One hotly debated topic is whether or not “liquor before beer” really does mean that you are “in the clear,” and whether “beer before liquor” really does make you “sicker.” Many people argue that such a saying does seem to be true, while just as many will argue that it is not.

Kyle Brubaker definitely believes that the clever rhyme does have validity to it. In his experience, he has seen that drinking beer before hard liquor is not a good decision. He writes that our liver can detox about one drink per hour, whether it be a shot or a beer. In the meantime, the rest of the alcohol sits in the bloodstream.

If you take a few shots, which hits the liver harder than a few beers would, the liver will focus on detoxing those shots before the beer. The less concentrated beer is better to have in your bloodstream because hard liquor will make you more dehydrated the longer it is in the bloodstream.

Liquor often hits people harder because the standard shot, which is one and a half ounces, contains the same amount of alcohol as the standard beer, which is 12 ounces.

A lot of people do not believe this is true. One of the biggest counterarguments is that it does not matter which alcoholic beverage you consume before the other or in what order, it matters how much you consume and in how much time.

Others say that it does not matter what order you drink the beer and the shots, but if you are not drinking it with water, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage. This also makes sense, because the water would dilute the alcohol content of what is in your bloodstream.

Some people believe in the myth and some people do not believe in it. It seems to all depend on the person. Some people have seen in their experiences that drinking beer before liquor makes them feel sick. Other people have seen with experience that “beer before liquor, never sicker” is nothing more than a myth.