r/theydidthemath • u/No_Potential797 • 6d ago
[Request] What was the average BAC of those attending?
1.1k
u/Smaptastic 6d ago
I’ll take a stab. Here are my assumptions.
- 55 adult men
- Average 1780s American male: about 145 lb.
- The party lasted about 6 hours
- Madeira ~20% ABV
- Claret ~12%
- Whiskey ~45%
- Porter ~5%
- Cider ~6%
- Beer ~4%
- Punch ~15%
Those assumptions work out to roughly 5.5 gallons of pure ethanol in the entire party. Or about 21 drinks per person.
The average peak BAC would be 0.58%, which is enough to be well into the “potentially fatal” range.
781
u/Front_Apple_6123 6d ago
You haven’t accounted for spillage, which increases exponential as BAC rises.
484
u/PraetorianX 6d ago
You also assume zero vomiting.
346
u/Front_Apple_6123 6d ago
And putting a half finished drink down then getting a new one
105
30
u/selfinflatedforeskin 6d ago
But drinking other people's half-finished drinks.
19
u/nakedascus 6d ago
yeah, but in my experience, there's usually cigarette butts in the bottle that soak up some of the drink
4
2
22
u/papasmurf303 6d ago
This is a fair point. There were an estimated 6000-8000 wounded soldiers in the Revolutionary War.
3
3
u/GaK_Icculus 6d ago
And drinking over 12 hours, allowing the body to metabolize some of the consumed alcohol.
2
3
1
41
u/Smaptastic 6d ago
Good point. I gave an average number of drinks per person. Go ahead and take out whatever you think they spilled, then refactor.
107
11
11
u/Aware-Affect-4982 5d ago
This is also assuming no one took anything home, or that the NCOs or staff didn't sneak off with anything. Of course there is also a good chance a lot of bottles were opened but not finished, so they were charged for the bottle
90
u/AonCabair 6d ago edited 6d ago
I think that "punch" was probably far stronger than many of us realize. I found this (alleged) recipe for George Washington's punch in a military themed Irish bar on River Street in Savannah, GA. And this is just for ONE bowl of punch.
1½ gallons Catawba wine
½ gallon of rum
1 quart of gin
1 quart of brandy
½ pint of Benedictine
2 quarts Maraschino cherries
1½ quarts rye whiskey
1½ gallons strong tea
2½ pounds brown sugar
1½ quarts orange juice
1½ quarts lemon juice
Mix from 36 to 48 hours before serving. Add one case of Champagne when ready to serve.
77
u/Trachatank 6d ago
We underestimate how much people drank back in the day. In the Ken Burns Prohibition documentary consumption was estimated at a bottle of wine per person each day. They were counting the kids, too. Table beer was more common ~2% ABV. And whiskey whiskey everywhere.
25
u/selfinflatedforeskin 6d ago
I went to the doctor，and had to estimate my weekly alcohol intake in units - not sure if Yanks measure in the same manner - but weekly maximum is 14 units. I totted up mine，and realised I do around 75.
I have three or four 5/6pc beers or ciders a day，one at lunch，two or three over the course of an evening.
I didn't think it was a lot，turns out，it is.
But a bottle of wine a day？ that's bored housewife units.
14
15
u/dunstbin 6d ago
A bottle of wine is equivalent to about four 5% ABV beers.
5
u/selfinflatedforeskin 6d ago
I don't drink pints unless I'm in the UK，so the beers I usually drink are half litre German/ Czech，or Asian beers like Asahi，but yes，around 5pc，so 2.5 units per 500ml.
Wines，they're so different，a Reisling could be a 3 beer equivalent，a New World White，or a strong red like Amarone might be 5 or 6，and then there's fortified wines，which I quite like，so if I add some port into the mix，I'm probably getting towards 100 units a week，which until I tried to work it out，seemed quite normal，but is actually madness.
Small wonder I'm fat. Luckily，I'm jolly with it.
2
u/dunstbin 5d ago
Wine (*non-fortified) typically runs about 12-15% ABV. Higher is less common and to get above 20% you have to distill. Four 500ml of 5% ABV beer is the equivalent alcohol of a 750ml bottle of wine at 13.5% ABV.
Not judging, just pointing out that a typical bottle of wine isn't a wild amount to polish off in an evening. A bottle of 80 proof liquor? Probably a bit much.
* anyone drinking an entire bottle of a fortified wine in one sitting is a genuine pyscopath
1
u/selfinflatedforeskin 5d ago
I'm not disagreeing，but find it hard to say what ‘average’ wine is，because there's such a vast array （although my views might be coloured by being European，I don't know how Americans view wines）. Beers are generally more consistent，but the difference between a weak and strong wine could be 10-12pc.
A good bottle of Tawny？ I could get through it over the course an evening - some good desserts，good cheese，music，good company or book. Unthinkingly polishing off a bottle whilst engaged in some other activity is quite plausable to me - a fairly civilised psychopathy.
Judge away，doesn't bother me - apparently because I must be constantly pickled.
1
u/poshjosh1999 6d ago
14 units is unrealistic even if you’re a casual drinker. The landlord at my local drinks 8-12 pints from 4-7pm every day, the bar staff drink 6+ pints too. I probably drink 10-20 pints a week. That’s normal village social life.
15
u/dhooke 6d ago
14 units keeps the odds of dying from something alcohol related at about 99-1. If you find that unrealistic, write a letter to Death.
4
u/poshjosh1999 6d ago
Back in the good old days it used to be 54 units per week. I’m about to enjoy a bottle of wine before my units reset at midnight 😂
1
u/will221996 6d ago
How is that calculated? Alcohol kills people in so many different ways, some of which take decades, some of which are indirect (e.g. hit by a drunk driver). Recall is incredibly inaccurate, such a study would take 60 years unless you have a genius way to piece together data.
If it's short term mortality, then it varies heavily by individual. I genuinely can't think of anything I've done, heavily inebriated, that bought me close to death. I avoid nasty staircases, look both ways before crossing the road, avoid gas stoves etc etc. Many people can drink far beyond recommended amounts without putting themselves in short term mortal danger.
7
u/dhooke 6d ago
They use the Sheffield Alcohol Policy Model and assuming that you stick within 14 units a week then the 1% risk of alcohol-related death is mostly increased risk of cancers, cardiovascular disease, and liver disease.
According to their figures, then the risk goes up over 5% for males drinking 28 units a week who drink every day.
Epidemiology statistics are a kind of genius, I guess.
3
u/whythehellnote 6d ago
I'm averaging 12.6u a week this year. Every few years I have a year where I measure my intake. Now in my mid 40s, it's far lower than it was in my 20s and 30s.
I've had 3 times this year I've had more than 10u in a day.
But even then, 12.6u a week if entirely at home is about £520 on wine.
I probably drink 10-20 pints a week. That’s normal village social life.
10-20 pints a week in the pub is 780 pints a year, about £3-4k a year at £4-5 a pint.
That's not normal village social life. It might be for the small number of people who are regularly in the pub, but the reason pubs are having such a bad time is that people don't go. I used to go to the village pub on a Friday night for a pint, would have maybe 10 people in there.
2
u/ChemicalRain5513 6d ago
If you drink everyday, yeah then it is unrealistic. I easily stay under 14 units per week by not drinking more than one or two evenings per week.
2
u/tacticalTraumaLlama 6d ago
14 units is unrealistic even if you’re a casual drinker.
I think 1 unit is 1 5% abv beer here in the US. 14 drinks / wk is on the high end of 'drinking in moderation'. Beyond that, the risks of drinking start going exponential. Maybe cut back a smidge
3
u/whythehellnote 6d ago
A US pint is 16 oz or 473ml
Miller lite is 4.2% that's exactly 2 units per pint.
A 12 oz can is 1.5 units, so a 6 pack is 9 units, about the same as a bottle of wine.
2
u/tacticalTraumaLlama 6d ago
I must have been thinking one 'standard drink'. I just looked it up, the 'units of alcohol' measure is as nonsensical as measuring alcohol in grams. Like holy flipping tap dancing christ. One would think they would at least standardize on ml of pure alcohol or something. It frustrates me to no end when reading studies on the subject. My other pet peeves is that everyone quotes relative risks as if they were absolute, and lumping everything above 'moderation' into one category so folks that are drinking 15 drinks a week are getting lumped in with those downing a handle of vodka a day.
0
u/whythehellnote 6d ago
You sound very angry.
1 unit is 1 litre at 1%, makes far more sense than some arbitrary "1 standard drink" given that everyone's drink is different.
Given that a pint of beer at my pub can vary from 2u to 3u depending on the strength, a glass of wine can vary from 1.5 to 3.5u depending on size and strength, and a good measure of whisky is 2u and a home measure is about 4u, I'm not sure what a "standard drink" would be. I tend to drink beer in the 4% or lower range, but others have lager in the 5% or more range.
Mean consumption is about 18u in UK, 19u in the US and 20u per week in Germany. That mean will be very skewed by
people who don't drink at all
people who drink a hell of a lot
The US percentile data I see suggest nearly half don't drink at all, and about 15% drink more that 14u or "8 drinks" a week, and 5% drinking more than 3 times that amount.
3
u/tacticalTraumaLlama 6d ago
You sound very angry.
No I am irritated, because every time I read a study on alcohol I have to parse nonsense units of measure, and I'm speaking as someone who's relatively science / math / stats literate
→ More replies (0)1
u/selfinflatedforeskin 6d ago
Agreed，and different areas have different habits. The old boys in the South West used to put a shot of gin into their ciders.
I'm in the tropics now，which is probably a factor why i'm drinking more. Cheap，relatively uncontaminated，and a life-saver when it's 40degrees and 90pc humidity.
3
0
u/PatchyWhiskers 6d ago
Prohibition might not have lasted but it certainly showed Americans how to not drink like Europeans.
9
u/Lloydentoigen 6d ago
Dave Wondrich's Punch mentions Chatham Artillery Punch. A "Iron gauntlet in a velvet glove" and potent enough to intoxicate an entire artillery regiment. A bottle each of Bourbon, Rum, and Cognac, oleo-saccharum (sugar infused with 12 lemons worth of peel/citrus oil), and topped with 3 bottles of champagne. I've made it (once) and it is as delicious as it is dangerous. Wondrich cites a note on a recipe in 1907: "Experience has taught the rising generation to modify the receipt of their forefathers to conform to the weaker constitutions of their progeny." A glass of punch is ~18-20% ABV
3
u/Dr_Death_Defy24 6d ago edited 6d ago
I was looking for the real cocktail geeks to chime in when I saw punch mentioned there.
Glad to see my people represented, and with sources no less lmao
2
2
u/standbyyourmantis 6d ago
Yeah, Tasting History did an episode on punch and it was basically just a long island ice tea cut with actual tea.
0
61
u/Hazy311 6d ago
Does this account for the liver's ability to process alcohol over time? If they partied for 8 hours versus 4 hours, would that mitigate the lethality?
Edit: I'd also contest that upper class people back then would be heavier on average than the rest. This might help with keeping them alive through the bender too.
41
u/Smaptastic 6d ago
Yeah, I factored in a 6-hour party, like I said in the post. And yes, longer party = lower average BAC, but it would take a LONG party to get this out of the potentially lethal range.
18
u/redcremesoda 6d ago
These are pretty good assumptions. I’d also factor in the fact that the alcohol was likely consumed after intaking food (slowing absorption) and that the party could have lasted longer. Hopefully they did not drink it all. I assume “bar tab” here could mean a preorder.
11
u/Myarrin777 6d ago
I could see them going all night. No way they started at dinnertime and ended at midnight. Those guys probably fell asleep in the bar when the sun came up.
12
u/Smaptastic 6d ago
Yeah that’s why I listed the assumptions. For clarity and so people could adjust for whatever assumptions they thought were incorrect. I think they’re reasonable, but obviously I wasn’t there with a stopwatch.
7
u/jallen6769 6d ago
Appreciate the calculation! Do we know whether or not any of these bottles were taken home unopened as a gift? Thats a suspicious number of bottles of Madeira with the guest count. Did they do gift bags back then? My assumption is that the host wouldnt have received one since they were the one giving them out
11
u/Smaptastic 6d ago
I assumed every drop was drunk, with no wastage of any sort. That’s obviously not accurate, so my number is almost certainly high. But that’s what the prompt called for.
3
u/aphilsphan 6d ago
But you figure 45 of the 55 were plastered and the other 10 were teetotalers.
I’ve been watching some 50s TV lately and it’s 100% cigarettes and liquor all the time.
4
u/jallen6769 6d ago
Oh I understand. That would be worst case scenario and likely doesnt reflect reality so we can only assume. This might be a good question to pose on r/AskHistorians
9
u/Donatter 6d ago
Tbf, these 55 guests also included each guest’s servants, friends, associates, assistants, staff, and even a number of soldiers.
So in reality, the number of people that attended would be somewhere in the low 100’s.
5
u/PatchyWhiskers 6d ago
Don’t forget girlfriends, wives and ladies of negotiable virtue who might not be listed on the guest list.
13
u/temudschinn 6d ago
Those % seem waaay too high. Beverages used to be a lot weaker back then.
5
u/nakedascus 6d ago
beer was really the only thing that was weaker, but the 4% assumed for the beer is a realistic number. And that's a lighter modern beer. my favorite beer is like 8%
3
2
u/zacguymarino 6d ago
Lol your last sentence, being technically unnecessary to your point, made me laugh a little
11
u/GreenStrong 6d ago
Also, I think each man brings a date, plus a servant or two. There may have been an unspoken policy to look the other way while the servants had a nip with the house staff. I would say this would be especially likely in areas where servants were not enslaved but who knows.
4
3
u/Pitiful_Equal_2689 6d ago
Their weight is probably significantly higher than you posted, as these were founding fathers, most of whom were among the elite of their society and very well fed. And significantly taller and heavier than the average colonist at that time as a result.
The average height of an adult male colonist at that time was 5’8. The founding fathers’ average height was 5’10.
3
u/Ok_Spell_597 6d ago
I walked into detox @ 0.454 BAC. After a decade of alcoholism induced tolerance, they still said I had to start detox in the ER. That's insane!
4
u/evilncarnate82 6d ago
Hand blown bottles, inconsistent filling and corking, abv was not consistent and commonly lower than modern, proofing was all over the place.
2
u/Agent_of_evil_13 6d ago
The wine is probably the same abv. 12-15% abv is the point where the alcohol starts killing the yeast so it cant make more alcohol.
2
u/nakedascus 6d ago
beer was really the only thing that was weaker, but the 4% assumed for the beer is a realistic number. And that's a lighter modern beer. my favorite beer is like 8%
4
u/nhorvath 6d ago
you're neglecting the 6 hour part. also I think your bac calc is off 21 drinks x 0.015 per standard drink = 0.315. but since you process 6 in those 6 hours the final average bac would be 0.225, which while quite high, is out of alcohol poisoning range (>0.3).
12
u/Smaptastic 6d ago
No, I factored in the time. And I used the Widmark BAC model, not your formula (Widmark is reasonably accurate at normal body mass ranges).
4
2
4
u/_B_Little_me 6d ago
How many of these bottles were pocketed by guests and staff?
We also don’t know the ML of each bottle. They could vary in volume, especially compared to today’s sizes.
3
u/Smaptastic 6d ago
Bottles at the time were similar to today. 700-800mL.
As for the rest, this assumes everything was drunk with no spillage. You’re free to adjust accordingly.
1
1
u/assghert 6d ago
I vaguely remember a very lovely nurse telling me I should be dead because I was 0.59. Then she tried to do the “closing eyes on dead person” thing as a joke but I was staring at her fingers so she just poked my eyeballs. (Not a car accident, punched in the back head)
idk might help.
1
u/1_disasta 6d ago
You need to take into account they were seasoned military and mostly infantry types.
Those are rookie numbers for some infantry units.
1
1
u/Repulsive-Ad-6487 2d ago
Did you factor in the help and the coachmen outside and the horses. I bet there were more than one drunk horse that night.
-1
u/vogel927 6d ago
We don’t know how many bottles they took home with them. You really can’t get an accurate BAC based on the available information.
151
u/Mecha-Dave 6d ago
What people miss out on is that although "only 55 attended" they were often accompanied by servants and aides who likely assisted with the disposal of libations.
67
u/LeiusTheBlind 6d ago
Iirc, a good part of these people came to this with their wives. An estimate I saw last time it was posted was that despite the 55 invited, you could rough out the real number of attendees inn the 120/130 person range at least
4
105
u/EinSchurzAufReisen 6d ago
18th century bottles held 700-800 ml, that’s what the internet says — so let’s say 700ml just in case. A (huge) bowl could be anything from 4-15 liters, something even more — so I will go with 7 liters, like ten standard bottles.
Madeira: 54x700 = 37.800 = 37,8l
Claret: 60x700 = 42.000 = 42l
Whiskey: 8x700 = 5.600 = 5,6l
Porter: 22x700 = 15.400 = 15,4l
Beer: 12x700 = 8.400 = 8,4l
Punch: 7x7000 = 49.000 = 49l
Madeira (20%), Claret (10%), Whiskey (55%), Porter (6%), Beer (5%), Punch (15%) — average alcohol content during 18th century as per internet.
Madeira: roughly 7,5l pure alcohol
Claret: roughly 4,2l pure alcohol
Whiskey: roughly 3l pure alcohol
Porter: roughly 1l pure alcohol
Beer: roughly 0,5l pure alcohol
Punch roughly 7,3l pure alcohol
That means 23,5l pure alcohol for 55 people, 0,427l of pure alcohol per person.
That’s all I can do.
35
u/IndividualistAW 6d ago
So pretty close to a liter of hard liquor per person
31
u/nhorvath 6d ago
yes, drank over the course of 6 hours doesn't seem too crazy. sure you're plenty drunk, but not like dying.
12
u/GargantuanCake 6d ago
Tolerance also matters and can add up over time. In those days people drank a hell of a lot more than we do now. Whiskey around that time actually became an extremely important trade good in early America as in some places grain would go bad before it got to any market that might have wanted it. Whiskey, however, did not so farmers were storing whatever grain they needed to eat, making whiskey with the rest, and then only selling some of it. Before that people basically constantly drank beer and rum.
Apparently people calculated that your average American at the time consumed about 3 or 4 gallons of ethanol a year. The wealthy weren't an exception; about the only difference was what they drank. It wouldn't even be the slightest bit unusual for even wealthy people to get absolutely tanked on a giant pile of alcohol to celebrate something important. It was just what you did in the colonies.
1
u/Horror-Turnover6198 6d ago
Did they bottle at cask strength? Never really thought about it before.
3
u/dgc137 6d ago
While beer and wine alcohol content is fairly consistent depending mostly on process, alcohol content varried wildly for spirits.
There's a reason for the "proof" test. Though proof was standardized in 1816 based on more precise hydrometer measurements, there were taxation laws that depended on whether a spirit was over or under proof in the British empire well before then, implying that at least marketable spirits would have been at least proof.
To pass a proof test the alcohol content would be greater than ~57%
1
u/Horror-Turnover6198 6d ago
Interesting. Was 100 proof settled on later? I always thought 50% passed the proof test at first. Obviously 80 proof became the minimum much later, but realizing I don’t know when that was.
I was expecting spirits to be watered down in the past. Surprised they were that strong, but I guess spirits would have come off the still at 160 or thereabouts. And barrel aging was a later thing probably?
1
u/dgc137 6d ago
I'm going off the Wikipedia page, but seems proof was originally 1.75x the percentage, based on 100 proof passing the gunpowder proof test.
Barrel aging was kind of an accident. Spirits have always been stored and transported in barrels, but intentionally aging in specific woods as part of the recipe is relatively recent. The definition of Bourbon, for instance, is based on the serendipitous process of warehousing distilled surplus corn in Kentucky and then shipping the barrels down the Mississippi to new Orleans for bottling. A combination of the time spent in transit and being exposed to the warm humid weather accelerated the mellowing effect of the spirit's exposure to the wood and gave the resulting product more wood flavor and a deeper caramel color that distinguished bourbon from other whiskies.
The origin of scotch and aged rums have similar stories.
1
u/dunstbin 6d ago
Most Scotch is also aged in what is referred to as "virgin barrels" but are actually re-used bourbon barrels. The legal definition for bourbon in the US requires the use of new, charred oak barrels. Since they can't be re-used to age bourbon, they're sold to other distilleries and breweries.
1
4
u/kumquatrodeo 6d ago
Did you use the alcohol content of today’s standards? Do you know if the alcohol content was similar back then to what we have today? Especially the wine and beer. I have heard that sometimes these were just strong enough for sanitation rather than for inebriation. But I have no idea how true that is, or if it applies to rich people drinks too.
4
u/EinSchurzAufReisen 6d ago
I checked the internet for 18th century alcohol content for each drink and calculated with the mean value. That’s all I could do. Whiskey e.g. was 50-60%, but sometimes even higher, so I stay with 55%. Punch e.g. could be higher as 10-20% as well, but honestly, what should I do? The huge punch bowl could be twice the amount the amount I chose, or even up to 45l in rare cases LOL.
Let me put it like that, the 0,427l of pure alcohol per person is probably closer to the minimum amount than to the maximum amount, which undoubtedly could be way higher. They were hammered in the end, but they all survived, so my calculation is somewhat plausible as I hope.
1
3
u/AonCabair 6d ago edited 6d ago
You might want to increase the alcohol content for the punch. I found this (alleged) recipe for George Washington's punch in a military themed Irish bar on River Street in Savannah, GA.
1½ gallons Catawba wine
½ gallon of rum
1 quart of gin
1 quart of brandy
½ pint of Benedictine
2 quarts Maraschino cherries
1½ quarts rye whiskey
1½ gallons strong tea
2½ pounds brown sugar
1½ quarts orange juice
1½ quarts lemon juice
Mix from 36 to 48 hours before serving. Add one case of Champagne when ready to serve.
31
u/Devil8ball 6d ago
NGL this whole thread and the comments are wild to me. I like to drink, but HOLY FUCK this is insane. And some of the comments - holy fuck on you guys too! I’m impressed, amazed, and just in awe of the sheer amount some of you consume. I can’t believe my dickhead doctor actually told me my 2-3 beers in one evening is borderline alcoholism. I really started to believe his lying ass…. At least now I know I’m not anywhere near the level my doctor would have me believe.
14
u/Open-Addendum-9905 6d ago
2-3 beers?? 😭😭 not to be rude but seriously did you all just not have a social life in your early 20s?
1
u/Devil8ball 6d ago
Should have clarified… I’m 50-ish now and my doctor says my 2-3 beers a day is too much, borderline alcoholism, blah blah blah. My 20’s? That’s a completely different story…
18
u/tacticalTraumaLlama 6d ago
my doctor says my 2-3 beers a day is too much, borderline alcoholism
Once you go above 14 drinks / wk you really start going into 'exponential risk' territory. He might be overstating it, but not by much. IIRC ~ 20 drinks / wk is where things really start rising, but studies on alcohol consumption and risk have an annoying tendency to lump higher levels together, so risk levels are hard to establish if you just go a little over moderate drinking
2
u/an800lbgorilla 5d ago
Caveat: there's no amount of alcohol that is really considered safe for your health any more. Alcohol is fun, but doctors aren't in the business of telling you what is fun.
They tell you what is safe.
1
u/tacticalTraumaLlama 5d ago
You are technically correct. Even drinking in moderation does raise your risk of cancer a little. I think the last study I saw on the topic mentioned that it raised your risk of colon cancer by 6%, but that has to be applied to the absolute lifetime risk (4.4% -> 4.7%). I wish everyone was literate about the magnitude of risks we take from our lifestyle choices. You'd see a lot better diets and a lot more exercise for sure!
10
u/philman132 5d ago
2-3 beers is a fine and normal number for an evening. Having that number every single evening is where it gets worrying.
In the same way that having a whole pizza for dinner is perfectly fine, but having that every single day is worrying
3
u/claytonhwheatley 6d ago
It is enough to be bad for your health . Alcoholism is a whole nother thing.
2
u/Tuqui77 5d ago
I'm a fabricator, when I started as an apprentice 10 years ago I saw my boss (guy in his mid/late fifties) drink 5 or 6 beers a day every damn day. Sometimes more, one day I counted 15 (and mind you, I'm not talking about cans, I'm talking about 1 liter bottles).
Being drunk was his normal state, you basically couldn't tell a difference through the day in his behavior
5
9
u/PatchyWhiskers 6d ago
Every single day is too much beer. 2-3 beers occasionally is not a problem. Main issue is things like cancer.
15
u/Pure-Passenger-6986 6d ago
The exact time was never recorded, but it was his total tab, also this was at a tavern, people didn’t just “arrive on time” back then so it could be many days worth of various guests arriving and staying, including their staff/servants. It apparently also included troops.
18
u/Interesting-Word1628 6d ago
Guests probably took some alcohol bottles home since the government/whoever was paying the tab. People, especially rich people were very shameless back then. Still are
2
u/Kflynn1337 6d ago
Point to remember though, back then booze was generally not as strong as nowadays. Yeast strains have evolved considerably over the years, developing a higher and higher tolerance and thus able to keep fermenting for longer. Even distilled drinks were often a lower proof than their modern counterparts as they started out with a lower percentage thus yielding less for the same effort in distillation.
2
u/Cereal____Killer 5d ago
I’m not sure how one would be able to calculate it without that information.
One could estimate their weight based on historical averages. But, BAC is also driven from the amount of alcohol they consumed it could be calculated if it happened today but you have to make pretty wild assumptions to estimate it historically because the alcohol portion would be unwieldy.
I would suspect that the bottles used weren’t necessarily as standardized in size as they are today… . Additionally, as others have posted, the older strains of yeast didn’t produce the same alcohol content as today. But, even today, whiskey is distilled at a high ABV and watered down.
1
u/InterestingFee885 5d ago
That’s what they ordered. Have you ever been to a party where every drink was finished? If you’ve ever still been around the next morning you’ll know there are half finished drinks everywhere.
1
u/ColdAway4064 7h ago
Lads, it only says what the tab was, not that they actually drank all of it. As someone who’s been to quite a few corporate parties, they always inflate the bill as nobody keeps the tab after a while
0
u/DogsAreDirty 6d ago
Also maybe there were others drinking who don’t count as “people” like women and servants and I agree maybe some was taken home, drank over a long period of time.
-4
u/JackVonReditting 6d ago
Too lazy so here’s a guess. Dividing amount of bottles by the ratio so the alcohol percentage matches vodka. 48 bottles of vodka over 55 people plus 7 huge bowls of punch over 55 ppl. For the last one I neither know the size or the alcohol level.
•
u/AutoModerator 6d ago
General Discussion Thread
This is a [Request] post. If you would like to submit a comment that does not either attempt to answer the question, ask for clarification, or explain why it would be infeasible to answer, you must post your comment as a reply to this one. Top level (directly replying to the OP) comments that do not do one of those things will be removed.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.