I was thinking about this just this morning as I’m sitting on the couch in the livingroom wanting to crack into my bottle of Fighting Cock Bourbon at 103 proof and I looked and it is 7:30 in the morning. Probably not the right time to be hitting the hard stuff, but man would it go down good right about now. It is a chilly morning here in Idaho and the temp is hovering right around freezing. I was looking at my laptop which has a wallpaper of a barrel of 103 proof fighting cock bourbon on it, and began to think when is it ok to have a drink?
Moreover when was the earliest you ever began drinking for your day? And I’m not talking about a Saturday morning when you were in college, we all have those stories, but now when you are a grown adult, when was the earliest you began to indulge? I remember back in September of last year I heard it from my wife because I opened a beer before noon. It was 11:30 and there was a football game on. I thought it was perfectly fine to crack open a beer, but she was not at all on board with that. Well here last week Jim and I started drinking at 10am at Victory when we were chatting with Bill and Ron (Founders and owners of the brewery) and it seemed natural to be in that environment and having a beer. Good thing my wife wasn’t there!
We’ve all heard that you shouldn’t begin drinking before 5:00pm. And we’ve all heard the old saying that its Five O’Clock somewhere to justify drinking before then. So what do you think? Are there rules about this? Should there be a time limit? Or should we just start in when the time is right? When was the earliest you have had a drink?
Let us know. I need the ammunition for my wife!
-Don
Beer & Whiskey Brothers 
It has to be a mimosa at a wedding shower brunch, and that was around 10:45 in the morning.
Yes, mimosas and bloody mary’s were invented for just this mission (drinking before noon). I bet if you wanted a whiskey on the rocks or vodka tonic or (gasp) a beer, you would have been harshly judged.
Hey Lennie, great to see you here. Mimosa’s at 10:45 are probably better than 103 proof bourbon at 7:30 am. You should try the Monkey Julious. I think that would be a great brunch drink, perhaps during the playoffs for football!
The coincidence of your post is uncanny – I just got back from Vegas and was out walking around and in one of the malls was a Sin City Brewing Company store which had a bar besides selling their merchandise. It was about 10:30 and I wanted to buy one of their pint glasses and the guy (one of the brewery owners) said you get half off one of their tap beers when you buy merchandise, I looked at my wife and she said, “You’re on vacation, go for it!”…so at 10:30 in the morning, I had a nice stout. I realize that when on vacation, the rules of drinking go out the window so I may not be answering your post in a way that you intended – but this was the earliest I ever had a beer!
Angela is a good woman! I’m happy to hear she “gets it” and was in your corner. After all, it’s Vegas, right?
She’s the best! It certainly makes it easier to enjoy knowing that she is OK with it. In Vegas I had picked out a bunch of beer places to go to but, feeling guilty, I narrowed it down to 2 and she was a real good sport about it. Even at home she realizes how much I love to have my beer and without actually pouring the beer for me, she encourages me to sit down, relax and “have a brewski”.
Whatever happens in Vegas… I think it is perfectly acceptable to drink early when on vacation. So long as you are not driving. Driving people need to not be drinking people. Vacation and drinking go together very well! 🙂
I think it’s okay to get started at 1pm, mainly because that’s when the early football games start on the east coast. It’s also after lunch, and I’m a big fan of eating before you drink.
But in general, I say be a grown up and do what you want, just try to be responsible. If you Sunday is wide open and you feel like a nip and a nap, then go for it. If you have stuff to do (especially if it involves driving) then hold your horses until the time is right. If your camping, put whiskey in your coffee!!
See I thought the same thing, because out here the early football games start at 11:00am. So a beer at 11:30 seemed perfectly fine. Wrong! No drinking here until after dinner or at the very least the late game which airs at 2:00 pm.
It isn’t called Breakfast Stout for nothing! Like Jim said, we’re all (mostly) grown up – use your best judgment and enjoy life. I’m actually a non-drinker so I don’t have this problem.
I have also heard you don’t have a drivers license, you don’t eat anything that was once living, and you are celibate. So you really shouldn’t be responding to this post Scott. Is a matter of fact you don’t write either, so I’m sure your wife wrote this for you.
Don, I have a ghost writer who has multiple personalities. Maybe they wrote this comment, and maybe they didn’t.
Started going full on at last years Dark Lord beer festival at about 7:30 am. As dangerous as it sounds, I’ve had a couple shots at about 5:00 am before climbing into a tree stand and hunting. Indiana is not warm during hunting season. Guns and 5:00 am drinking are simply magic.
So how about this year? Any 7:30am stories there? Drinking and gunplay do seem to have a magical quality to them. Something about getting covered in gunshot residue while legally intoxicated seems to have a certain draw like the Sirens song.
Don can tell stories about guns and booze, Mike. All legal, but of questionable judgment, which is probably what makes them so funny.
My hard rule for drinking is 10 AM or 80 degrees, which ever hits first. Now when I have a drink, now I am not going to drink to get hammered. I mean I pretty much have a beer with every meal. Just because I love the taste of beer that much. I think it’s okay to have a beer whenever where ever, especially with food.
Now as for the whiskey, I have been known to throw down an early nip of scotch here and there, but I also take to the “sipping” whiskeys. So, it’s not like I am doing shooters at 10 AM.
Very reasonable Marvin. I think it makes perfect sense to have beer with every meal. One problem might be breakfast out. Not a lot of beer in some of the pancake joints, but other than that I say yes. you can also put a little whiskey in your coffee! 😉
Not to get all geeky here, but when I taste for reviewing (be it beer or wine), I often do it in the morning, because that’s when your palate is most awake and ready to go. After an entire day of eating and drinking coffee, soda, etc. your palate is exhausted and can’t taste small nuances as readily. And most beer/wine judging competitions begin early for the same reason. I remember once a few years ago, when I was trying to hone my taste buds, I had classic examples of the major white wine varietals on my kitchen table (about 7 if I remember right). I had poured some in a glass, numbered each glass and put them on a lazy susan so I could spin them randomly, taste them, and try to guess which varietal they were. I was doing all this at about 10:30 in the AM when my folks decided to stop in for a visit and saw their daughter with 8 glasses of wine, all by herself at a kitchen table, LOL.
See, I can’t even remember numbers correctly when I’m stone sober….the glasses apparently magically morphed from 7 to 8.
I knew there must have been a reason the Donnybrook tasted so good at 10am! Do you think my office would mind if I did beer tasting at my desk? I guess that is truly a benefit of unemployment. Oh well, that is good ammo Katie for me to be able to do my reviews earlier on the weekends, thanks for that.
My liver doesn’t wear a watch.
Neither does mine, but my wife does, and so do my kids…So i’m good in the wee hours.