Age: Why This Hits Harder If You're Older

Remember when you were young and could drink all night and feel fine the next morning? That changes, and it changes for specific biological reasons.

As you age, your body's ability to process alcohol declines. Your liver produces less of the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, which breaks down ethanol. The enzyme you do produce works more slowly. This means alcohol stays in your system longer and its toxic byproducts — particularly acetaldehyde — accumulate more before being cleared. That's why hangovers get worse as you get older. It's not psychological. It's biochemistry.

Your body composition changes too. As you age, you carry proportionally less water and more fat. Since alcohol is distributed through body water, a lower water volume means higher blood alcohol concentration from the same amount of drink. The same three pints that barely registered in your twenties hit noticeably harder in your fifties.

Your brain becomes more sensitive to alcohol's effects with age. Cognitive function, balance, and reaction times are all more significantly impaired. The risk of falls — a serious concern for older adults — increases with even moderate alcohol consumption. And the cumulative effects on brain volume and cognitive function described above are more pronounced when combined with the natural cognitive changes of ageing.

If you're considering opening a brewery as a retirement project — and many people do, using their pension lump sum as startup capital — you need to understand that you're entering a profession surrounded by alcohol at the exact point in your life when your body is least equipped to handle it. The person who could "handle their drink" at thirty-five is not the same person at sixty, however much it might feel like they are.