Gianluigi Mazzorana:

quote:

Originally posted by AlexanderVH:
Which would mean that sweet white wine is the way to go.

White or red is different tastes and different points of view.
Wine comes direct from the ground and that can't kill me.
So...........Salute!

Sweet white wine would be the way to go ... if you're after a hangover, because it contains much more sulphites.

But browsing a bit suggests that this is a myth that is fueled by the existence of sulfite allergy(pardon my broad use of the word).

quote:

Originally posted by AlexanderVH:
Sweet white wine would be the way to go ... if you're after a hangover, because it contains much more sulphites.

Hi!
Sulphites make your head bang!
We have a law that oblige the producer to advert the presence of added sulphites in wine and must be written on the bottles' label.
Anyway..........if you go down in the fields and in the farms you can't go wrong.
Maybe you can only go no straitgh, but this is another story.

Cheers

In no particular order:
claret
white burgundy
gin & tonic
decent bitter

Springbank.

Graham

Booze.

Earwicker

Straight from paper bag?

My good friend brought this from Leeds.
Fiuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
Good but i'm not used to...............

Gianluigi

If I had to use that stuff at all, it would be as mouthwash - which you spit out after use.

Get some Springbank.

Graham

Hi Graham!
I'm not in whisky at all!
The only one i have sometimes is Southern Comfort and somebody say that's not even whisky!

Anyway i found out i can't have so much: it goes directly in my brain mixing up the last 2 or 3 neurons that still populate it!

Czech Beer at the Lincolnshire Poacher in Nottm - nice!

A decent Martini (Tanqueray 10 and Noilly Prat)
Louis Roderer
Spa Sparrkling mineral water

Ahhhhh

Doug

What's a hangover?



SJB

quote:

Originally posted by Sloop John B:


What's a hangover?

What you get after drinking 20 of those...

When I'm back in the UK I can't get enough Gales HSB (especially in the Basketmakers Arms in Brighton). I used to love the Firkin Dogbolter until they sold out and Ruddles County is still a favourite.

Here in Australia when I'm in Sydney I enjoy the beers they brew in the Lord Nelson brewery pub hotel in The Rocks.

Brisbane has "modified" all it's pubs to concrete & glass air-conditioned to the max monstrosities so we tend to drink at home and my favourite beers would be James Squire (IPA) and Little Creatures (again an IPA).

Cheers
Scott