The fermenting process that transforms corn and other grains into bourbon, and converts potatoes, grains—and increasingly grapes and other elements—into vodka, not only produces alcohol, but also byproducts known as congeners. And, according to research to be published next March in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, the concentration of congeners, which can be toxic in large amounts, may impact just how terribly you feel the morning after drinking a particular liquor. Researchers from the Boston University School of Public Health and the University of Michigan Medical School put some science behind what many holiday revelers have long suspected—if sleep and total alcohol consumption are the same, because of its higher concentration of congeners, bourbon gives you a far worse hangover than vodka.
