Homebrewed Beverage Buzz vs. Commercial Beverage Buzz

[Sasquatch]

So, after brewing different meads for a few years now, I've noticed something different about home brewed alcohol vs. commercially purchased alcohol.

Specifically, it seems to me that home brewed alcohol seems to give me--for lack of a better description--a "cleaner" buzz. It comes on slower, but when it really hits I feel intoxicated but not drunk if you can imagine the difference. That's a pretty subjective description for sure, but that's the most accurate I can think of. It's sort of like the difference between a Scotch buzz and a vodka buzz.

I can take a mead that my measurements tell me is 13% abv, and compared to a commercially-produced beverage at the same abv I feel equally tipsy but more clear-headed and end up with much less of a hangover in the morning.

For example, tonight I've been drinking a fantastic cyser I bottled this time last year. I've got the slight numbness on the tongue and lips you'd expect from a good home-brew, but none of the "dirty" feeling and brain-fog that comes with a bottle of anything from any store.

Does anybody have any thoughts on the cause of this?

 

[beano]

I dont mean to sound harsh but it sounds as if over indulgence may play a factor.

 

[DriftlessDoc]

I dont mean to sound harsh but it sounds as if over indulgence may play a factor.

How would this play a role at all? He has not quantitatively said anything about his consumption, rather that home brewed seems to effect him differently than commercial beverages. It takes just a glass of wine for myself to feel its effects.

To the OP, perhaps it has something to do with preservatives in the commercial wines?

 

[BernardSmith]

It could be that the commercial wineries are adding more sulfites than you do and you may be sensitive to them. Could be that commercial meads you buy tend to have more congeners in them than the kinds of mead you typically make - and you are sensitive to those congeners or it could be that your measurement of ABV is way higher than the data suggest and that your 13% ABV is really much closer to 9 or 10 % and what the commercial wineries call 13 % is 13%...and it could be that when you drink your own mead you are far more generous than when you drink a mead that you purchased from a store... Or it could be a mixture of all these things...

 

[Sasquatch]

I dont mean to sound harsh but it sounds as if over indulgence may play a factor.

No worries. I'm actually a pretty light drinker, however I'm a pretty big guy because I've been lifting weights since I was in high school which has been about 25 years now, so body size might play a factor.

 

[Sasquatch]

To the OP, perhaps it has something to do with preservatives in the commercial wines?

It could be that the commercial wineries are adding more sulfites than you do and you may be sensitive to them.

Come to think of it, this may be part of it. I eat a really clean diet; I looked through my fridge and the only thing that has any preservatives other than salt or vinegar is a jar of sauerkraut, and so I'm probably not used to ingesting those types of chemicals on a regular basis. I also remember an incident from when I was a child of going with my mom to the hospital because my dad had a severe asthma attack; following up with my parents I now know this attack came as a result him of drinking wine with sulfites.