# What is "A beer and a bump"? **URL:** \ **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:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/21 "2004-03-19T23:18:13Z")
Boilermaker goes back to the 1930’s, but it was simply a whiskey with a beer chaser. The dropping of the shot glass into the beer comes in the 1960’s or so, probably. “Depth charge” to mean dropping the shot into your beer is cited only from 1956. Navy slang. It almost certainly was known by that name in the military in WWII. Shot and a bump–pretty new. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/22 "2004-03-19T23:24:58Z")
Well, I guess I know where my mind is. When I spotted that phrase here, I assumed it was slang for buying drinks for a woman and then taking her home for a shag… ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/23 "2004-03-20T01:27:17Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Boilermaker goes back to the 1930’s And this thread goes back to 2003. What’s your point? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/24 "2004-03-20T02:11:43Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > And this thread goes back to 2003. What’s your point? 😉 Sorry. Missed that. I guess I was poorly trying to give some historical perspective and failed. “Beer and a bump” seems to be a phrase from “Prarie Home Companion” or some other rather modern concoction. “Boilermaker” appears in the 1930’s and later, with the almost universal meaning of drinking a shot of whiskey, then quickly following it with a beer chaser. “Depth charge” appears in the 1956 novel “Don’t Go Near the Water” which was set in WWII and was generally thought to reflect language from that period. It absolutely meant a shot glass of whiskey dropped into a beer. Just figured that more correct info was better than less. ---
**Author:** ![Tenebras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@Tenebras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenebras)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2004, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/25 "2004-03-28T01:19:20Z")
Also to the list: sake bombs, where the glass most assuredly goes into the beer. (Get your beer, drink it down to about half, lay two chopsticks across the top of the glass and perch the sake shot on them. Thump the table and the shot falls in.) Hell, some of the sushi restaraunts here (Santa Barbara) offer discounts on them during the week. ---
**Author:** ![Squee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@Squee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squee)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2004, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/26 "2004-03-28T02:01:25Z")
Where I was from it was a “Whip and a Beer”, which translates to a “shot and a beer”… it the winter for me it was always a shot of Hot Damn and a SN Pale Ale. 🙂 Ah memories of when I used to be a boozer! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lance-Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@Lance-Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance-Baker)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2019, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/27 "2019-04-12T02:13:29Z")
This is a Great Lakes States colloquialism. A beer and a bump is NOT a snort of cocaine or other powdered illegal drug. It is NOT a boilermaker. For a boilermaker, the shot of whiskey is dropped into the mug of beer. For a beer and a bump, the shot is alongside the mug of beer. You drink a sip of beer, drink the shot, drink more beer. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2019, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597/28 "2019-04-12T09:46:20Z")
“Bump”, indeed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-beer-and-a-bump/181597.md?page=1)