Does draft beer give you a worse hangover?

HOUSTON – Frequent beer drinker Cameron Powell has heard the advice, whether correct or not.

"My aunts, uncles, parents, grandparents say they'll drink bottled beer because they believe draft beer gives them a hangover when a bottle doesn't," she said.

KPRC 2 Investigates looked into bacteria that can grow in draft beer tap lines. During our investigation, we came across people from the beer industry and beer drinkers who claimed the bacteria in those lines contributes to a hangover.

"The bad hangover from draught beer is a bacterial infection. Your body is fighting it," said John Torrentino, who owns Houston Draft Solutions, a company that cleans draft beer lines for about 100 places in Houston.

"If you had a bad sinus infection and you are spitting out phlegm, that's what's all over the keg line, and in turn that's what you drink," he said.

KPRC 2 researched the claim and could find no proof that unintended bacteria found in draft beer causes hangovers.

The spokesman for the nationwide Brewers Association doesn't believe there is any correlation.

"Dirty lines cause worse hangovers would be a good subject for an episode of Mythbusters," he said. "Hangovers are by definition alcohol poisoning. The by-products of the biochemical reactions caused by lactobacillus and other common bacteria do not create additional alcohol that would contribute to the symptoms of a hangover."

Sunday night on KPRC 2 News after 'The Blacklist' following Super Bowl XLIX, see the results when KPRC 2 tests beer samples from local bars for the lactobacillus bacteria. Find out what the bacteria does to your body and how it can affect the taste of your next beer.