Is beer high in histamine?
Beer is moderate on a low-histamine diet: histamine averaged only 1.23 mg/L in 176 beers, but alcohol slows histamine breakdown, and all 10 published diets exclude beer.
- Histamine
- Present
- Other amines
- Low
- Liberator
- Not on the lists we use
- DAO blocker
- Possible
Why sources disagree. Beer's measured histamine is low, averaging 1.23 mg/L, but all ten published diets exclude it, and alcohol itself slows the breakdown of histamine.
What each source says
| Source | Verdict | What it says, in our words |
|---|---|---|
| Lab measurements, Spain 1 | Measured | Histamine averaged 1.23 mg/L in 176 beers; 95% had 3.28 mg/L or less. |
| 10 published low-histamine diets 1 | All 10 exclude beer. | |
| Review of low-histamine diets, 2021 1 | Alcohol and acetaldehyde compete with histamine for the same breakdown enzyme, so histamine builds up. | |
| Review of low-histamine diets, 2020 2 | Beer had a median of 0.70 mg/L of histamine; alcohol can temporarily reduce DAO activity. | |
| SIGHI food list 3 | See source | See SIGHI's own list for its rating. |
Measured histamine
| Food tested | Samples | Histamine | Other amines |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beer sold in Spain 1 (Table 1) | 176 | mean 1.23 mg/L, range nd–21.6 mg/L, 95th percentile 3.28 mg/L | median 0.70 mg/L; tyramine mean 6.31 mg/L (up to 46.80); putrescine mean 3.16 mg/L |
mg/kg = milligrams of histamine per kilogram of food; mg/L = per litre of drink. "Not detected" means below the laboratory's detection limit.
How freshness and processing change it
Histamine in beer forms during brewing and fermentation, so it is in the bottle when you buy it. Most beers had little, but one in 176 reached 21.60 mg/L. Alcohol-free beer is also fermented and was not measured separately.
Averaged 1.23 mg/L in 176 beers; median 0.70; up to 21.60. (measured)
Not measured. Brewed and fermented like beer, but without the alcohol effect. (estimate)
Why we rate beer 2
Beer has less histamine than most people expect. A University of Barcelona team tested 176 beers sold in Spain and found an average of 1.23 mg/L. The median, in a 2020 review of the same data, was 0.70 mg/L, so half the beers had less than that, and 95% had 3.28 mg/L or less. One beer reached 21.60 mg/L, which shows that a few can be much higher. Beer also carried some tyramine, averaging 6.31 mg/L, and a little putrescine.
On those figures, beer has about a third of the histamine of wine, which averaged 3.63 mg/L in the same survey, and far less than cured cheese at 33.10 mg/kg. The 2021 review says directly that histamine in wine and beer is much lower than in other fermented foods.
Yet all ten published low-histamine diets in the 2021 review exclude beer. The bigger concern is the alcohol. The review explains that alcohol and its breakdown product, acetaldehyde, compete with histamine for an enzyme they share, aldehyde dehydrogenase, so histamine builds up in the body. The 2020 review adds that alcohol can temporarily reduce the activity of diamine oxidase (DAO), the gut enzyme that clears histamine from food. A beer brings in little histamine but makes the histamine already in your meal harder to clear.
We rate beer 2, "moderate", and mark it disputed. Histamine was found in most beers, which puts beer at 2 on our scale even though the amounts were small; the alcohol effect is the stronger reason for caution, and it is shown on this page as a possible DAO blocker. Alcohol-free beer avoids the alcohol but is still brewed and fermented; it was not measured, so we give it the same 2 as an estimate. Every published diet in our sources leaves beer out, so if you want to test it, do that later with your dietitian.
Questions about beer and histamine
Is beer lower in histamine than wine?
Yes, on average: 176 beers averaged 1.23 mg/L against 3.63 mg/L for 299 wines. Both contain alcohol, which slows histamine breakdown, so all ten published diets exclude both.
Is alcohol-free beer low in histamine?
It was not measured in the studies we use. It is brewed and fermented like beer, so it may carry similar small amounts of histamine, but without the alcohol that slows histamine breakdown. We rate it 2 as an estimate.
Evidence behind this page
- Across 176 beers sold in Spain, histamine averaged 1.23 mg/L, 95% of samples had 3.28 mg/L or less, and the highest had 21.60 mg/L; tyramine averaged 6.31 mg/L. 1
- The median histamine content of the 176 beers was 0.70 mg/L. 2
- Histamine in wine and beer is much lower than in other fermented foods, but alcohol enhances histamine's effects; alcohol and acetaldehyde compete with histamine for aldehyde dehydrogenase. 1
- Alcohol can cause a temporary, reversible reduction in DAO activity. 2
- All ten published low-histamine diets exclude beer. 1
Sources
- Sánchez-Pérez S, Comas-Basté O, Veciana-Nogués MT, Latorre-Moratalla ML, Vidal-Carou MC. Low-Histamine Diets: Is the Exclusion of Foods Justified by Their Histamine Content? Nutrients 13(5):1395, 2021. doi:10.3390/nu13051395 (Sánchez-Pérez S et al. 2021)
- Comas-Basté O, Sánchez-Pérez S, Veciana-Nogués MT, Latorre-Moratalla M, Vidal-Carou MDC. Histamine Intolerance: The Current State of the Art. Biomolecules 10(8):1181, 2020. doi:10.3390/biom10081181 (Comas-Basté O et al. 2020)
- Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance (SIGHI). Food compatibility list for histamine intolerance. histaminintoleranz.ch (accessed November 2026), 2026. Link (Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance (SIGHI) 2026)