How long does alcohol stay in your system?
The length of time from after you finish drinking alcohol that the alcohol will still be in your system depends on how much you drank and the period of time in consideration. Generally speaking, people metabolize alcohol at the rate of 1/2 ounce per hour (that’s half an ounce of absolute alcohol — or one “standard” drink) — roughly equivalent to: 12 ounces of beer, 10 ounces of microbrew, 6 ounces of wine cooler (or hard lemonade), 1 1/4 ounces of 80-proof liquor or 4 ounces of wine. Therefore, if you consume three standard drinks — regardless of how long it took you to drink them — it would take you three hours to be completely free of alcohol. This should hopefully make it apparent that alcohol builds up in your body over time because the liver can only metabolize one drink an hour. That’s why it is dangerous for people to “chug” alcohol or play drinking games.
