The boozehound smell

[Kent Wang]

I know that when people drink a lot of beer, they give off a distinct and unpleasant smell. It seems to be much more than just their breath, like the smell comes out from all over the bodies, presumably alcohol secreted through sweat. Is this smell restricted to beer, or just any alcoholic beverage?

[Gifted Gourmet]

After foods are digested and the pungent oils are absorbed into your bloodstream, they're carried to your lungs and are given off in your breath until the food is eliminated from your body. Alcohol behaves in the same fashion, allowing the measurement of alcohol levels by breath tests. Alcohol itself has almost no odor, however. The characteristic smell on your breath is mainly the odor of other components of the beverage.

like the yeast in beer ....

Mayo Clinic website

Does this help provide some sort of an answer to your question?

[Kent Wang]

Do good beers make you smell less? I'd like to do some experimentation but it's hard to perform experiments when you're soused.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Do good beers make you smell less? I'd like to do some experimentation but it's hard to perform experiments when you're soused.

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Cheap beer and cheap cigars are probably the most offensive ... try to shell out more to smell more refined ...

as for scientific experimentation? You can do experiments soused but the results are often skewed badly (note the proper spelling is skewed ....)

[KatieLoeb]

Gin's "after scents" are pretty nasty when oozing through every pore. I used to kick the ex out of bed when he smelled like that. It was nauseating.

[M.X.Hassett]

Did not Dean Martin wear "gin" aftershave

[mrbigjas]

you know what else is brutal? champagne. way more than wine. get yerself hammered on several bottles of the standard NV offerings--white star, yellow label, etc., and smell yourself the next day. this awful acrid acidic yeasty smell comes off of you... ugh, especially combined with the residue from like three packs of smokes. ah, new years.

i always imagined that's how the ladies on absolutely fabulous smelled...

[Megan Blocker]

i always imagined that's how the ladies on absolutely fabulous smelled...

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Oh, my. I am laughing so hard here.

I agree - champagne has a definite stink to it the next morning...

[bleachboy]

Gin's "after scents" are pretty nasty when oozing through every pore.  I used to kick the ex out of bed when he smelled like that.  It was nauseating.

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The wife does that to me to this day! A handful of martinis and "You reek of gin!!"

Hey, I thought it was an aphrodisiac!

[petite tête de chou]

Interesting question. After a night of drinking (either micro- or macro- beers, wine, scotch or rum) my husband says that I have an...er, di-stink-t odor. He, however, actually smells just fine. When my Ma and Da used to drink, it was he who stank and not her. Additionally, my father and I actually have a...well, definite odor when we've been working hard, and yet my mother and husband smell just fine. -sigh- Perhaps this has more to do with the fact the my Da and I love really spicy, stinky stuff (such as kimchee and sardines in hot sauce) whereas my ma and husband don't. But still, whereas my ma and husband might smell a bit of the booze seeping through their pores the next day, my Da and I actually, well, smell bad.

[KatieLoeb]

Did not Dean Martin wear "gin" aftershave

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Dean Martin had a lot more going for him than my parasitic unemployable ex.

[FistFullaRoux]

If some versions of history are correct, Dean Martin reeked of apple juice...

[Megan Blocker]

Did not Dean Martin wear "gin" aftershave

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Dean Martin had a lot more going for him than my parasitic unemployable ex.

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Don't hold back, Katie...tell us how you really feel...

[M.X.Hassett]

Well this should go in the beer forum, but some of of the unfiltered yeast beers well lets just say they have some after effects that include strong smelling.....uh.......umm.......airborn scents.