# What is "A beer and a bump"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 13, 2003, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597 "2003-06-13T15:31:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@RedDawgEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedDawgEsq)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2003, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/1 "2003-06-13T15:31:51Z")
Heard this the other day and something in the dark recesses of the old grey matter made me think it’s the practice of putting a shot glass of whiskey at the bottom of a beer mug. You chug the beer and get the whiskey “bump” at the end.
But then I also thought this practice might be called a “boilermaker”, only isn’t that a two step process: beer in one hand, shot glass in the other; chug and slam it back sequentially without mixing the two. Am I close on either count? Please advise; I have plans for the evening and don’t wish to appear unsophisticated.
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### Author:  [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2003, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/2 "2003-06-13T15:38:22Z")
Boiler makers
Irish Car Bombs
Saki Bomber
It varies from where you are and what your drinking.
However, I’ve heard your saying only once, in a western. Lonesome Dove I think. And it meant let’s have a drink then get layed…bump. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2003, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/3 "2003-06-13T15:39:31Z")
I knew the drop-and-chug as a “depth charge.” A boilermaker in late-80s Hokie-parlance was whiskey poured directly into a beer, without the shot glass.
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### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2003, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/4 "2003-06-13T15:39:46Z")
Erm…what context did you hear it in? A “bump” is street slang for a toot of cocaine. Might the speaker have been referring to a beer followed by a little questionable pleasure partaken in the lavatory, or was this something someone was asking a bartender for
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2003, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/5 "2003-06-13T15:51:36Z")
Also known as a “depth charge”. I’ve seen it done with creme de menthe too.
The latter practice is known in these parts as a “chaser”.
Goodness knows why anyone would want to do it. Personally, I reckon if you _know_ what it is you’ll appear unsophisticated…
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### Author:  [@RedDawgEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedDawgEsq)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2003, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/6 "2003-06-13T15:51:48Z")
Well, it was something one of Garrison Keilor’s Lake Woebegone residents was asking for in the Sidetrack Tap, so I couldn’t ask for an explanation and none was offered. Also, Google seems to give plenty examples of its use, but no definitions.
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### Author:  [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2003, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/7 "2003-06-13T15:52:22Z")
As far as I know, “a beer anna bump” is a moderately more colorful way to say “a shot anna beer” - simply a beer and a shot of whiskey.
AS observed, what to call variations of the “beer and whiskey” combinations varies regionallly. My own categorization appears to match **Sofa King** ’s - if the shot glass is dropped in it’s a “depth charge”, if you just pour the whiskey into the beer, it’s a “boilermaker”. If you keep the two separate, it’s a “shot with a beer chaser”, “a shot anna beer” or a “beer anna bump”.
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### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2003, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/8 "2003-06-13T15:54:09Z")
Aha. If it’s a Lake Wobegone thing, I’ll assume cocaine is right out. 😃
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### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2003, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/9 "2003-06-13T16:27:11Z")
I’ve always seen a Boilermaker as a shot dropped into a beer.
An Irish Car Bomb is a shot of 1/2 irish whiskey, 1/2 Bailey’s dropped in 1/2 pint of Guinness, then chugged.
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### Author:  [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2003, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/10 "2003-06-13T16:52:34Z")
…And following up with **yabob** , we made up a lot of other terms on the spot as our debauchery merited. A shot glass of vodka in beer (which, by the way, is _awful_ IMHO) was known as a Soviet depth charge or a Red October, a shot glass of tequila in beer became a galleon, vodka and Gatorade was a Chernobyl… damn, it’s amazing I survived college.
Anyway, “depth charge” may be entitled to somewhat more legitimacy than the trite names which have probably been independently invented a thousand times. Depth charges were apparently a staple item during my father’s frat-boy days in the 1950s.
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### Author:  [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2003, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/11 "2003-06-13T20:24:51Z")
I agree with Pravnik’s first assesment. A “bump” is a “hit” of just about any drug, cocaine, heroin, pot. I would guess someone said “I sure could use a beer and a bump.” meaning a beer and a toke of weed. Although if Keillor (sp?) is using this term, maybe a bump is a hit of any drug including liquor.
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### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2003, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/12 "2003-06-13T21:28:28Z")
**Cecil Adams** on [Boilermaker recipe: drop the shot glass in the beer?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_351b.html) (Not one of his most definitive answers).
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### Author:  [@Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knighted_Vorpal_Sword)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2003, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/13 "2003-06-13T21:46:46Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by RedDawgEsq \*
> \*\*Well, it was something one of Garrison Keilor’s Lake Woebegone residents was asking for in the Sidetrack Tap, so I couldn’t ask for an explanation and none was offered. Also, Google seems to give plenty examples of its use, but no definitions. \*\*
That’s funny, I just read this page in _Lake Wobegone Days_ this very morning. I just assumed that it was a beer and a shot. Also, the conversation surrounding this “beer and a bump” had to do with the type of whisky that would be the “bump.”
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2003, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/14 "2003-06-13T22:18:31Z")
This is one of those drinking traditions that get passed around, usually garbled, from one location to the next, and which, like the kid’s game “Telephone,” never comes out the way it started.
As told on _Prairie Home Companion_, “a beer and a bump” is a beer with a shot of whiskey chaser. That would be consistent with the usage of my Great Lakes states farming connections. In town, my shop rat friends called that a “shot and a beer,” with those who practiced it divided between insisting that the [Boilermaker](http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/foodscpe/resources/cocktails/boilmake.html) was the same thing or insisting that a boilermaker required the whiskey to be added to the beer. Dropping in the shot glass is more frequently called “depth charge” in my experience, but I have met those who claimed that the word boilermaker really meant the depth charge practice.
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### Author:  [@RedDawgEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedDawgEsq)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2003, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/15 "2003-06-17T16:42:46Z")
Ah, so did we reach a concensus here? I guess not but at least the practical research was , ummm, stimulating.😉
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### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2003, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/16 "2003-06-17T17:15:28Z")
Around these parts it is the same as a boiler maker.
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### Author:  [@kubor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kubor)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2004, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/17 "2004-03-19T13:28:38Z")
> [@bibliophage](#):
>
> **Cecil Adams** on [Boilermaker recipe: drop the shot glass in the beer?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_351b.html) (Not one of his most definitive answers).
Maybe it’s Canadian, but up here, a Boilermaker was always a shot, glass and all, dropped into the beer. The beer with the shot as a chaser is the nameless chick version your shy young girlfriend would drink. I think the technique came from Scotland many, many years ago, where men really know how to drink whiskey and beer. This drink has never been a “depth charge” – a sissy sweet drink concocted by some arcane bartender.
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### Author:  [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2004, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/18 "2004-03-19T15:50:44Z")
Anyone try a Binni & Flynn?
Named after a Irish/Mexican restaurant in Northeast Philly, it consisted of a shot of Tequila dropped in a pint of Guinness.
:o WHUMP! Knocks ya on yer ass!
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2004, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/19 "2004-03-19T19:54:03Z")
I imagine that after a few of those your head would feel like a piñata that had been knocked about with a shillelagh. 😃
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### Author:  [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2004, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/20 "2004-03-19T22:32:59Z")
My granny drank boiler-makers until the day she died (in her sleep) at the age of 79. If in a bar the shot went into the beer, if at home (where you have to wipe up the mess yourself) the shot was a chaser.
BTW she also taught me how to play poker at the ripe old age of 5 and we always played for money (pennies) and she never “let” anyone win.
She was also a former “flapper” who wore spike heels everyday of her life. One of my favorite days was when she asked me to drive her around so she could show me where all her favorite speakeasies used to be. Sorry for the hijack 🙂 This thread just brought back some pleasant memories.
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