# Could you survive for a month in the desert with only beer to drink? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 24, 2005, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-survive-for-a-month-in-the-desert-with-only-beer-to-drink/309691 "2005-06-24T16:40:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-survive-for-a-month-in-the-desert-with-only-beer-to-drink/309691/1 "2005-06-24T16:40:08Z")
Seeing as how beer is a diuretic could you balance you beer intake to keep yourself from dehydrating? At what rate could you consume the beverage and not cause more harm than good? I’m thinking that the short term you could prevent dehydration, but would it be enough to replace your sweat over a longer period of, say, a month or so? I know that if you drink enough beer you can become dehydrated, and they say not to drink alcohol (beer) on very hot days. So, what would be the advice on sustaining on beer alone for hydration in the desert? ---
**Author:** ![meanoldman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@meanoldman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meanoldman)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-survive-for-a-month-in-the-desert-with-only-beer-to-drink/309691/2 "2005-06-24T16:48:20Z")
What kind of beer? American Light Lager style??? Wouldn’t last a day, because I couldn’t bring myself to try. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Plynck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Plynck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plynck)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-survive-for-a-month-in-the-desert-with-only-beer-to-drink/309691/3 "2005-06-24T16:58:33Z")
Is there a grant for this? ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-survive-for-a-month-in-the-desert-with-only-beer-to-drink/309691/4 "2005-06-24T17:03:18Z")
> [@Uncommon Sense](#): > > Seeing as how beer is a diuretic could you balance you beer intake to keep yourself from dehydrating? Alcohol is a diuretic. I saw a table (no cite - at work & too busy to Google) which showed that at concentrations up to about 10% (I think), you do get a hydrating effect. Above that, it is dehydrating. I’m not totally sure about the 10%, but do remember that beer (typically 4 - 5%) was hydrating, but wine (12%) was dehydrating. So based on that I expect you could survive on beer. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-survive-for-a-month-in-the-desert-with-only-beer-to-drink/309691/5 "2005-06-24T17:03:58Z")
[QUOTE=Uncommon Sense I know that if you drink enough beer you can become dehydrated, and they say not to drink alcohol (beer) on very hot days. [/QUOTE] “They” are wrong in the case of beer. Although certainly the alcohol in beer (or the caffiene in colas) makes that beverage less “hydating” that just plain water, there is enough water in there to keep you hydrated, if perhaps a little soused. You could likely survive on just beer, which also has some small food value, for quite some time. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-survive-for-a-month-in-the-desert-with-only-beer-to-drink/309691/6 "2005-06-24T17:11:43Z")
I’m sure we discussed this before. I’ll try to find the thread, but IIRC we decided that it was possible, especially if you could have more than one type of beer. Coors Light for hydration, Celebrator for nutrition. A month would be easy. After that it gets problematic, as you start running into nutrition deficiencies. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-survive-for-a-month-in-the-desert-with-only-beer-to-drink/309691/7 "2005-06-24T17:25:46Z")
Also depends on how much we can play with the definition of “beer.” A friend of mine from the Democratic Republic of Congo invited me to a family party where they were opening the latest batch of homebrewed bannana beer. It was in those 5 gallon paint drums, with the barley and hops floating in it. The beer wasn’t strained, you drank the barley with the beer and the brewer’s yeasty sludge. My guess is that stuff would keep you fairly well fed for quite some time. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-survive-for-a-month-in-the-desert-with-only-beer-to-drink/309691/8 "2005-06-24T17:40:38Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > You could likely survive on just beer, which also has some small food value, for quite some time. _Hic!_ I can attessst to that!_Hic!_ [/Otis Campbell] ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-survive-for-a-month-in-the-desert-with-only-beer-to-drink/309691/9 "2005-06-24T17:48:14Z")
In the days before sanitation, wasn’t it common in some areas to drink nothing but beer to avoid water-borne diseases? ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-survive-for-a-month-in-the-desert-with-only-beer-to-drink/309691/10 "2005-06-24T17:54:58Z")
If I remember properly, you can survive for up to an entire semester on nothing but beer, and perhaps some sort of weekly noodle supplement. ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-survive-for-a-month-in-the-desert-with-only-beer-to-drink/309691/11 "2005-06-24T18:03:46Z")
There was an article recently in 9I think) _The New Brewer_ magazine by a guy that subsisted entirely on beer for a month. I believe it was Dick Cantwell. I’ll look it up and see. ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-survive-for-a-month-in-the-desert-with-only-beer-to-drink/309691/12 "2005-06-24T18:06:19Z")
Unfiltered or bottle-conditioned beer would be the better choice because you would have the yeast sediment available, which is an excellent source of B vitamins ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-survive-for-a-month-in-the-desert-with-only-beer-to-drink/309691/13 "2005-06-24T20:18:24Z")
[jackcurtin.com](http://www.jackcurtin.com/liquiddiet/Archive/Apr05.htm) > [@](#): > > Dick Cantwell’s 30-day beer diet. > I don’t know how many of you will be able to lay hands on a copy, but the regular “What the Butler Saw” column by Elysian Brewing’s Dick Cantwell in the current issue of _American Brewer_ is fascinating. > > As an experiment, Cantwell decided that _for one month, I will ingest nothing but beer_. He started off the first day with a Belgian ale for breakfast and then drank beers, really good beers for the most part, for all his meals for a 30-day period. > > The result? _I have experienced spans of lucidity and lost close to fifteen pounds_. > > Sounds like a success to me. I’d try it because I could stand to take off those fifteen pounds (admittedly, since Dick included a daily mile long swim in his routine, that might be a misleading parameter), but that “lucidity” thing kinda scares me. > > Not sure I want to risk that. Who in the world would I talk to then? ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-survive-for-a-month-in-the-desert-with-only-beer-to-drink/309691/14 "2005-06-24T22:09:44Z")
If it’s any help, I’ve survived several harsh North Dakota winters on nothing but beer. With the occasional supplement of Scotch too. I know it’s the other extreme, but dehydration is just as big a factor in an arctic environment as the desert. Tripler . . . man, were those some f\*cked up igloos! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-survive-for-a-month-in-the-desert-with-only-beer-to-drink/309691/15 "2005-06-24T22:25:53Z")
Can you leave the beer out in the sun to allow some of the alcohol to evaporate? Can you use the beer to cool yourself? Can you use that 30 day unlimited supply to invite friends over under the condition that they bring water (and food)? ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2005, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-survive-for-a-month-in-the-desert-with-only-beer-to-drink/309691/16 "2005-06-24T23:05:08Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > Can you leave the beer out in the sun to allow some of the alcohol to evaporate? Dude, you’d skunk it after a few days, and then it would be completely undrinkable and useless. Tripler I’ve suffered from such unintentional decisions.