Have you ever consumed alcohol in Iowa?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Inspired by IRC discussion.

Yes I have.

[RINO Tom]

Every weekend.  A lot of it, too.

That's kind of what we do here.

[DINGO Joe]

Had my first consumption in Iowa.  I was about 10.  Had a sip of Grandpa's beer.  Wasn't impressed, probably something godawful like Milwaukee's Best.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I've never even set foot in Iowa...at least not yet.  And I don't drink, so no.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Since angus lived there for a time, I'd assume he consumed the most. 

[Catholics vs. Convicts]

Yes. Nice little bar in Iowa City.

[Torie]

Of course, and of course pot, for which I was busted, and spent about an hour in the city jail in Winterset, with the cell door opened, and was chauffeured in the front seat by the cop that arrested me to an ATM to get the bail money. He felt guilty about inconveniencing me in that way, but was worried he would get in trouble if he just blew the bust off. When the city police chief expressed some interest in buying a parcel of land from the family, I told him that before I would even consider it, he needed to not interfere with my weed. He laughed.

Anyway, I got drunk and toked some more, with my newly retained criminal defense lawyer that night. He refused payment. All he wanted was to be able to hunt on the farm (it has lots of woods and meadows), and I said sure, go for it, just don't get so drunk that you accidentally shoot some cattle.

[Torie]

Since angus lived there for a time, I'd assume he consumed the most. 

I am sure that I consumed more per day while in the state. Being in Iowa not in an altered state, is an absolute no go.

[dead0man]

Sure, many times.

[TDAS04]

Yep. 

[muon2]

Yes. Nice little bar in Iowa City.

Me too, I had a draft beer at the Airliner right after the caucus on Monday.

[Figueira]

I think I was like 4 or so the last time I was in Iowa, so hopefully no.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I've consumed alcohol in Florida, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania. Nowhere else.

[Mr. Smith]

I've never even set foot in Iowa...at least not yet.  And I don't drink, so no.

[angus]

Since angus lived there for a time, I'd assume he consumed the most.  

A respectable amount.  Used to walk over with a fifth of Courvoisier to the berm at Kohl's parking lot on University Avenue and watch the fireworks every July 4th.  Margaritas every afternoon in the summer.  And generally I take a 750-ml bottle of wine with my evening meal.  

We could do a rough estimate.  I think it would be important to estimate the actual volume of neat, pure grain alcohol (ethanol) consumed, so we'll have to multiply estimated volumes by percent alcohol for a proper analysis.

I lived in Iowa from July 2007 till July 2012.  If we subtract the couple of months I spent in China, and the couple of months I spent in Latin America, and the month I spent in Minnesota, and the three months I spent in Florida, we have four years and three months worth of drinking in Iowa.  That's approximately 1551 days.  If we assume one 750-ml bottle of wine each evening--a fair assumption since I usually open and finish a bottle with my evening meal--and given that I was a member of the Wall Street Journal Wine club during that period and the wines I drank were generally better than the swill I'm drinking now and had an v/v alcohol content of 14.5%, we can conclude that I drank approximately 0.145x750=109 ml of ethanol per evening from wine.  109x1551=169069 ml = 169 liters of ethanol.  

We should also probably consider the amount of ethanol from hard liquor.  Tonight, for example, after I finished my chianti, I started drinking dirty vodka martinis.  I'd estimate that a liter would last me about a month, in general, whether it's vodka, cognac, scotch, or tequila.  So 4 years and 3 months amounts to 51 liters.  If we assume that most hard liquor is about 40% alcohol by volume, then 0.40x51=20 liters of ethanol from hard liquors.

wine+hard=20+169=189 liters.  

We can ignore beer, since I rarely drink it.  Once in a while when my son and I were out on long bicycle rides, he and I would stop in a bar every five or so miles and he'd have an apple juice and I'd have a beer, but it never amounted to much.  (Man, I love those excellent non-motorized Iowa asphalt trails.  I miss them.  We have a few of them in Pennsylvania, but as you probably know they're shorter and disjoint.  I don't care much for the brutal weather in Iowa, but I do like the summer there; excellent bicycling.  You can ride from Cedar Rapids to Cedar Falls without ever having to go on a road with cars.  That's about 65 miles!  Best of all, there were little bars along the way on every bicycle trail.)

(Of course we're ignoring trips through Iowa before and after I lived there, and no doubt I've consumed beer, wine, and liquor in hotels and in the houses of friends on those trips as well.)  So my two-figure estimate for the number of liters of 200-proof straight grain alcohol that I consumed in Iowa is something like 190 liters.

Voted yes in the poll, and with your endorsement I'll throw my hat in the ring for the contest:  poster who has consumed the greatest volume of ethanol in Iowa.  Honest estimate:  190 liters.

[Torie]

Ethanol = alchohol?

[muon2]

Ethanol = alchohol?

Alcohol is a class of chemicals, but ethanol is the one that is produced by the fermentation of sugar by yeast. It's the one we enjoy, so we use the term alcohol in food to mean ethanol. As a practicing chemist, angus can go into more detail.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Unless I went to Church there, no, since I haven't been in that low energy state since a family road trip that involved a stop in Dubuque back when I was in like grade school.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

ok, angus wins.  Dude how do you not fall asleep at 7:30 after downing a bottle of wine and some martinis afterward? 

[angus]

haha.  I consume enough caffeine, but I usually don't consume any after about 1pm.  Being an old, boring, married guy, I'm generally in bed by around 10 or 10:30.  Even on elections night.

[Mr. Illini]

Yes. Nice little bar in Iowa City.

Me too, I had a draft beer at the Airliner right after the caucus on Monday.

A classic establishment.

Lots of moping Bernie faithfuls there on Monday, I am sure.

[Boris]

Yeah, but only across the river from Omaha. I hate Des Moines, and never visited Iowa City back in the day because UIUC is better academically and party-wise.

[Catholics vs. Convicts]

Yes. Nice little bar in Iowa City.

Me too, I had a draft beer at the Airliner right after the caucus on Monday.

A classic establishment.

Lots of moping Bernie faithfuls there on Monday, I am sure.

Yeah I am certain that was the place I went.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I hate Des Moines

Why?

[Nhoj]

Yeah around 4 months ago I went to one of my cousins weddings there. it had free booze.