Tonight I am doing something very, VERY out of the ordinary. I am drinking wine. I never drink wine. Beer is my sin, bourbon my church. When I say never drink wine, I mean I never, ever drink wine.
But, I had no other booze in the house, and it’s snowing, and I didn’t feel like driving anywhere, so I’m drinking one of the bottles of wine the wife had in the pantry. I can’t say that I like it.
Anyway, after a little math with the alcohol content of this wine compared to the alcohol content of the beer I usually drink, I figure I’ve drank the equal of 13 twelve ounce bottles of beer. For a guy my size and weight, and figuring the amount of time I spent drinking, that should give me a BAC of about .17 or so. I used to have a PBT but it went ka-blooey so I am estamated using a BAC chart I have from the DMV.
Anyway, many, many,many,:rolleyes: many times in my life I have been .17 .
This doesn’t feel right. I feel much more tired than if I had drank 13 beers. I also have this suspision that I’m going to have a monster headache in the morning, something beer never does to me. The biggest point though, is that i don’t feel very drunk, though I know I am.
Does the type of liquor one consumes, though altogether equal in alcohol content to other forms of liquor, determin what sort of “buzz” a person will have?
I don’t think the type of alcohol that you’re drinking determines what “type” of buzz that you get. However, certainly drinking hard liquor straight will get you drunk a LOT quicker than beer simply because of the concentration of the alcohol.
As for the hangover, if you were drinking red wine (especially cheap red wine), you’re very likely to get one. The darker the liquor, the more likely a hangover is, due to the much heavier presence of congeners. (This is why you feel better drinking vodka than drinking whiskey)
As above, your physiological response to the type of alcoholic beverage does not vary in terms of ‘drunkness’ or type of ‘drunkness’, all that matters is blood alcohol content.
However,:
1/ The type of alcohol may effect other things such as hangovers.
2/ Psychologically, the type of alcoholic beverage may affect your response. There is research to show that mind altering substances’ effects are greatly moderated by expectations (amphetamines were given to two groups of people, one group told it was a stimulant, the other told it was a tranquillizer- groups tended to act accordingly- the brain noticed a difference and the mind interpreted it as what had been suggested.) So, if you believe that gin makes you sad, gin will make you sad; if you believe that tequila makes you a party animal, it will.
3/ The concentration of alcohol has a major effect on how quickly the alcohol is absorbed and consequently on how drunk you get and how quickly you get drunk. I forget the actual concentrations, but above a certain alcohol level, the stomach will not pass additional fluid to the small intestine for absorption, thus slowing down the process; this explains why plying a liquor-drunk with water or coffee may increase their intoxication- it lowers the alcohol concentration and allows further absorption. However, this is not absolute, as death from alcohol poisoning caused by drinking massive quantities of liquors are common, especially by less experienced drunks; experienced drunks tend to die from inhaling vomit.
Beer tends to limit absorption by quantity, especially British Beer which tends to be about 3-4 % ABV for ‘session bitters’ - beer that is drunk all evening.
The ‘best’ way (by which I mean quickest and continually consistent way) to get and stay drunk is to use strong wines or fortified wines, hence the use these by regular drunks. These ensure that the stomach alcohol concentration is consistently high, but not so high as to stop absorption.
What pjen said, but IIRC I’d still add the following, treading closely to the IMHO territory:
though drinking, say vodka rather than rum with the same mixer would be mainly a psychological difference, the sugar content of the drink certainly affects the sensation - say, drinking port vrs. dry red wine. Put another way, the combination of alcohol and elevated blood sugar puts more pressure on the liver, and would affect the “drunk”.
while generally speaking you’re dealing with the alcohol content, and the sugar levels in your blood, there are varying congeners, esters, potential allergens, and sometimes histamine-like substances (the latter particularly in red wine) to factor in, not to mention hops in the beer.
Well, of course you are going to have a headache, unless you drank a couple of tall glasses of water or some other fluid before hitting the sack. Your body needs to pull water from your body to flush out the chemical byproducts of the digested alcohol, and it’s going to give you a dry mouth and sinuses.
You normally drank thirteen 12 oz. bottles of beer to take in that much alcohol, which were mostly water. That was 156 ounces. Well over a gallon. Depending on what kind of wine it was, you drank a couple of bottles of wine, maybe 3. Big difference there.
The alcohol is the same. Alcohol is alcohol. What comes with it can influence your mood, yes. I hear gin gives a high most closely like that of some of the better mood elevating drugs.
I have settled on Gin as the “drunk” of choice. No other alcohol gives the same mellow effect. I was forbidden while in Vietnam (by my roomies) from drinking Jim Beam because it caused me to have an arrogant attitude. I like to drink but hate that next morning feeling that I get with Tequila or Whisky. Besides, as I stated in an earlier post, Gin is a health food.
<<< The alcohol is the same. Alcohol is alcohol. What comes with it can influence your mood, yes. >>>
That must explain why beer made me goofy and silly but when I drank wine I got mean… pit-bull-on-crack-cocaine mean!
So mean it scared me! I thought I was possessed! I don’t drink at all now and everyone is a lot happier.
My man!! Come on over sometime and we’ll split a bottle of Cuervo Gold.
I’ve found that I can drink large amounts of tequila and still keep truckin’ (not literally of course; I never drive drunk). An equivalent amount of beer, rum, vodka, etc. would have me vomiting in my shoes. And tequila gives me a different type of “drunk.” It makes me more wired and ready to party than other types of alcohol, which usually make me tired. I don’t know why this is, although I tend to favor the psychological explanation offered in an earlier post.
I believe that the type of alcohol can make a difference.
In ireland for example it is illegal for a bartender to sell a customer a concoction half and half Larger and Cider.
On their own these drinks do not present a problem yet within a few minutes of drinking the combined drink people become inexplicably morose and/or violent.
Any one fond of Drambuie will also testify that its is a far far happier “Drunk” you experience than with any other type of alchol.
I hope this isnt too IMHO but my only cite for this is personal experience.
Damhna- I would like to personally thank you for placing your IMHO post on this thread because you have cleared the road for me to do the same.
I think the type of alcohol makes ALL the difference in the type of drunk you have! (Although, I have had a few Rusty Nail evenings and take issue with Damhna’s endorsement of Drambuie. But perhaps he/she was smart enough not to mix it Scotch.)
I have noticed that large amounts of beer tend to bring me down a bit (I have always assumed this was due to the heavy-sitting nature of the brew) whereas a wine drunk is more of a warm, reassuring hug. Gin I have noticed sets me afire, a real shot in the arm and I’ll often have one when I am in need of my second wind.
In England this concoction is known as snakebite. Snakebite is chosen only by those people who intend to get seriously fighting drunk; consequently those people who drink Snakebite get seriously fighting drunk!
‘Post hoc, ergo propter hoc’. (Meaning: Just because you notice that something happens before something else doesn’t mean that it caused it.)
A standard 750ml bottle of wine is equivalent to about 5 beers in terms of alcohol content, not 13. That might explain why the OP didn’t feel especially drunk.
My wife just came back from London last night (to NYC–brought me a 3-Liter bottle of Strongbow! Woo-hoo!) and told me about that anti-snakebite regulation. That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. I have snakebites all the time over here in the US. You know why? B/c I like cider, but don’t always feel like drinking a whole pint of it (too sweet). IMO, those who think it makes them get violently angry are just using it as an excuse to act violently angry.
To Toadspittle: If you think Stringbow is impressive, you should try west country real cider which weighs in at 8-12 % alcohol, with added flavor! Or if you just want cider with a kick then White Lightning is the street drinkers cider of choice- 9% alcohol and who cares about the taste.
The pub I used to drink in which served trad cider insisted on only selling it in half pints in case people treated it like ordinary beer/cider.
