One of the reasons people drink beer from time to time is to have fun. However, it’s essential to keep your limits in mind when doing so. For this reason, we’ve created this blog post. The information below will tell you exactly where the boundaries are for an average American male and female, so you know what to keep in mind before you start drinking:
Five to six cans of Heineken Original (5% ABV, 12oz/330ml) will get an average American male drunk (BAC of 0.109 – 0.131), whereas it will take four cans for a female (BAC of 0.115). For Heineken Light (3.3% ABV, 12oz/330ml), it will take seven cans for a male (BAC 0.093) and six cans for a female (BAC 0.106). Heineken Zero (0.01% – 0.03%) won’t get you drunk.
However, that certainly doesn’t answer the question entirely. Below, we’ll start with a quick definition of what being drunk is and what kind of BAC that requires. Furthermore, we’ll talk about the effects of each type of Heineken when you drink one, three, and six cans.
When Are You Drunk?
Before calculating how many Dutch-made Heineken you need to drink to get drunk, we’ll have to know how we define being drunk. According to various sources, people are ‘tipsy’ when they have a Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) between 0.03 and 0.12. Just for reference, in most states, you’re not allowed to drive with a BAC of 0.08.
Depending on the person, you reach drunkness when you have a BAC of 0.09 – 0.25. At this point, you’ll have impaired memory and vision, loss of balance, drowsiness, and potential nausea and vomiting. Therefore, we’ll have to calculate how much Heineken has to be consumed by an average American male (weight: 197.9 pounds) and female (weight: 166.2 pounds)
Can One Can Of Heineken Get You Drunk?
Let’s start with seeing what you’ll experience when you drink one can of international pale lager Heineken. Heineken has an ABV of 5% and is typically sold in 12oz bottles or cans that contain 142 calories.
Heineken Original (5%)
An average American male will start with a BAC of 0.022 and reach a BAC of 0 after almost 1,5 hours. In other words, This person will look completely normal and will also not experience any significant effects themselves.
An average American female will start with a BAC of 0.029 and reach a BAC of 0 after almost two hours. Therefore, the effects will be slightly more noticeable for females, but most likely, the person will look and feel completely normal.
Heineken Light (3.3%)
Drinking one Heineken Light will have so little effect on a man that the BAC is not registered and stays at 0. For females, a Heineken light will create a BAC of 0.018, but after one hour, the effects will have disappeared completely.
Heineken Zero (0.01 – 0.03%)
Even though it’s marketed as alcohol-free, Heineken Zero isn’t wholly alcohol-free. However, it only has 0.01% – 0.03% alcohol which means drinking one, three, or ten of them won’t affect males are females. For reference, if a female were to drink one hundred Heineken Zero in one hour, she would have a BAC of 0.016, which means she’s not even tipsy. A man would still have a BAC of 0.
And also, since the taste isn’t that good, you wouldn’t quickly drink a bunch of them.
Can Three Cans Of Heineken Get You Drunk?
Three cans of Heineken will significantly affect both males and females. For calculation purposes, we’ll assume that drinking a can of Heineken will take 30 minutes each and that three cans, therefore, take 1,5 hours.
An American male will have a BAC of 0.065 immediately after drinking three cans. In most states, this is just slightly below the legal drinking limit to drive. The person will be ‘tipsy’ but not yet drunk. Also, it will take three hours after finishing the final drink to get back to a BAC of 0.
An American female will have a BAC of 0.086 after drinking the three cans, which means they aren’t allowed to drive in most states. This BAC is on the edge of drunk, and the person will therefore have euphoria, extraversion, and reduced pain sensitivity. After the final drink, it will take 5 hours to get back to a BAC of 0.
Heineken Light (3.3%)
Drinking three Heineken Light within 1,5 hours would give a man a BAC of 0.04. Two hours after the final drink, the BAC will have worn off to 0. For a female, this would result in a BAC of 0.053, and three hours after the final drink, the BAC would return to 0. This means males and females experience a light tipsy feeling in both cases.
Can A Six Pack Of Heineken Get You Drunk?
Now, let’s scale our measurements up a bit and see how drunk people get when drinking a six-pack of each variant. Since Heineken is a pretty decent beer with quite some bitterness, you may opt to have a few of them.
Heineken Original (5%)
Drinking a six-pack of Heineken Original will get both males and females drunk.
Assuming it takes three hours to drink six cans of Heineken, American males will start with a BAC of 0.131, which will reduce to 0.086 after three hours. After drinking, it will take six more hours to get back to a BAC of 0. Drinking a six-pack of Heineken will make an average American male drunk.
American females will start with a BAC of 0.172, which will reduce to 0.127 after three hours and 0.082 hours after six hours. This means women will be drunk for approximately six hours in total. It will take 9 hours after the final drink for women to return to a BAC of 0.
Heineken Light (3.3%)
Drinking a six-pack of Heineken Light will get men tipsy and females slightly drunk.
For males, drinking a six-pack of Heineken Light within three hours would result in a BAC of 0.08; after the final drink, it would take 2,5 hours for the BAC to return to 0. This means men are tipsy, but even drinking a six-pack will result in BAC levels of 0.08 or lower, which means they’re still allowed to drive in most states.
For females, the story is slightly different. They start with a BAC of 0.106, which means they are indeed in the ‘drunk’ regions of the spectrum. After three hours, that level will have dropped to 0.06, which is still reasonably tipsy. After the final drink, it will take four hours to return to BAC 0.
