What is a typical night?

[Max Power]

We'll have to get together and discuss tequila. My next-door neighbor runs the anti-smoking campaign for Mexico and goes down 6 - 8 times a year. He often brings back some of the most amazing tequila at half the cost of buying it in the US, often the label is not in English. As a result I have developed a taste and stash of quality tequila.

As for nightly I usually do a theme flight of four and follow up with one of my house bourbons. Sometimes get my wife to pick them out and I try to identify. Very humbling!

Online ordering from stores in southern California grants access to a lot of agave not available in MN. Hunting online for something new and the best price is part of the fun.

I might have join a chat night some for folks who want to talk tequila and bourbon.

[SMOWK]

Nice work Sky...I knew your response wouldn't let me down! I typically will have a couple 1oz pours 3 nights a week and on the weekends I may have 4oz or so. Not quite yet to Sky's consumption levels but I'm working towards it!

I took it easy during the sampler, so I had no reason to come home and "recover", whatever that is....

Since leaving the sampler....Sunday night Rita's father and I killed an entire bottle of Pappy 15. Monday we took it easy with just a few beers and a few pours of WTRye 101. Tuesday I finally made it back to my house and killed a half bottle of Mellow Corn BIB. And then last night it was the last 8 or 10 ounces of an OGDBIB handle that was leftover from prior to the Sampler.

Tonight we are headed out to eat something at SpringFest in Ocean City, and after that I plan on finishing the Mellow Corn BIB.

[Flyfish]

My wife and I like themes to what we call cocktail hour. (We call it that even though we don't drink cocktails, just bourbon neat and/or with just a drop of water.) I like the genealogy theme--two or three or four bourbons from the same family or same mash bill:
OGD BIB, 114, Basil Hayden
AAA, BT, ETL, Blanton's
OWA, Weller 12
EC 12 & 18
EWSB from different vintages
Sometimes, we do a "blind" tasting as in the one pouring gets to pick and the pouree gets to guess.
Sometimes I'm just in the mood for a KC or VOB or it's been a while since Old Ezra 101.
I guess the only thing "typical" is that virtually every day has some bourbon in it. I'm a very lucky man.

[GreggJ]

Interesting answers.

For me. I will typically have a healthy glass of red wine with dinner. Hang out for a while. Get the kiddos ready for bed then have a 1.5-2oz pour watching TV or reading a book.

This is my routine 3-4 nights during the week.

On the weekends, I am usually outside doing yardwork and end up with a beer or three in my hand and end up slowly migrating to a couple fingers of something good.

[camduncan]

I don't drink much Monday thru Thursday - maybe 1 or 2 standard (30ml) pours, and that would be the exception, not the norm. Usually I don't drink on those days unless it's been a really stressfull day or we are entertaining.
Friday to Sunday I usually enjoy 2-3 standard pours per day/evening. Unfortunately in the last few years I've started getting migrains the next day if I exceed 4 or 5 standard drinks in a night

[MarkEdwards]

Let me start by saying I am originally from Wisconsin, so a few drinks a night is the social norm. I'm curious what a typical Monday-Friday night looks like for you guys/gals?

I'll have a couple of ales with lunch about three times a week, and normally have a couple of shots of whatever two bottles I have open for the month.

[Ejmharris]

There really is no typical evening for me. Some months I drink almost nothing during the week as Friday or Saturday will have 3-4 drinks (with the occasional bender thrown in there). Some weeks I drink at least one pour or beer every night. The later tends to be during the summer when kids are out of school and neighbors come out of the woodwork.

[mosugoji64]

Thanks, guys. This thread has made me feel much better. I was afraid my 1-2 per day average had me pointed toward AA. Now I know that I'm just a candyass.

[spinningrecords]

Thanks, guys. This thread has made me feel much better. I was afraid my 1-2 per day average had me pointed toward AA. Now I know that I'm just a candyass.

Something to think about is chemical dependence versus addiction.

If I drink every night then I tend to get into habit of having a drink every night. Of course the same would be true of a bowl of ice cream every night too. Anything I have regularly I'll tend to end up craving regularly. This is common and natural but can lead to an undesirable outcome. I prefer to do something electively rather than by craving. I'd like a drink because I want a pour and not from habit. I think it's fair to say if your are drinking often and in quantiy you'll end up dependent to some extent. I don't find this desirable personally. But my understanding is you have control when dependent and can stop when you want. You can break the dependence with sufficient time away. I think the real problem becomes when you lose the electiveness of it. When you can't really stop. That's a problem and could be the start of addictiveness. My understanding is once your addicted that's bad news. Your soon to be done with this as a hobby or lifestyle and on your way to real trouble. There's no going back to casual drinking for addicts in nearly all cases. An outcome to avoid to be sure.

I'd enjoy other perspectives.

[CoMobourbon]

I would actually take your conclusions one step further. I think we run into trouble when we try to draw an arbitrary lines in the sand between moderate / OK dependence and immoderate / not OK dependence. I agree that not being able to stop is a bad sign, but generally drawing good / bad divides only serves to justify yourself. Simply put, it becomes really easy to find a way to put yourself on the OK side no matter what. Really, I would suggest that it works better on a gradient of dependency. Then, the challenge is not so much proving to yourself that you are not on the dark side as is it trying to enjoy as much bourbon as possible while at the same time trying to minimize any movement down the gradient toward more dependency.

I guess I would also add one more distinction. For me, it's all about how much it does or does not affect my plans and/or preconceptions for the night. While I enjoy ice cream a lot, I never really look forward to it for more than twenty minutes or so, and I would definitely not structure the evening around it. Sometimes with alcohol, though, it becomes a centerpiece of my plans for the whole evening - as if drinking it was a totally self-sufficient point of the night (and not relaxation, or unwinding, or socializing, etc.). (Of course, you have to be careful about scheduling drinking for driving purposes, but still.)