Do I have a Intolerance / allergy to beer

Hi
I am 30 years old and have been an occasional drinker since about 16.
I don't drink much or often, but when I do (did) it sometimes (usually) could be quite a bit (enough to get drunk).
I would say on the average I drank maybe 2 1/2 times a month.
Some months more, some less. Then there are some months where I have not drank at all maybe up to 4 months in a row.
So I am no every day alcoholic. Just that when I do drink sometimes it can be a lot.
Ok up until now this has been no problem.
But over the past year I have noticed something. When I would start drinking beer (sometimes) it would feel like it gets stuck right before it went into my stomach. I would feel this hard pressure between my throat and my stomach. And then NO more beer or anything would go down. And it would hurt like HELL!
It felt like I had this monster burp that would not come up.
So this has happened on and off for about a year, and it has been getting worse. Sometimes I would take Zantac, If I knew I would be going out for the night and drinking some beer. That would totally help the beer go down. But I paid the next morning with diarrhea.
Now it has gotten to the point that just last week I was at a bar and I thought I would just take it slow and see if the beer would go down. It did! for some reason it was going down on its own. But then like 1 1/2 hours later I got an attack that I could not believe. It was like everything (mostly beer) was trying to come back UP. But it got stuck on its way up now. And it just stopped between my stomach and throat. I cannot describe the amount of pain I was in. I had to leave the bar immediately. I did not think I was going to make it home. I almost drove to the hospital (should have, but short on cash)
So I go home and quickly down 2 Gas-X pills and take about 6 Tums EX. It took about a good hour for the pain to stop. It was extreme gas and indigestion. Coming up into my throat, and giving me a hard burning pain in my stomach area.
What gives?
Am I allergic to beer?
I can drink anything else without a problem (pop, juice, water)
Not sure about mixed drinks but I think they are ok. (I'm afraid to test them out after last week) But I never really had a problem with them.

Anyway if you have any ideas please let me know.

Thanks

Glen

[SallyA]

Hi,
It appears that there is definitely something in beer that disagrees with you.  This is possible as beer contains quite a lot of different things and the brewing process can be complex.  Guess the recommendation now is to completely avoid beer.  You can now be the life of the party while staying completely sober and still be ing able to drive afterwards.  You could try other drinks in small amounts to see if they are ok.
Regards
Sally

[livinabox]

i now drink guinness for very simular situations .....it seems that at certian times in ya life you have a greivance with ya body ....if my step sister drinks wine she cannot stop sneezing.anything else is ok...try summit else but i would have a stab at a guess and say "carbonated" has a thing to do with it, even though you might be able to drink cola...if i drink australian beer i know ill get a head ache...american beer is the same. any other no problem an i mean lots of research cos i do like my beer as in the uk near london....ya bodys telling you some thing !!!!

[CG]

It's amazing to finally find out that somebody else has the same problem.  I'm 23 and have been drinking occasionally since I was sixteen.  For a while I would drink a lot of imports and was really digging beer.  This problem started about a year ago.  When it first occured I would also start sneezing; that has stopped.  But the pain in my chest like a stuck burp still exists.  I can usally get about a quarter of the beer down before it happens.  About a month ago I was at a bar and was drinking light beer.  I got the first beer down fine, but the second one caused problems.  The same thing that happened to you happened to me.  I had to leave instantly.  I could barely breathe and kept salivating.  Eventually, I did burp it out.

The crazy thing is that I can drink Corona.  Only after about four or five do I start feeling the pain, but it's minimal.  

I can drink anything else just fine.  Mixed drins aren't a problem at all.

-Chuck

[gman]

Thanks for the reply's. Have any of you tryed the Zantac method?
When I take Zantac I can drink pretty much anything.
And that was working pretty good until recently.
The last few times I tryed that I had bad reactions though (not sure if it related to the beer or not). But what happened last time was, I took the zantac, when out for the night, drank quite a bit of beer (Bud Light) and stayed out late. Ok so far no problem. But the next day I woke up with a terrible burning in my stomach. It was right in the center and it was KILLING me. Then about an hour after that the FEVER hit. By the end of the night my fever was 102.7! And my stomach felt like someone was stabing me with a burning knife. Bad cramps, and burning pain. And then later that night the diaria hit me! It was real bad. I don't want to describe it too much but let me just say that it was dark GREEN!
Yikes.  
This lasted for about 3 days. I'm not sure if it related (I also blamed it on food poisioning or stomach flu) but....I don't think I want to chance it anymore. Because the time before that, I didn't drink as much but I got diaria before the night was over. So like someone said on here, my body is trying to tell me something. If it does not want to go down, don't force it! I think I have developed a real bad allergy to something in the beer.

Thanks again,
G.

[shan]

Hi, I am allergic to yeast... and i cant drink beer either. Maybe you should check out if your alergic (allergic) to it. Sometimes allergies can arise even if you were fine with certain foods before! Go see a naturalpath or a doc.

shanna

[gman]

I dont have a problem with breads. So I figured it was not yeast.
But I guess it may be.
Another funny thing was when I was drinking my beer, my upper lip kind of broke out in a rash. (from where the beer was hitting it, drinking from the bottle.)
Could my body find anything ELSE to be allerric to, this sux!

G.