Well the Obvious answer here is YES! It is certainly possible to get inebriated by consuming too much beer in one sitting. That really isn’t my question, more my question is do you get drunk on beer? Personally I find it difficult to drink enough on beer, even big beers to feel intoxicated.
I’m thinking that there are several reasons for this:…
- Beer in general is a low alcohol substance. Even the big beers are typically lower in alcohol than wine, and really how much can one person drink?
- I tend to get very filled up on beer. Once I moderate my consumption based on my own internal capacity I tend to simply replace the alcohol that naturally leaves my body…like a pipe that has a certain flow capacity.
- I drink for flavor. This tends to limit consumption as well, because I like to savor the flavor as I drink, so this too slows me down.
- My palate limits me. We found this out at GABF this year. Jim and I both went to the Rare Beer Tasting and tried many great and very big beers. We both like big beers. That evening we went to the festival and found a few beers in that we could no longer taste beer correctly. We figured this out when I asked Jim to try a beer I like very much from a local Idaho brewery. He really couldn’t taste it, so I tried it too, same deal. I knew this was a lovely beer with a great flavor for an everyday drinker, but we couldn’t taste it properly. Our palate’s were fried. Once that happens, what’s the point…
So I want to be clear I have nothing against having a rip roarin’ good time and getting snot faced drunk. I’ve been known to do so myself from time to time, but not on beer. I just naturally moderate, and I find that gumminess the next morning is much harder to deal with from beer than other alcoholic beverages, so I tend to shy away from making myself stoopid with beer.
To be clear I am not saying that I don’t feel the effects of a few beers…I do, and I never advocate driving after drinking anything, but if I’m going to get more than a little buzzed, the hard stuff is involved.
How about you? Do you have a tolerance for beer that keeps you from getting silly, or do you let it all hang out from time to time? Let us know in the comments.
-Don
Beer & Whiskey Brothers 
I can get drunk on beer very easily. I prefer higher ABV beers and tend to drink quickly, so I have to be careful.
I might also add you’re a whiskey guy, Don, so you might have a built in advantage compared to us more mortal drinkers.
I just get too full. My stomach gets pretty bloated and I can’t consume a lot in a short period.
Like Jim, most of the beers I drink are high ABV beers so its very easy to get a bit tipsy if I’m not careful. But I don’t drink beer to get drunk, as I am sure most people who follow your blog will agree. Sometimes it just happens and I go with it.
I guess my point is that for me it never seems to happen. If it did, I would be ok with that too, but if I am in the mood to really hurt myself it takes more than beer to do it.
I believe I did so this morning.
I would expect nothing less, Daniel. You tend to take everything to the extreme!
Including waiting to reply.
Ha! I tend to agree with Don. People wonder why some of the brewers and I are often seen drinking a scotch or vodka at the end of an event night. Too full from beer, just replacing what your body is taking out. I mean, it is possible to get drunk on beer, but I need to down a 6-pack of 10%ers to get things going.
Ahh, spoken like a true professional, Matt. 🙂
I definitely get “drunk” on beer but my epic drunken talks always include a good bit of the distilled stuff somewhere in the mix & usually play the leading role..
Some of my finest moments (at least I thought so in the moment) have included a whiskey “back” as well.
Some of my worst mornings have come after those finest moments as well.
I can, I just choose not to. Anything over a buzz, and I get uncomfortably sick. Way more than most people.
I hear that Evan, not immediately, but the next morning I can’t function too well.
It’s both for me. So once I start feeling a buzz, I really slow down the pace.
I once drank an entire 6 pack of Victory Golden Monkey in less than 2 hours. I figure that is about as drunk as one could get on beer alone. I was indeed drunk, but drinking liquor is the only way to get soused enough to fall asleep near the train tracks or on a park bench.
Also I’m pretty sure the picture you posted is evidence in some sort of sex crime.
I was thinking similar thoughts but her thong seems to be too intact for this to have occurred! My guess was there was some dancing, a little striptease, then a fall and pass out where she remained until morning. I’m guessing she was in a warm climate, as her lips or other parts are not blue.
Wow, you are my new hero Andrew! 6 Golden Monkey’s in two hours! That’s gotta be some kind of a record! I’m guessing you were later visited by his brother the Trunk Monkey that came and hit you over the head with a crow bar!
Ron Barchet’s comment to this feat was “And you are still breathing?”
Well Ron would know, Andrew. I’m surprised there isn’t a picture of you in the brew pub on a plaque or something.
I can get drunk on beer…but I’d rather not. For instance, for lunch I started out with Old Rasputin on nitro, moved on to shots of this and that…and finished with a Grey Goose martini…not only bruised but molested. So here I am, still upright and quite happy.
OK, now you’re my new hero! Drunk over lunch! What kind of job do you have? Sounds like an awesome one!
It is an awesome job indeed. I work with our ol’ friend @beerpoet.who, interestingly, was present during lunch. Is this time billable?
I gotta get a job there! I think Chad stays drunk to deal with his triplets…that’s gotta be a handful at times!
Sometimes, although of course as a college student I have built-in extra capacity for alcoholic liquids. My local college pub has an excellent beer selection and a “pint night” once a week where you order a pitcher of a featured beer and get to take home two of that beer’s glasses. You have to get there early to get a seat, so you sit around drinking for a little bit; that’s when I like to try the beers they have on tap that I’ve never had before. On Unibroue Trois Pistole night, I started off with a (delicious but 10%) Brooklyn Chocolate Stout. I ended up losing my partner, so I ended up drinking the whole pitcher. I ended the night by ordering twelve philosophers (4 x ommegang three philosophers) for my friends. That was both a delicious and stumble filled night.
I think once you have 4 three philosophers they cease being philosophers and become disciples!
Even though my tolerance is a bit built up, at 170lbs it doesn’t take too much to get me loose. I like IPAs and since they’re typically fairly dry and high ABV that means they don’t fill me up and after 2-3 in a short period of time my eyes get a bit lazy.
I hear you matt. Maybe it is just a function of not being able to drink craft brews too quickly for me. Dunno.
Chimay Grande Reserve… 750 mL bottle in one night. I can get a little silly, but not drunk drunk.
I love that stuff! It was my first ever beer review. I remember I said that I drank the entire bomber, and if I had a second, I’d have drank that too! Check it out: https://beerandwhiskeybros.com/2009/08/23/chimay-blue-the-novice-perspective/
Warning I did this review before out 500 word post convention was implemented.
Yeah, getting drunk on beer usually ends ugly for me. I can’t eat a big meal then get drunk on beer. I just get too full and end up pondering a forced puke.
Oooh….Yikes. Sounds like gastronomic planning is needed before you go on a bender Brandon…
Yeah I am late on this but I just googled can you get drunk off 7 golden monkeys and it brought me here. I just drank 6 golden monkeys in 45 mins followed by a 7th in 30 minutes. Me and a co worker went out drinking for lunch and I always buy a 6 pack and drink it, devided to do Gmonkey and now i think im drunk. He also had golden moneky but only drank 3 I took one of his after i got back to the office.
Correction Brian, you ARE drunk. If you slam that much of anything you will get intoxicated. My question was more of a rhetorical one to get people thinking whether they actually DO get drunk off of beer or not. I personally cannot because I can’t drink that much liquid fast enough to get a good drunk on. However if you go very fast like you did, of course you will get drunk. I hope all those Belgian esthers don’t give you a huge hangover at about 10pm tonight. Good luck…
We thank you for your contributions to science today, Brian. And we hope you’re using public transportation.
Well said Brother!