Ask DrinkPlanner is a reoccurring feature here where readers submit their questions, and the crack team at DrinkPlanner does our best to answer. Got a question about booze? Ask us!

Time for this week’s Ask DrinkPlanner, it’s a classic question that deserves attention.

“Hey DrinkPlanner,

First off, I love the site. Keep up the great work!

Now, I need you to settle an ongoing internal debate for me. We’ve all heard “Beer before liquor, never been sicker. Liquor before beer, you’re in the clear.” My question is a two-parter

a – is that saying really accurate? and
b – how does wine play into the mix? How does wine before/after beer/liquor work?

Thanks,

-Two for the Price of One”

I’m not sure it’s fair sneaking two questions in at once, but I’ll take a crack at it. Luckily, your two-parter can be answered all at once. The answer: No. Though there is a bit of a stipulation, so I’ll go ahead and explain.

As you may remember from our Ask DrinkPlanner from a few weeks ago concerning wine and hangovers, alcohol is alcohol is alcohol. It is, at its core, all ethyl alcohol and whether it’s beer or whiskey or Bailey’s Irish Creme, it’s the same chemical compound taking your liver for a drive to Makeout Point. Here’s a nutritionist and a pharmacologist to back me up (thanks nerds!). So in that sense, drink whatever you want in whatever order you want, the only thing that’s going to affect your level of drunkeness is the total alcohol quantity. That being said, alcohol isn’t the only thing that can make you hurl.

The stipulation is that whatever you’re mixing together -meaning the non-alcoholic components of your drinks- if you choose poorly in what you throw down your gullet with your booze, it can most certainly make you ill. If you have a bunch of fruity Tiki-style drinks at O’Charleys, then go back to your buddy’s place and start playing beer pong, throw a few shots of Bailey’s and Jaeger in there, a rum and coke or two…by the time you’re all pounding shots of warm pinot grigio (because that’s all that’s left) you’ve already signed yourself up for a ticket to Barftown, population: you. It has nothing to do with the alcohol at that point (though it could, depending on your tolerance), but with the Mish-Mash Stew you’ve concocted in your stomach.

So be smart. Know your limits, and while it seems basic to remember what you’ve been drinking, sometimes it can be easy to forget in the heat of a party what all you’ve had to drink. I’ve been at a party, plowed and nauseous, and thought to myself “There’s no way I should feel like this! All I’ve had to drink is…uhh…hmm…ohhhhhh. Oh yeah, I DID have a…and then the…was that goat’s milk in the…? Nevermind, you were right stomach and brain…carry on!”

And now I must leave you, but a great question, thanks for submitting it! Got a booze question? Ask DrinkPlanner!

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 5:08 pm and is filed under Ask DrinkPlanner. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “Ask DrinkPlanner: Beer Before Liquor?”

1. DrinkPlanner’s 1 Year Anniversary! | DrinkPlanner says:

   October 7, 2008 at 4:17 am

   [...] from other hangovers, or how to increase alcohol tolerance and the age-old question of whether beer before liquor matters.  Questions about what to drink if you’re a manly man-man or just a [...]

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2. The Beer Then Liquor Saying Myth or Misunderstood Rule? | The Drunk Pirate says:

   December 11, 2008 at 8:59 pm

   [...] some time ago on his own site. You can read his post on the beer then liquor “myth” here. Notice I put the words “myth” in quotations. After going back and forth a couple times [...]

   Reply
3. The Beer Then Liquor Saying Myth or Misunderstood Rule? | The Drunk Pirate says:

   December 11, 2008 at 8:59 pm

   [...] some time ago on his own site. You can read his post on the beer then liquor “myth” here. Notice I put the words “myth” in quotations. After going back and forth a couple times [...]

   Reply
4. Ask DrinkPlanner: Resurrected! | DrinkPlanner says:

   May 27, 2009 at 5:34 pm

   [...] Ask DrinkPlanner: Beer Before Liquor? – A look at the old saying “beer before liquor, never been sicker” and how wine factors into the equation. [...]

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5. Not doing homework « Tales of Expansion says:

   October 9, 2009 at 9:12 am

   [...] not used to drinking wine, I didn’t want to do anything crazy at Provini that would taunt one of those rhymes to come true. I asked for a dessert wine, but then the bartender got all excited and asked if [...]

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