Oh, Susquehanna!

This is going to be a post about how to drink thrifty in Ontario:

The key to drinking thrifty in Ontario basically boils down to two simple concepts:

  1. Buy beer.
  2. Buy in bulk.

While liquor might have certain advantages like being easier to transport, getting you drunk quicker, and probably being less fattening, all of these qualities will cost you extra. For example, a mickey (375 mL bottle) of Canadian Club costs $14.95 and it’s a 40% ABV spirit. In the end, you have 150 mL of pure alcohol. A 12-pack of James Ready 5.5 is $15.75 (an 80 cent difference) and comes in 12 341 mL bottles of 5.5% beer. JR 5.5 works out to 225 mL of pure alcohol, meaning you get more booze for just 80 cents more. This doesn’t even factor in the potential cost of mix if you need it. So at the moment it looks like sticking to cheap ass beers will be the best way to go, but that doesn’t have to be the case. This is where buying in bulk and buying smart comes in handy.

La Fin du Monde is classified by The Beer Store as a “premium” beer. It definitely tastes like a premium beer and definitely has the hefty cost associated with premium beers at a crazy $25.95 per 12-pack. In actuality, if you’re willing to buy in bulk you can get the alcoholic equivalent of a 24 of discount beer for almost three bucks cheaper. At 9% per 341 mL bottle of beer you can drink the equivalent of a 12 pack of 5.5% 341 mL bottles. Split the cost with a friend and you each get enough beer to get drunk off of.

If you can’t afford bulk or don’t have anyone who is interested in drudging through the pain of divvying up booze costs, drinking discount beers doesn’t have to be a bad experience. There are enough varieties of beer that you’re bound to find one you like. President’s Choice, for example, offers some good cheap beers in three different styles. I personally enjoy PBR, PC Dry, and JR 5.5, but I’ve also developed a taste for cheap beers after years of drinking thrifty.

Finally, it’s important to understand Bodine values. A Bodine value is a unit for the cost of pure alcohol and it’s calculated like so: Bv = (Volume*Units*Percentage)/Cost. To figure out the Bv of James Ready 5.5 you would do (341*12*0.055)/15.75 which comes out to 14.28. A mickey of Canadian Club would be (375*0.4)/14.95 which comes out to 10.03. It’s an easy way to quickly compare the alcoholic value of similarly priced beverages or to figure out if a more expensive but higher percentage beer can be considered a thrifty purchase. 14 is generally a good Bodine value

3 weeks ago6 notes
  1. butitlookslikefun said: or you could be a cheap drunk like me.
  2. lawkeeee said: this rules
  3. ohsusquehanna posted this