I have written before about how many Budweiser Zero it would take to get you drunk and it follows on the the number is in the ball park for how many you could drive after.
However just finding yourself drunk in the house is not as critical as if you need to drive the kids somewhere or pick up a loved one. You really dont want to be anywhere close to being over the limit.
You would need to drink anywhere from x200-400 Budweiser Zero cans over 1-2 hours before you would get your blood alcohol concentration high enough (0.08%) to blow a positive breathalyser and get a DUI. This is impossible to do so you can drink as many as you like and drive home safely.
400 Budweiser Zero is just an impossible amount to drink but so is 200. The exact amount differs from person to person but we can work off generalisations for the most part. We can go into it in more detail but the reassurance is, you can drink as many as you want and still be more than safe to drive. The tiny amount of alcohol will have no effect on you.
Can i drink Budweiser Zero and drive? Will i get a DUI?
I just want to make something very clear at the start of this article, which includes some calculations for what you might theoretically be able to drink and drive with.
Don’t drink any alcohol and drive.
You shouldn’t be reading this and trying to work out how many alcoholic drink you can drink and drive on. The purpose of the article is to show how you can drink as many Budweiser Zeros as you want and still drive completely safely.
To read all about just how alcohol free Budweiser Zero is you can read this article on it
What is the legal drink driving limit?
Most people who read my blog come from countries like USA, UK and Australia. In these areas, to be legal to drive your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) has to be below 0.08%.
How many Budweiser Zero can the average driver drink.
As mentioned before, this is a follow up article to my one on if Budweiser Zero can get you drunk. You can read that here
From that article we saw the working out that about x2 Standard beers (12 fl oz and 5% ABV), drank over an hour or 2, may raise your BAC to 0.4-0.6%+. This depended on a whole host of person specific characteristics so it was a generalisation. This works out at about x200 Budweiser Zero 12fl oz cans.
On of the biggest factors is body mass or size. For example a slight female might “only” need to drink 200 Budweiser Zero to get drunk but contract that with a slightly (ahem) overweight adult male, i might need twice this amount.
To drink 200 Budweiser Zero in 2hrs works out at 5 cans every 3 minutes, or faster, just to feel the effects of alcohol. Thats just not achievable.
Special situations
If you live in the USA im sure you will be aware that there are some special rules for different drivers.
A commercial driver must have a BAC of under 0.04% and if they have a BAC of 0.02-0.04% means they cant drive for 24hrs.
Additionally in some states the zero tolerance laws are in effect. They mean that anything from 0.00-0.02% can be illegal if you are under 21 (the legal age to drink)
| Category of driver | Allowable BAC |
| Under 21 | Either 0 or <0.02% |
| Commercial | <0.04% |
| Over 21 | <0.08% |
You don’t need to be a genius to work out that these special situation drivers cant drink as much alcohol before they are over the limit. That is the entire point of lowering the limits.
| Class of driver | Standard drink limit (very conservative) | Heineken 0.0 limit (12fl oz) |
| Over 21 | 2 | 200 |
| Commercial | 1 | 100 |
| Under 21 ZT | 0.25 | 25 |
My under 21 limits are only for illustration purposes only. Budweiser Zero and indeed all alcohol free drinks are marketed and sold to adults over the legal drinking age.
It is true that legally the could be sold to someone under the legal drinking age but as my article here explains, that doesn’t generally happen.
Even a 19 year old, drinking Budweiser Zero, in his house with his parents, would need to be chugging down on 25 cans or bottles in a 1-2hr period to fail his Zero Tolerance test level. If you have ever tried to drink that amount you know its basically impossible and there are bigger issues going on!
Ive written a full article on all non alcoholic drinks and driving. All the maths is done for you. Click here to read
How does Budweiser Zero compare to the alcohol in common foods?
When i chat to family and friends about alcohol free drinks having 0.05% alcohol by volume i’m usually told “well they aren’t free of alcohol then, are they”. Sound familiar?
To show just how minimal 0.05% ABV is we can look at types of foods you would never bat an eye lid about eating or drinking and then driving after.
The following information isn’t widely known and it can be quite surprising to say the least.
What causes food to have alcohol in it?
A food or drink will contain alcohol in it if ethanol fermentation has occurred
Ethanol Fermentation is the conversion of carbohydrates (think sugars) to ethanol (alcohol) and or other organic acids.
Bacteria or yeasts do this in anaerobic conditions. Anaerobic just means, without any oxygen.
Yeasts convert sugars into ethanol and carbon dioxide. This is often a natural process as there are lots of wild yeasts out there that live on the surfaces of food.
In the past, most if not all wine and beer production was reliant on wild yeast colonising and naturally fermenting sweet drinks.
The other method for ethanol fermentation is via bacteria. Bacteria can ferment sugars to produce energy. Instead they produce sour acids like lactic acid.
Which common foods have alcohol in them?
The table below is they types of food that will probably contain at least some alcohol as fermentation has happened deliberately or naturally.
| Food stuff | Comments |
| Fruits | Contain fructose. Unwashed fruits also have have levels of wild yeasts on their skin for natural fermentation |
| Breads | Most bread has heated added to produce carbon dioxide and raise it via bubbles in the dough. The by product is ethanol |
| Yogurts | Bacteria turn milk into yogurt. It tastes slightly sour as lactic acid is produced but so is ethanol |
| Pickled vegetables | Pickled vegetables such as kimchi use the sour acids of bacteria as preserving agents |
Ok so we can see that plenty of every day foods can contain alcohol. The big question is… “How much!?”
Remember that Budweiser Zero has a maximum ABV of 0.05% and compare it to all these foods. Would you worry about driving after orange juice or eating a banana? I think not.
| Type of food | Highest alcohol content (ABV) in percent % |
| Alcohol free drink | 0.05% |
| Non alcoholic drink | 0.5% |
| Grape juice (red) | 0.86% |
| Apple juice | 0.66% |
| Orange juice | 0.73% |
| White wine vinegar | 2.64% |
| Wheat roll | 0.14% |
| Burger roll | 1.28% |
| Rye Bread | 0.2% |
| Sweet milk rolls | 1.21% |
| Banana | 0.2% |
| Ripe Banana | 0.4% |
| Ripe Pear | 0.04% |
| Kefir | 0.02% |
| Yogurt | 0.02% |
Ok, hands up who is shocked by some of these numbers?
Next time someone tells you that 0.05% isn’t alcohol free, you can remind them that orange juice is about x14 more alcoholic than it.
For a full article about how much alcohol is in common foods, click here to read my article.
Ive written an article with all the common questions about Budweiser Zero and all the answers for you. If you need any more information then have a look by following this link
