The “Beer Before Liquor” Myth

“I’m NEVER drinking again.” We’ve all said it. Waking up nauseous and dehydrated with a splitting headache is no way to start your day and has you regretting whatever the hell it was you drank last night. Perhaps you mixed beer with liquor and for that reason alone you have the worst hangover of your life. Of course the old saying come back into question. “Beer before liquor never been sicker, liquor before beer you’re in the clear.” Does this overused expression have some truth to it or is it just a myth that hungover college kids use to excuse their excessive drinking?

Here is one hard truth right off the bat. If you drink too much alcohol, regardless of the type or mix, you’re are going to get sick. So if you are waking up every morning with a hangover, the first thing you could try is just slowing down and maybe not drink until you’re completely blacked out. However, there are some reasons why the beer before liquor rule could apply and actually make your night go a little smoother.

The math behind the myth is actually pretty simple. An average beer contains about 4-6% ABV (alcohol by volume) while an 80 proof liquor contains 40% ABV. So, liquor is about 10 times more concentrated than beer. The amount of alcohol you consume in the time it takes you to drink one beer, you consume instantly when you take one itty bitty shot. Depending on how strong your mixed drink is, the issue of consuming alcohol at a faster rate still stands.

Let’s say we start the night off drinking beer. It may take you 3 or 4 beers before you start feeling buzzed, but the more you drink the easier the drinks go down. So then you are a 6-pack deep, drinking like a fish, and you decide to switch to liquor. Now you are consuming alcohol at a much faster rate than when you first began and this could spell out disaster for your friend’s car, bed, and toilet. Okay, let’s say you start the night off drinking liquor. You take a couple of shots right off the bat and you start to feel drunk pretty quick. Therefore, you decide to switch to beer. Now you have decreased the rate of alcohol consumption and it is smooth sailing for the rest of the night.

It also helps to think about what your body does when you consume different types of alcohol. When you drink beer, it tends to sit in your stomach a while while it is absorbed into the body. A mixed drink tends to be absorbed faster than beer. Therefore, if you are already filled up with beer and then you start drinking shots and mixed drinks, you are creating one loaded combo of beverages in that bloated belly of yours. The result will have you saying that same old thing in the morning, “I’m NEVER drinking again.”

Even though we say it, and may actually mean it at the time, it never actually holds true and we are going hard again by Thursday. So if you are going to drink excessively at Village Pourhouse next weekend just remember to pace yourself, drink water in between, and eat a nice big meal before you start pregaming. Whether it is beer before liquor, liquor before beer, or a crazy mix of whatever is put in front of you, the best way to not get sick is to simply know your limits.