I used to be a heavy beer drinker. I had to give that up due to a stomach operation last year. I have tried to find a replacement, but it just isn’t the same. I readily admit that part of why I drink is for the buzz. However, I have found that I don’t enjoy drinking any more because:
A: I always *liked * beer, but haven’t found another drink that I enjoy
B: The buzz *seems * different with other drinks.
Am I imagining this, or have you experienced the same?
I think that certain types of alcohol do give you a different buzz. I suspect that it’s the different compounds which change the rate at which alcohol’s metabolized, but I don’t have any hard evidence to support that supposition.
I always thought that vodka makes me sort of dark but scotch makes me cheerful. But either way they make me drunk.
No question. Ethanol brings on conviviality, whereas methanol just makes everything go white and disappear. Isopropanol is somewhere between. And menthol just tastes weird.
Red wine makes me very cheerful and a little touchy-feely. (Some might say slutty. Oh well.) Vodka just makes me loud. Champagne makes me a little hyper. Tequila makes me burp, but I don’t think that was what you were looking for. 
Absolutely different things bring different buzzes. I have recently started to parse my alcohol by not the type of buzz but the quality, and the quality of life the next day.
Fact: drinking Jack and Coke gets me buzzed slowly over time and has terrific consequences the next day and many times the same day. I get the worst hangovers on JD. Grey Goose vodka OTOH is my poison: 3 drinks and I am happy, I go to bed, sleep, and wake up the next morning totally refreshed. Budweiser also gives me the nasties but I have found that Corona does not. Don Julio tequila gives me way less of a hangover than Cuervo. YMMV of course but I have found that quality alcohols give a more quality buzz.
Having worked in a pub, I can tell you that my observations were some of the old wives’ tales are true. Gin makes people weepy, and rum makes them want to fight. We ended up no longer stocking Drambuie because the young men would start fist fights - guaranteed. Tequila drinkers were another lot we’d have to make sure to monitor for aggressiveness. After I left the liquor industry, a very strong 10% alc/vol cider came on the market, and other bartenders told me they no longer served it for the same reasons.
Personally, I find I can consume a greater amount of alcohol in the form of spirits than as beer, before I am noticeably intoxicated. The whole “high functioning” thing is much better with whisky or somesuch, but with beer I feel the alcoholic equivalent of what potheads call a “body stone”. Too much beer and I get messy, but I can hold my hard liquor. This is the opposite to most people I know.
Wine is a middling thing for me (I never drink enough of it to really know). Fortified wines such as ports and sherries are something I have only been affected by once or twice in my life, and it’s not entirely pleasant. Those things are black-out material, and they seem to do odd things to my heat rate and to my body generally. Luckily I don’t like them much anyway, and only might have a glass of port in the depths of a winter night, and then only one glass.
I completely agree with a beer buzz vs. liquor buzz. But I think it’s mostly psychological for me at least. I just prefer a frosty one to a mixed drink. Anything can give me a buzz, but I have noticed a difference in them.
Beer gives me a mellowly upbeat mood that maintains for hours.
Vodka or rum and it’s Party Time!
Whisky? Pass the hat because at some point I will need to bailed out of jail.
I have always found this to be true for me. I don’t know why but after about 2 beers I am feeling really high, on the other hand I can take two or three shot or hard alcohol and not feel much of anything. It takes a lot of hard liquor to get me drunk so I usually only drink it at home, but beer will always get me buzzed fast. Always thought it was somewhat psycological (I have been know to get sympathy stoned with friends who smoke pot, a drug which I do not partake it), but now that I know I am not alone I am not so sure.
So how you doing?
*pours Zsofia another glass of red wine. 
*Ah, come on guys you knew it was comming…
Unless you were drunk…*
I’ve drank a lot and been around drinking most of my life. I don’t think after deep introspection that liquor, beer, wine et al. cause different types of buzzes.
However I think there is a reason why getting drunk with liquor is different than getting drunk with beer.
Getting drunk with beer is like moving along a curve. At point X of the curve you’re sober, at point Y you are buzzed, at point Z you are drunk. As you drink beers throughout the night you move along the curve and hit every point in between X, Y, and Z.
With liquor it’s more of a “step-function” you drink one shot you’re on the first step, two shots you’re on the second. If you drink 2-3 shots at once then in good order you will find yourself moving up one big step. And you can go from being at point Y (buzzed) to Z almost without warning and without any idea how it happened.
The hangover is definitely different to me.
Beer - Way too much beer I have bowel problems as well as a headache all day.
Wine - Too much wine causes a killer stomach pain, and the vomiting is more painful that beer vomit.
Liquor - Causes no stomach disorder. Too much liquor and you essentially have no stomach the next day. Don’t eat anything or drink anything for awhile and you do okay. But if you try to hold down anything even water you end up over the toilet. A headache tends to be present with the liquor hangover too.
[Hijack]
Has anyone noticed if they have ended up with an atmosphere buzz ? This is a night out at the bar,and you have say two beer only ,and wake up the next morning/afternoon with a low grade hangover.
Declan
Yeah - I generally attribute it to second-hand smoke and dehydration.