How many pints can you drink before driving ?

[jennycakes]

Why risk it?

If I'm driving Id never touch a drink don't believe anyone should drink anything when getting behind the wheel

[nomoney]

many moons ago it used to be 2pints,but i think now its less than a pint.

[Jeffrey Shaw]

How many pints of beer can you drink before driving ? My neighbour asked me but I didn't know as I don't drink and drive.

Best advice: none, i.e. no alcohol at all. Any = too much, when it comes to drinking-then-driving. Don't.

[tzijlstra]

There is a simple rule: don't. It is about time the rest of the UK followed Scotland's example in this.

[Fudbeer]

I use d to have a pint or 2 max but these days I just feel its wrong to take the control of a vehicle with alcohol in your system.

[sgtkate]

Erm none. No moral superiority here but I just couldn't live with myself I'd I'd had a drink and then crashed into someone. So for me better not to drink and drive at all. I'm sure you've got the official legal answer already though.

[buck]

American beer is lower in Alcohol content than British, and you can get lighter versions still if you want. But I limit myself to one or at most two over a two hour period and only when I visit my local which is about two miles away on a good quiet road. If we go any further I rely on Andretti herself, my wife Pauline, an excellent and very sober driver.

[Orzel]

I just can't drink and drive.

It spills too much on potholes.

Damn SCC and Amey.

[pattricia]

The answer seems to be one pint or nothing !

[Cyclone]

There is no simple way to work it out as larger folks can consume more than smaller folks and still be under the limit. A larger gentleman might be under the limit after 4 pints but a teeny female might be over after a pint.

 

Simplest answer is don't risk it. Strange question for a neighbour to ask though, how does that even pop up in conversation?

 

Size has an effect, but it's nowhere near as pronounced as you suggest.

 

Both the large man and the small women have close to 8 pints of blood, and it's alcohol to blood volume that matters.

 

---------- Post added 23-02-2016 at 08:37 ----------

 

For a definitive answer I suppose we'll have to Cyclone it?

 

Because you're incapable of using google or doing basic maths yourself?

 

---------- Post added 23-02-2016 at 08:44 ----------

 

The drink drive limit is 80 mg of alcohol in 100 ml of blood. If you take into account that a well hydrated person will have about 5L (5000 ml) of blood and assume full absorption of one unit of alcohol (10 ml of pure alcohol ~10 g or 10,000 mg).

 

So if you dilute 10000 mg of alcohol into 5000 ml of blood you get 2 mg per ml or 20 mg per 100 ml. So 4 units puts an average person roughly on the limit.

 

4 units is 2 pints of low strength (3.5% ABV) beer.

 

Personally on the rare occasion I drive after drinking I think one pint with a meal is enough.

 

The only other thing to add is the rate of absorption and the rate your liver processes it.