What are Congeners?

In alcoholic beverages, there are impurities called congeners produced during fermentation, which are responsible for some of the taste, aroma, and color of what you drink. These impurities are not the sole cause of a hangover, yet they do seem to contribute in some manner to the severity. Not everything you drink is created equal when it comes to the concentration of these impurities. “Top Shelf” bottles generally contain fewer impurities than the type of booze you find in plastic bottles. This is because expensive liquor usually undergoes a more rigorous distillation process.

Darker colored drinks, such as whiskey, brandy, bourbon and red wine have higher concentrations than lighter drinks such as vodka, gin and white wine. In general, the fermentation and distillation processes determine the concentration in the end product. The problem with congenerics is that there are so many different types of them that not much research has been carried out to test what their exact effect is on intoxication and hangovers. However, what we do know is that for the most part our body does not like them.

If you are wondering what drinks cause hangovers, we are sorry to report there’s no magical type of alcohol that will leave you hangover free. Drinking too much alcohol, no matter what kind, will probably make you ill the next morning. On the brighter side, it’s nice to know that some types of alcohol will cause less severe hangovers than others.

There are many reasons why some drinks make you sicker than others. Usually, you get what you pay for, and this holds true with less expensive booze. Cheaper alcohols are rarely made as well (or filtered as well) as top-shelf brands and that can add to your hangover. Even more important is the amount of congeners in a type of alcohol. Congeners are found in greater concentration in darker liquors and seem to play a huge part in how severe your hangover is going to be.

A study done in Britain discussing what drinks cause hangovers has brandy and red wine at the top of their list for causing the worst hangovers. Last on their list is vodka, causing the fewest symptoms. So it is not just the heavy stuff… different types of wine make for varying types of hangovers. Believe it or not, in some cases wine from countries with a bad weather season can cause a worse hangover. Cheap red wines are infamous for giving people headaches and the “red wine headache” is an ailment that affects certain people no matter where a wine is from (or its price) due to an allergic reaction to histamine.

So what drinks cause hangovers? All of them! There’s no “get out of hangover free” card, but now that you have become aware of some of the worst hangover culprits, you may be able to ease some of your future pain.