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How to Drink All Night Without Getting Drunk
- bhw 12y agoI'm not going to be convinced unless I also hear a biochemical mechanism, and I can't imagine where digestion of yeast and metabolization of alcohol intersect.
- peterjmag 12y agoDespite the rather juvenile headline, I found this pretty interesting. Makes a lot of sense for someone that does a lot of beer tasting and wants to stay coherent.
- yread 12y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_dehydrogenase#Yeast_and_bacteria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_dehydrogenase#Yeast_and... If you manage to increase the concentration of alcohol in your stomach to levels when ADH2 kicks in (and keep sugar concentration low), it might work. But where is the fun in drinking without getting drunk?!
- ssdfsdf 12y agoBecause as someone who is very sensitive to alcohol, I have spent my adult life resisting pressure to drink more. I often end up with 2 day hangovers, because yet again I have allowed someone to convince me that one more drink won't hurt. If this works I will be using it...
- tripzilch 12y agoBe sure to read the rest of this thread (and possibly the link to the Reddit discussion), it seems that while it might prevent drunkness, it doesn't do much to prevent the hangover part.
- 1337biz 12y agoThere are occasions where you want to get drunk and other occasions where you want others to be drunk. Especially when you are a lightweight and have to go out with people from the office etc. Lots of opportunities there.
- dagw 12y agoI'd love nothing more than to be able to drink without getting drunk. Being able to knock back a bottle of wine with dinner and then a second bottle after dinner without any side effects would be dream come true. I love the pleasurable effects of alcohol as much as the next person, but 4 times out of 5 I'm only after the flavor and being forced to stop drinking something that tastes awesome due to the effect it's about to have on me totally sucks.
- eli 12y agoNon alcoholic beer & wine does exist.
- charlysisto 12y agoYes it's called grape juice : the wine you drink because the taste is 'divine' doesn't exist in a non alcoholic form. Don't know about beer though
- dagw 12y agoThe best non-alcoholic beers are, relatively speaking, better than non-alcoholic wine, but the selection is basically limited to fairly mundane German style lagers and even the best ones (Jever is probably the best I've tasted) are inferior to even most mass-produced lager.
- hessenwolf 12y agoClausthaller (not the canned), Paulaner Helles and Hefe-Weiß, Erdinger Weiß, Lämmbrau, and Hacker Pschorr Helles are all very tasty tipples. Spaten Helles is wretched, and Löwenbrau Helles is surprisingly not too terrible, given the regular stuff is garbage.
- tripzilch 12y agoThe non-alcoholic Erdinger Weissbier is probably the best non-alcoholic beer I've tasted. You need to get "into" it a little before you realize it actually does taste like beer, except without the alcohol, and how much part of the flavour alcohol actually is (even with the relatively low 5% ABV that most beers are). Also, and this may differ per regulations where you are, but many "non-alcoholic" beers do in fact contain up to 0.5% alcohol (including the Erdinger Weizener). So you'd have to drink 10 of them to feel the buzz of one normal beer, but I'd expect by that time you'd be feeling something else, over the buzz from a single beer :-P
- jobu 12y agoIt seems crazy there isn't more information about using yeast on the internet. Perhaps it's because most people drink to get drunk. One question for chemists or biologists out there: If the byproduct of the yeast is acetaldehyde, wouldn't that cause the uncomfortable "Asian Flush"? (http://bsclarified.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/im-not-drunk-i-just-have-a-deficient-enzyme/ http://bsclarified.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/im-not-drunk-i-j...)
- atwebb 12y agoSince it's a pretty audacious headline especially heading into the weekend, here's a /r/homebrewing thread discussing the article: http://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/comments/23wbeo/jim_kochs_trick_to_not_getting_drunk_xpost_from/ http://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/comments/23wbeo/jim_koch... It may also be that he just paces better and has a higher tolerance than most. There can also be other "side effects" of downing 1 serving of yeast + yogurt per beer you plan to have so perhaps that helps limit his intake as well (if he sticks to the pre-plan), heck pre-planning probably helps more than anything.
- yread 12y agoTLDR; of the thread: - people who know him personally say he's wasted ALL the time - mechanism of action is supposed to be ADH that is added to the bakers' yeast - microbiologists and chemists doubt it's going to work
- ch4s3 12y agoNot only that, but ingesting large amounts of live yeast can (does)cause explosive gastrointestinal results. A problem familiar to any home brewer that has consumed especially yeasty young beer.
- AUmrysh 12y agoIf you get yeast in your intestines and you're taking antibiotics, you can get what's called Auto-Brewery Syndrome. The yeast in your intestines starts to ferment sugars and you get drunk all the time.
- pavel_lishin 12y agoHow do antibiotics cause this? Do they kill off some of the intestinal flora that would normally digest the sugars?
- ch4s3 12y agoFunny that you mention that. I sit 1 desk over from a doctor who brought that up as I was writing my earlier comment. We all had a good laugh.
- cjf4 12y agoAnyone know if this would apply to liquor as well?
- hoektoe 12y agoI would assume it does, since the focus is on alchohol breakdown and not so much the "other" ingredients
- nathanvanfleet 12y agoI had a friend who told me that drinking a glass of milk before a night of drinking was the special secret. Either way "drinking all night and not getting drunk" sounds more like a Twilight Zone episode to me. I don't really drink at all, but it sounds like that would be a nightmare. I'm also wondering about how he deals with the inevitable farts? Yeasts eating sugars = gas which is why beer and everything else is fizzy.
- McCoy_Pauley 12y agoI'm sorry, but my first thought from the title was only drink water. Then you'd be very sober.
- peatmoss 12y agoOr tea. It's surprisingly refreshing, and contains some of the bitterness that beer has, but plain water lacks. Now, how about a nice black tea with some aromatic hops for finish. Delicious, nutritious, and non-intoxicating. Come to think of it, this does sound good.
- fabian2k 12y agoADH is unstable and not active at the low pH values (1-2) in the stomach, this explanation is highly unlikely.
- endersshadow 12y agoI've said this in the corresponding reddit threads in /r/beer and /r/homebrewing, but I've met Jim Koch on multiple occasions in multiple settings, and I've never seen him not hammered. He's a functioning alcoholic, not a magician. He is, however, brilliant. He gets beer and marketing beer better than anybody else I've ever met.
- moron4hire 12y agoI think that's the key thing. If you don't know what true alcoholism looks like, it can be easy to miss the signs.
- JackFr 12y agoI think drinking nothing but beer all the time is a pretty obvious sign. Unless you're the most famous brewer in the world -- then I suppose it might be easy to miss that sign.
- moron4hire 12y agoYeah, coming up with tricks to "not get drunk", or searching for cheap booze deals, or anything that is really just out of the way burdensome for the sake of nothing more than "more drink". I don't buy cheap beer, ever. Not even if I'm asked to get a case for a party. If I'm going to drink, I want something I'll enjoy. Cheap beer is about getting a buzz or getting drunk. It always freaks people out, "you shouldn't have spent so much for a party". Why? I don't see it as a choice. Should I have only opened a can of kidney beans for the dish I brought, too? No, I want to have something that I will enjoy, that others can enjoy, too. It's not just about "filling ourselves to the gills on as little money as possible." But that is how people treat beer. That's not to say I don't get drunk sometimes. The experience of sitting in an innertube on a lazy river is significantly enhanced by alcohol. A wedding party is significantly enhanced by copious alchol. But most days I want to be productive and make things. I can't code or write well--and certainly can't solder at all--when I'm drunk. I similarly don't watch a lot of television, or read a lot of books. I'd like to fill my time with more productive tasks than consumptive ones.
- nraynaud 12y agoI think yeast makes your fart as hell (when you're lucky). And I think active yeast would just carry on degrading sugar into alcohol in the stomach.
- smcl 12y agoThis sounds like "bro science" to me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXO2azb3_PE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXO2azb3_PE
- doki_pen 12y agoA clever piece of marketing. The hip trend is away from IPAs and towards Belgians, specifically Quads. In this article I learned that Jim Koch, founder of Sam Adams is sick of IPAs and wants a good Belgian(he's hip kids!). Sure enough, his company makes a Quad and a stout! Man, Sam Adams is cool again!
- VeejayRampay 12y agoProtip: Prefer alcohol-free beverages. Works all the time. Alcohol doesn't bring anything to the table except a false sense of belonging and elation. If you need to do that ALL NIGHT to feel good around friends and people in general, then you might need to sit down and ask yourself some serious questions.
- thezoid 12y agoThis might prevent you from getting drunk, but the result is going to be some terrible gas. Anyone who homebrews will know this because of those times you've drank beer that still had tons of yeast in suspension or when they accidentally drank the sediment.
- jasallen 12y agoNot recalling all the details of my physiology here, but there is an additional ethanol metabolism pathway that is not engaged or not fully engaged until someone is very very drunk or is chronically pretty damn drunk. IIRC, the enzyme involved does not put out the same toxins through oxidation that affect the nervous system and give that drunk look. Instead you get the 'functional alcoholic'. Based on what other people are saying here, my guess is, that's what we've got going on here. My common sense says there is probably a measurable, but insignificant effect by the enzyme in the yeast. Edit: also, the theory is just that the stomach is a mixing bowl, so the poor man's field test is here is pretty trivial, maybe I'll have some fun tonight with a blender, some yeast, and a bottle of cheap hooch.
- jpatokal 12y agoSkeptics StackExchange has a good takedown of this. TL;DR: Yeast ADH requires a neutral to alkaline environment to work, but the stomach is extremely acidic, so it's not going to do anything. http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/20381/does-eating-yeast-stop-you-getting-drunk http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/20381/does-eatin...
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- jere 12y agoWhat about the small intestine? I'm reading that about 80% of alcohol is absorbed there after leaving the stomach and that most of the small intestine has pH between 7-8. http://prevention.gwu.edu/alcohol-absorption http://prevention.gwu.edu/alcohol-absorption http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Small_Intestine http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Small_Intestine Anyway, I can't see the utility of drinking without the expected effects.
- bwag 12y agoI go to many craft beer festivals just to "taste" new beers. My main goal when attending beer festivals isn't to get drunk, but to taste a diverse list of new beers. It would be a big win for me if I could sample more and get drunk less.
- rav-rdz 12y agoIf your goal sincerely is to taste more instead of feeling the effects of alcohol, why not spit the beer out? This is de rigueur among serious wine tasters for exactly this reason.
- sitkack 12y agoI have had great luck doing strenuous exercise, drinking moderate amount of water and taking some vitamin b 4-6 hours before drinking. Seems to double my tolerance.
- 12y ago
- haddr 12y agoNot an expert here, but what about good old olive oil? There is a rumor that drinking a couple of teaspoons of oil before driking will make it longer to absorb the alcohol and you might get less drunk. I wonder how true is that technique. ..
- tripzilch 12y agoDidn't they do that in Happy Days?
- yung_ether 12y ago"Forever more I'd be yet another guy discreetly carrying a white powder around at bars. I'd advise you do likewise." I already do!
- tmcw 12y agoAnd then he reaches into his bag, and excitedly holds it in his palm: The Placebo Effect!
- MisterMashable 12y agoGot milk?
- melvinmt 12y agoI wonder what the purpose is of drinking if you don't want to get drunk.
- pavel_lishin 12y agoIt's a social custom. Same as playing poker even if you're not very good at it, and know you're going to lose.
- rplnt 12y agoSame as non-caloric foods I guess. The taste. I would love to drink beer at work. But getting drunk is not what I want. Some people like wine like that. I doubt that stands for spirits.
- chris_mahan 12y agoYou want your date to get drunk.
- logfromblammo 12y agoI think this is probably broscience bullshit. Yeasts produce ethanol from sugars and tend to leave a lot of excess lying around when they finish. If you want a biological assistant, what you really want is to swallow the "mother of vinegar" acetobacter culture biofilm from unpasteurized, naturally fermented vinegar, and eat it with something dense and sugary before you drink. The acetobacters actually metabolize ethanol into acetic acid and survive in highly acidic environments such as the stomach. As they are aerobic bacteria, you will also need to swallow air while drinking. The amount of time that alcohol remains in your stomach makes it unlikely that you will make more than a tiny difference in the amount of alcohol that enters your bloodstream. But it is much more scientifically plausible than baker's yeast. An actual, significant reduction in drunkenness from ingested alcohol would have to overstock the liver with ADH1B, thiamine (vitamin B1), ALDH2, ACSS2, and n-acetyl-L-cysteine (Acetadote). This would require an intravenous injection before you start drinking, and is probably very dangerous in the absence of any real medical necessity.
- jordan0day 12y agoSerious question: What is the purpose of "drinking all night" and not getting drunk? To me, the phrase "all night" implies "a lot" or at least "relatively frequently during the course of the evening". Why would you want to drink a bunch of alcohol and not get drunk? If not becoming drunk was the goal, why wouldn't you just, you know, drink something non-alcoholic?
- jgeerts 12y agoBecause beer and other alcoholic beverages taste good?
- placeybordeaux 12y agoThe taste and participating in the social function.
- tambourine_man 12y agoOne of the reasons for drinking is getting drunk. The important thing is to avoid the hangover.
- err4nt 12y agoNever suffered from hangover, but I have read about it. It seems to be mostly dehydration. If you drink one glass of water for each time you urinated the night you drank before you go to sleep I wonder if your hydration level would be the same.
- tommorris 12y agoMight be. Think there might be some psychology too. Sometimes I'll go out to a bar and get absolutely shitfaced drunk (8 double G&Ts, for instance) and wake up the next morning feeling fine. I'll pour myself one drink at home before bed and wake up the next morning feeling like death. A bit of energy exertion to walk to the bus stop and get home may have made all the difference.
- ghkbrew 12y agoI think we need to start a new meme. Something like: Double-blind randomized control trial or it didn't happen Anyone?
- Shenglong 12y agoFor all the Asians who flush - I would be very careful about trying this at home. It seems like it'll have the opposite effect of what's intended. The alcohol breakdown chain reaction in the body (I'm not a chemist) is ethanol -> acetaldehyde -> acetic acid. The ethanol causes your to be "drunk", but the acetaldehyde has some arguably worse effects (headache, tiredness, flush). Asians typically process ethanol -> acetaldehyde way faster than others, but the acetaldehyde -> acetic acid can be really slow. If the yeast is mimicking ADH and not ALDH, you're just going to suffer even more. Again, I'm not a chemist or a doctor, but from my preliminary internet research and anecdotal testing (though I have quite a few different data points), Famotadine (OTC), and higher levels of APO-Ranitidine (can be prescription) seems to slow the rate of ethanol -> acetaldehyde, balancing out the drunkness effect more, and giving you more time to process the acetaldehyde -> acetic acid. I typically go from maxing out at 2 drinks / 3 hour period, to about 11 drinks / 3 hour period on Ranitidine, given favorable conditions. I've had lower levels of success with Famotadine.
- baby 12y agois this why I have worse hangovers than everyone else?
- imjk 12y agoI believe those products you mention are commercially available in the US as Pepcid AC and Zantac. I've personally seen the lessened effect of flush through the use of Pepcid, but there were other side effects. I'll give Zantac a try. Thanks for the info.
- massaman_yams 12y agoI would also recommend supplementing with N-Acetyl-Cysteine - try perhaps ~500mg for each two drinks you consume; experiment to find the right balance for you. NAC is a precursor to the antioxidant glutathione, which the liver uses during step 2 of the alcohol metabolization process (acetaldehyde > acetic acid). It helps by ensuring the stores of glutathione in your liver are less likely to become depleted when you've had a few drinks or more, thus reducing the buildup of acetaldehyde in your system. Incidentally, it may also have some efficacy in terms of hangover reduction, even among those unaffected by alcohol-related flushing, due to the same mechanism.
- yezooz 12y agoHow? One word: coke
- plg 12y agoummm ... stupid question, but why are we drinking alcoholic the first place if not for the usual effects? because alcohol _tastes_ good???? sort of like, how to smoke weed all night without getting high um why??
- nilkn 12y agoA lot of people actually do enjoy the taste of beer, though I'm not among them.
- MAGZine 12y agoIt's more of an acquired taste than people give it credit for.
- tripzilch 12y agoSo is coffee, olives, licorice, and blue cheese. And it's a widely-accepted objective fact that all of these listed food are in fact literally the best tasting foods of all things, ever. Not all of them at the same time, mind.
- forgottenpass 12y agoI don't enjoy being high anymore. The ritual is still pretty fun though, and for me hooka bars fill some of that void.
- dagw 12y agobecause alcohol _tastes_ good???? Hell yes! As far as I'm concerned a great wine is probably among the most delicious things you can put in your mouth, with great whiskys, rums, cognacs and beers coming not far behind. Being able to drink as much as I want without any of the side effects would be a dream come true.
- lutusp 12y ago>> because alcohol _tastes_ good???? > Hell yes! As far as I'm concerned a great wine is probably among the most delicious things you can put in your mouth ... Wait -- your answer doesn't even respond to the OP's question, which was whether alcohol tastes good. Alcohol (ethyl alcohol) has no taste. All the drinks you list could in principle be created without any alcohol content, and some of them are. Would you express the same enthusiasm for non-alcoholic equivalent drinks? > Being able to drink as much as I want without any of the side effects would be a dream come true. But most alcoholic drinks can be duplicated without any alcohol and taste exactly the same (because ... remember ... alcohol has no taste), so you can get what you say you want. What remains to be seen is whether you really want what you say.
- px1999 12y agoMake no mistake, this is one of those "one weird tip" articles. It doesn't surprise me that the tip doesn't appear to work (based on the links others have posted), because the article is really a (hopefully viral) marketing vehicle for Sam Adams - in a couple of short paragraphs, they touch on their glass, their new IPA, their social programs, their new Belgian quadruple, and some of their existing line. It finishes up with some "secret", broadly dismisses established science (by stating that companies didn't pick up Prequel just because they didn't want some liability that they wouldn't have been liable for anyways), offers no real What makes it interesting is that this article seems to resound with the more technical people that I know. It's like linkbait for smart people...
- grecy 12y agoMy friends and I have found the level of drunkenness really all depends on how quickly you drink your first 2-3 drinks. We're Australian, I like to think we've had some practice. If you drink them down fast, you'll get a buzz, and feel quite drunk after not many more. No matter what you do for the rest of the night, you'll be more drunk than usual for the number of drinks you've had. If you drink the first 2-3 drinks slowly, you'll have one of those nights where you're not as drunk as you normally would be for the number of drinks you've had. Sure, if you drink a ton, you'll be drunk, but you won't be "wasted". Tip: If you ever find yourself in some kind of drinking contest, have two beer before the contest even starts, but take 30-45 minutes to drink each beer. You won't be nearly as drunk later on.
- natdempk 12y agoIs there a scientific explanation that anyone could offer or a theory that you have about this? This sounds interesting and I am curious as to why it happens.
- danudey 12y agoMy theory is that the liver can only process so much alcohol at a time (or rather, it has a rate at which it can process alcohol), via the enzymes that it uses to do its job. If you hammer it with three drinks in rapid succession, it uses up its ability to filter alcohol out and has to recharge its stock of ingredients (possibly hindered by all the leftover alcohol in your system, messing up your biochemistry and dehydrating you). If you space it out, it has time to process the alcohol as it comes in, keeping your body from being overwhelmed. Kind of like how a levy can hold back millions of litres of water hitting it… unless it all shows up at once, in which case it gets overwhelmed and all kinds of problems stem from there.
- gregorynicholas 12y agomixin uppers (aka meth, speed, cocaine).
- robertharper 12y agoDepending on the type of GI yeast, the opposite effect is possible: http://www.medicaldaily.com/texas-man-can-get-drunk-without-alcohol-due-auto-brewery-syndrome-can-you-brew-beer-your-own-stomach http://www.medicaldaily.com/texas-man-can-get-drunk-without-...