drinking when you drink

[Glenn E.]

By which I mean water, of course.

When I use Julian's software to create placemats for a Port tasting, one of the features that may not be obvious is the checkboxes in the bottom right corner (default settings) to help you keep track of the number of glasses of water that you drink. I have heard various rules of thumb to determine how much water you should drink... so many different ones, in fact, that I have no idea what actually works!

How much water do you try to drink during a tasting in order to avoid ... unpleasant side effects?

[Phil W]

I try to make sure I drink minimum of a ~100ml water for every ~50ml of port. Seems to work for me, and I know when I haven't!

[Eric Menchen]

Might the answer also depend on whether you are drinking in say, Seattle at sea level with near 100% humidity, or at 5000' in the Denver area with 15% relative humidity, and whether you are accustomed to those conditions?

[Glenn E.]

I try to make sure I drink minimum of a ~100ml water for every ~50ml of port. Seems to work for me, and I know when I haven't!

That's one of the rules of thumb that I've heard. Another is to drink enough water so that your overall alcohol consumption is ~4%. Both of those seem like an awful lot of water to me! But they work, so maybe that's what's required?

Might the answer also depend on whether you are drinking in say, Seattle at sea level with near 100% humidity, or at 5000' in the Denver area with 15% relative humidity, and whether you are accustomed to those conditions?

Yes, and body weight probably plays into it as well. I imagine that you'd need a lot more water in Colorado at altitude and with low humidity - sometimes I get a "hangover" just from going on a ski trip due to those conditions!

I generally try to drink one glass of water for each flight of Port. 3-4 glasses per flight is anywhere from 5-10 oz of Port depending on pours. We're usually using some sort of standard restaurant water glass, so I'm guessing 8-12 oz of water. I've noticed that sometimes this is enough... but sometimes it isn't. Probably due to the variability in glasses/flight and pour size, I guess.

[Andy Velebil]

I try to drink at least an equal amount of water or more during the tasting.

What I also find is super helpful is a big glass of Pedialyte (or similar electrolyte replacement drink) before I head off to bed. I've tried many things and this works wonders to prevent a foggy morning.

[Glenn E.]

What I also find is super helpful is a big glass of Pedialyte (or similar electrolyte replacement drink) before I head off to bed. I've tried many things and this works wonders to prevent a foggy morning.

Have you tried any of the usual sports drinks like Gatorade or Poweraid? Do they work, or does it need to be something more specialized like Pedialyte?

[Andy Velebil]

Needs to be more specialized. Gatorade is worthless IMO


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[John M.]

I must need to drink more water--usually 1-2 bottles for 1/2 to 2/3rds of a bottle of port. Probably, based on the above should be at 2 closer to 3. Never thought of pedialyte. I always take two aspirins and and drink as much water as I can when I go to bed.

I know a couple of gents who drink beer with their port. They say it cuts the richness. I cannot fathom how that works---my taste buds would be overloaded.

[Bradley Bogdan]

Needs to be more specialized. Gatorade is worthless IMO


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Gatorade and powerade are more soft drink than true sports drink nowadays. Pedialyte is much closer to the original Gatorade than Gatorade is.


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[Peter W. Meek]

For long-term drinking sessions, I like to take about 200 ml of water for every 10 ml of straight alcohol - more or less a "standard drink" of 5 oz glass of wine, 12 can of (American) beer, a shot of liquor, or a 50 ml glass of fortified wine. That is about how much water it takes to metabolize that amount of alcohol. Another advantage to drinking that much water is that it slows down your drinking a bit.

[Andy Velebil]

Another advantage to drinking that much water is that it slows down your drinking a bit.

I honestly think this has a whole to do with it as well as the actual intake of water. If you're not consuming it as fast your body can start to metabolize it and you don't have as bad of an issue later.

The down side is your body only burns off about .01% BAC per hour. So while it's easy to get your BAC up there, it takes a while to come back down.

[Eric Menchen]

The down side is your body only burns off about .01% BAC per hour. So while it's easy to get your BAC up there, it takes a while to come back down.

A long time ago, like shortly after I got my driver's license, I was taught .02% per hour. It appears the metabolism rate is actually between these two.
http://www2.potsdam.edu/alcohol/Driving ... 27453.html

After alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream it leaves the body in two ways. A total of about ten percent leaves through the breath, perspiration, and urine. The remainder is broken down through the process known as metabolism.

The rate at which alcohol is metabolized is the same for virtually everyone regardless of their height, weight, sex, race or other such characteristics.

Alcohol is metabolized at the rate of .015 of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) every hour.

which is footnote referenced to: Carroll, Charles R. Drugs in Modern Society. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2000 (fifth edition).

This page
http://prevention.gwu.edu/alcohol-absorption
references this link (now moved, but it works)
http://www.alcohol-stuff.co.uk/guides/h ... ystem.html
and says 0.016 BAC per hour. The difference between these two is probably in the round-off.

So 0.0155 per hour due to metabolism, and a little more through breath, perspiration, and urine. It makes sense that the metabolism rate is nearly constant, since the BAC is a percentage level to start. You can't do anything to change this. But drinking water might help with the urine removal, and slightly with perspiration.

[Glenn E.]

But drinking water might help with the urine removal, and slightly with perspiration.

I think the main reason for drinking water is to (help) prevent dehydration, which is one of the main reasons you get a hangover from drinking too much.

As Peter said, it also slows down your drinking, which gives your body more time to convert ethanol to acetaldehyde and then on to acetic acid. Acetaldehyde buildup is another one of the main causes of hangovers.

[Andy Velebil]

Eric,
In all my training classes at work I've seen numbers between .01-.02% BAC. Pretty funny how various reports can be a little different from each other. Regardless, that's a really slow "come down" from being intoxicated. It also is amazing how drunk you may still be when you wake up in the morning and not realize it.

[Glenn E.]

It also is amazing how drunk you may still be when you wake up in the morning and not realize it.

Yeah, no kidding. Even at 0.015% per hour it takes over 5 hours to come down from the 0.08% limit for driving in WA, and that's not all that drunk! I'm just guessing, but BAC after a Port tasting could easily be double the legal limit if you've planned to not drive and so aren't limiting your consumption. That'd take nearly 11 hours to "sleep off!"