When you're drinking?

Question

Is it the alcohol percent or the proof that gets you drunk?

Answer 1

it's the same thing really. the percentage is exactly half the proof number.

Proof refers to the percentage of ethyl alcohol by volume in any particular type of alcoholic beverage. Proof corresponds to twice the percentage rate. For example, a bottle of whiskey may be 80 proof or 40% alcohol by volume.

Answer 2

Its the alcohol that gets you drunk the higher the percent, the higher the proof its the same thing it just depends if you are drinking wine which has a low percentage of alcohol you have to drink alot more versus aged whiskey that's 100 proof (would be 50% alcohol) you are not going to need much of that to feel drunk

Answer 3

What she (willa) said. Proof is 1/2 the Alcohol. I usually go by the Alcohol percent no the proof.

But yes the higher the alcohol the faster you will get drunk. For example Miller lite is like 4% Abv (Alcohol by volume) and Dogfish Head 120 IPA is 20% Abv. Drinking one DFH is like drinking 5 miller lites.

Answer 4

Yes, the higher the Alcohol Percentage or Proof the faster you will get drunk.

Answer 5

Proof is double the percent of alcohol. Good question and the more expensive the bottle usually the better you will feel in the morning.. I drink grey goose and have never woke with a hangover.

Answer 6

The alcohol percent is the proof and vice versa, so the answer is Yes.

Answer 7

The proof of alcohol is half of the percentage of alcohol, if you want to know the amount of alcohol go by the percent.
What gets you drunk is drinking to much of anything.
But if you drink it with water you don't get a hangover.

Answer 8

..Booze Basics

The fuse in booze that really makes things confused is the chemical ethanol, or ethyl alcohol.

Ethanol is just one type of alcohol, but it's the only one that can be safely consumed by humans. Other forms include methyl and butyl alcohol, which are toxic poisons and used mostly in medical and industrial products, like rubbing alcohol and antifreeze.

That doesn't mean that ethanol isn't poisonous -- it is. It's just less toxic than its chemical cousins. It can cause the same problems, even coma or death, at higher dosage levels.

So how do you measure a particular drink's alcohol potency -- and potential toxicity? By the percentage of pure ethanol present.

In the case of beer and wine, alcohol content is expressed as a simple percentage. With liquor, though, the numbers are measured in something called proof.

What's proof?

That's a good question with an easy answer, but some drinkers drink their whole lives (literally) without ever quite understanding what the heck the proof numbers mean on the label.

It's simply the percentage of alcohol content multiplied by two.

To find the percentage of ethanol in liquor, do the opposite and divide the proof by two. This means that 86-proof whiskey is 43 percent alcohol, and 100 proof vodka is 50 percent alcohol.

The places you're most likely to bump into ethanol, measured in proof or percentage, are inside bottles of beer, wine and liquor. How much is in each? Let's peek inside:

Beer ranges in alcohol content from 3.2 to 6 percent, with most U.S. beers averaging about 4.5 percent ("light" beers less).
Wine contains 9-14 percent alcohol, although certain types (which are "fortified" with extra alcohol) can hit 20 percent. Like light beer, wine coolers pack less punch, ounce per ounce. (Though they can get you just as drunk, if you work at it.)
Liquor is a concentrated form of alcohol produced by distilling already-fermented alcohol. The ethanol content of most liquors (or "distilled spirits") ranges from 40-50 percent, although some so-called "neutral spirits" can hit 95 percent.
Regardless of the form it comes in, once booze is out of the bottle and in someone's system, it's all basically the same stuff.

That's because a beer contains roughly the same amount of alcohol as a shot of liquor or a glass of wine. The line between "hard liquor" and beer and wine is mostly imaginary; beer and wine contain more water, that's all.

..Booze & the Body

Okay. Now we're at a place where things get interesting: tracking what alcohol does in the body.

And getting alcohol into the body is what an awful lot of people spend an awful lot of their time trying to do.
What happens when they succeed?

Let's take a look, and follow a typical swallow along a typical tangle of human physiology.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves, because some alcohol is absorbed before it's swallowed. That's because small amounts enter the bloodstream on contact with the lining of the mouth and throat. This instant intake zips to the brain, and produces a drink's earliest effects.

The rest of the swallow goes where all swallows go -- and we don't mean Capistrano. Since alcohol isn't digested, what sloshes into the stomach is either absorbed through its lining or passes on into the intestines, where it filters into the bloodstream. From there, ethanol races to all body organs and tissues, including the brain.

How long the ethanol remains active, though, is a function of body metabolism and the rate it's broken down by the liver.

Since the liver burns off alcohol at a fixed rate (about an ounce of 100-proof liquor an hour), slurping down more causes profound change in both body and mind.

This change is known informally by a lot of names, but scientifically by one: intoxication.

Signs of mild intoxication include decreased inhibitions, impaired concentration and coordination, and increased relaxation. Slurred speech, staggering, and serious impairment -- even death -- can occur at progressively higher levels, as toxic effects pile up.

Since alcohol is eliminated at a fixed rate, several factors determine how much a person is affected.
One is body size. This means that a small person drinking the same amount as a bigger person feels the effects more. Why? Pound for pound, there's more alcohol in his or her system.

Another factor is drinking rate. A person who chugs three or four beers gets hit harder than someone who sips the same amount over a longer period.

Why? Because the liver enzymes that metabolize alcohol become saturated, and the unprocessed booze just keeps banging into the brain.

When blood alcohol reaches a certain level (0.08 percent throughout the U.S. since 2004), a drinker is legally impaired. At higher levels, a drinker's drunker. At still higher levels, a drinker's dead drunk -- and sometimes dead, period.

Absorption is also influenced by other factors, including gender and whether a drinker drinks on a full or empty stomach. Alcohol is absorbed faster on an empty stomach, so it's a good idea to eat something while drinking, if you want to stay sober.

Still, the main point is simple: If you drink booze faster than your liver can metabolize it, you get drunk. Inevitably.

And when you're drunk, the only thing that sobers you up is time.

Answer 9

Yes alcohol will get you drunk but it is how much you drink not what percentage or proof.

You can drink cooking wine and get drunk!

Answer 10

percentage plus your body weight... for instance if you weigh 120 pounds.. it will take you fewer drinks to get drunk.