Aibu to ask what alcohol you keep at home?

[Tigerpaws57]

Just curious. DH and I only ever drink wine or beer and that (or soft drinks) is what we offer guests. We buy only what we are likely to drink in a week. Maybe buy a couple of bottles of gin or vodka to enjoy over christmas holidays. Talking to colleagues though, it seems most of them maintain a fully-stocked "home bar" with a range of spirits, liquers etc available all year round. So I am wondering, are we the norm or are they? Do most people expect to be offered a wide selection of alcoholic drinks if they visit you?

Several bottles of most types of spirit, some bitters, several sherry, Madeira and port. Not so much liqueur type stuff. A few bottles of champagne/prosecco in the fridge. A few magnums of red wine given to us at Christmas.

Spirits will last for many years, alcohol is a preservative after all. I had an open bottle of Baileys in the fridge for a few years and that didn't go off. It was about 5 years out of date when I finished it.

well I have a fully stocked drinks cabinet but I don't drink it. I stock it up at Christmas and get bottles of gin as presents (I do like an occasion G&T) but I often end up giving it to my DD to share with her student housemates.

Gin, rum, vodka, amaretto, port, sherry, whisky, brandy, red wine, white wine from memory. Lots of bottles in the cupboard but can't remember them all. No beer for some reason, must go shopping!

You name it, we’ve probably got it, including many bottles of wine in a Vinotek. Doesn’t mean we’re boozing all the time though, far from it.

There's usually some beer at home, wine sometimes but usually we buy it the day we want to drink it. Currently there's a bottle of whiskey at home left over from Christmas, neither of us like whiskey though which is why it's lasted so long

Wine, beer, vodka, whisky, baileys, amaretto, rum, tequila, green ginger wine, sherry and quite a few other spirits. We hardly ever drink spirits so tend to buy a bottle because we fancy it and it lasts a few years

A friend told me that someone who has an issue with alcohol will have very little alcohol in the house, because they drink it almost as soon as they buy it. A load of spirits when you have a drink once every few months, is no issue at all.

We have loads, we buy the occasional bottle at Christmas and get given wine and whisky (DH's work) and because we don't really drink it just sits there unless someone comes round. We've even had special "please come round and drink our booze , but don't bring your own" parties.

currently 45 bottles of different gins

and a large selection of just about everything else

I barely keep anything in, I don't like drinking at home and I don't drink when I have DS. I still have beer left over from xmas and a gifted bottle of vodka. I buy in for the rare occasion I have people around.

Not very much because if we really like it then it gets drunk straight away when weve bought it. As in we will have bought it to have with dinner that night. We dont buy large bottles of things just small bottles of fruit cider or Desparados etc So we dont end up with a stock or anything.

And when we get given wine sometimes when people come round it just sits there as we arent that keen.... Ive got two bottles of wine in the cupboard my parents left when they came last christmas!!

It does seem odd when I think about it as my parents had a 'drinks cupboard' which had allsorts in like advocat and flavoured gins.. they also had a wine rack which was always stocked.
My only worry is how will my kids get drunk on the sly when they are teenagers? I used to pour the vodka from my parents drinks cabinet out into a bottle of pop then top the bottle back up with water so they wouldnt notice! Also used to take things they had no interest in so would not notice missing..... horrendous memories of puking up Midori and Limoncello at houseparties!!
Am I depriving my children of this teenage right of passage by only buying the odd bottle of cider here and there?

We have a bottle of ginger wine and a bottle of peach schnapps - sorry this is from the first page but I loved it. Go nice with the fondue set and pampers grass!

We have what we call a 'magic cupboard'. Mainly because you can never remember going in there afterwards!

Everything is in there, whether we drink it or not. When we have close friends round, we make cocktails and tell them to bring the base alcohol they want and nothing else. We buy beer, wine and mixers. It all gets left there until next time, because as a rule we don't drink during the week or if it's just us.

I have loads of bottles of fizz at the moment too, because DD and I have both recently had milestone birthdays and we got at least 7 or 8 each as presents.

its fine to just have wine! I just say oh whatevers open- don't like to be fussy. think its lovely you even offer booze, a lot of people don't! we have a lot of alcohol because were big drinkers but if I know someones coming over ill deff get wine but I wouldnt buy gin, vodka specially I just have it cos I like it!

We don't really drink spirits when it's just us at home - I'm pregnant now so it's a moot point anyway - but we do somehow have a liquor cabinet containing rum, vodka, a couple of whiskeys of varying quality, ditto gin, a few bottles of champagne, maraschino cherries, bitters, and some sherry that mostly gets used for cooking.

A lot of these were gifts, or bought for parties/guests coming over. I like a gin and tonic every now and then, and we're both partial to an Aperol Spritz but I suppose those days are over now

As most of us don’t drink in our house, we currently have a few ciders which my DP drinks every now and then...... baileys which is my Nan’s but as she usually drinks at my uncles house she will probs only drink it here at Christmas, we have disorano which is my brothers and then a few bottles of wine which we won on a tombola which will probs be regifted at Christmas 😊

Plymouth sloe gin
Tanqueray gin
Hendricks gin
Lagavulin 16
Bowmore 10
Rum
Sherry
Vodka
Pimms
About 18 bottles of wine
Moet from 1982 (cant bear to open it!)
Corona beer x24.

Would probably be easier to do a list of what we don't have...

lots of exciting drinks options when you fancy it for many of you!

we always keep a white wine, a bottle of bombay saphire or tanqueray gin and plenty of fever tree.

i probably have 3 double gins a week = 6 units. dh probably has 6 doubles.

cant beat a cold g & t with plenty of ice.

Wine - quite a variety. DH thinks he is wine connessseiur and forgets I taught a wine appreciation class ! Prosecco because everyone seems to give it as gifts. Gin - several types bcause 3/4 of this household enjoy pretending they can tell the difference (gincynic here) Sherry. Campari, Aperol, Pimms. My own home made sloe gin ( sloe vodka actually) maturing. Mixers various. DH buys beer as and when he fancies it. Whisky in the winter.

Sounds like a wild time in the platypus house but actual I am a once a week drinker and now always match every glass of wine with a glass of water .

We only have in husbands current tipples (so usually beer/cider and sometimes s bottle of his spirit of choice - so maybe gin or whiskey) I only ever drink at Christmas (Baileys or cheaper version of) and 1 or 2 cocktails on my birthday.

“If we didn't drink the traditional wine/beer offerings and knew we would want to drink our 'usual'; would take it with us as wouldn't expect a host to get it in 'just for us'.”

Well yes... except you tend not to turn up for dinner with a bottle of vodka, lol

If I know I’m going somewhere for a drink, I’d take one, but I don’t know that it would occur to me for other things. I do sometimes take wine or prosseco or something for them, but tbh, that’s just me trying to offload it because I don’t like it

So if there was only wine or beer, I’d just not drink... it’s no big deal and I wouldn’t think anything of it though.

I only drink wine ... so maybe a couple of bottles in .. few beers for DP who only drinks at weekend .. no spirits , but I'd quite like some fancy pants gin !