Alcohol

Sam: Where's Bobby? Dean: In town, supply run. Sam: In this? Dean: Yeah, man's a hero. We were officially out of hunter's helper. [Dean gestures at his empty liquor bottle] – Sam and Dean, 6.15 The French Mistake

Alcohol - booze, liquor, hunter's helper, the good stuff, or rotgut - has a prominent place on Supernatural. Even a few Supernatural entities indulge. Every hunter drinks, sometimes to excess. Sam, Dean, and Bobby are no exception. They mostly use flasks for holy water, but they always have a few bottles of alcohol, usually liquor or beer, on hand to get them through jobs and over rough patches. Dean will take a mixed drink if he thinks it will lead somewhere with a lady.

While there is a drinking throughout the series, one episode pushed the limits. In 7.18 Party On, Garth, where Sam and Dean need to be drunk to see the Shojo they are hunting, Bob Singer said: "It's as much drinking as the CW's standards and practices will allow us!" source.

Signature Drinks

Beer and whiskey are the standard drinks of choice amongst hunters.

Brotherly Bonding

Sometimes Sam and Dean take a few moments to relax and drink beer by the Impala. The talk about their cases, the past, the future, and their thoughts. These moments produce some surprising revelations. When Dean finally revealed their father's dying words to Sam ("he said I might have to kill you Sammy") it was over a few bottles of beer. When Sam finally confronts Dean over withdrawing from him because of his deal ("It's just that I wish you'd drop the show and be my brother again"), while they are having beer by the roadside, they bond as Dean decides to show Sam how to take care of the Impala.

Months after his resurrection, it takes another roadside drink in for Dean to admit that not only does he remember Hell, he became a torturer there. After the revelations of their time in the past with their parents and confronting Michael, Sam and Dean share a drink and discuss Team Free Will. It is over beers in Bobby's salvage yard that Dean agrees to support Sam's plan to defeat Lucifer, whatever the cost. When Soulless Sam turned down a drink with his brother on the Impala after they defeat the fairies, it was another indication of how changed he was.

In Classic Winchester tradition - over a beer, by a lake - Sam, after being reunited with his soul, and then his memories of Hell tells Dean that he no longer feels guilty about his past, and is ready to continue with his life. Dean, on the other hand, has not been able to leave guilt behind.

Drinking Habits

Hunting is a tough life, and while characters do drink to enjoy themselves, often they turn to alcohol as a way of numbing the pain.

Sam Winchester

We first see Sam drunk, on a combination of whiskey and Jager, as he struggles with what he may be, and what John's dying warning about him to Dean means. While obviously upset, he calls Dean "bossy...and short" and then begs Dean to promise to kill him if necessary. Dean has to manhandle him into bed. The next time we see Sam drunk, it's two in the afternoon and Dean finds him drinking whiskey, distraught over his failure to get Dean out of his deal.

Sam hits the bottle hard for a long time following Dean's death. Ironically it is the reappearance of Ruby and her promise to help train him to kill Lilith that brings a return to sobriety, though it ultimately leads Sam to another form of substance abuse.

Sam drinks throughout the following seasons, but the next time he actually gets drunk is for a case involving a shojo, which can only be seen by the intoxicated. Sam gets drunk twice, once to watch security footage and once to fight the monster, and ends up with a hangover.

Dean Winchester

Over time, Dean's drinking has increased to a level of obvious dependence, although we never really seen him drunk (he seems a bit tipsy in 4.06 Yellow Fever but maybe that just shows that booze and Ghost Sickness don't mix). His drinking increased markedly, and understandably, after his resurrection as he struggles to cope with his memories of Hell, to the point where Sam notices. After Lucifer rises, and the Apocalypse begins, it continues. At one point he admits that the number of drinks he has in a week is "somewhere in the mid fifties". Later, when Sam and Dean wake to be confronted by the hunters Roy and Walt, Dean's bed is surrounded by beer cans and liquor bottles.

After Sam ends up in Lucifer's Cage, Dean drinks a lot when he moves in with Lisa and Ben - half a fifth a night by Lisa's estimate. After he leaves the Braedens and returns to hunting, his anxiety over what is wrong with Sam only seems to increase this.

Even after Sam gets his soul back, Dean's drinking doesn't change - it has become part of him. As he tells Sam about how he copes with his life and the things he's done. "You shove it down and you let it come out in spurts of violence and alcoholism." When he decides that there is nothing he can do to stop Castiel while the angel is acting as "god", Dean gives up and resorts to drinking in Bobby's kitchen in the early morning. When Sam points out the hour to him by asking if he would like some coffee with his liquor, Dean replies that it is "six o'clock somewhere."

After going behind Sam's back to kill Amy Pond the Kitsune, Dean's drinking increases even further. When they find the victim of a case they are investigating was in A.A., Dean refuses to go to a meeting to investigate the case saying "A.A. gives me the jeebs." He later goes to a bar to speak to a witness, and downs three double scotches in quick succession, only switching to beer when the bar tender indicates an interest in hooking up with him. Six standard shots of liquor consumed in a short time raises the blood alcohol content of a man Dean's size to .15, a level that causes serious impairment, including slurred speech and reduced motor function, unless the drinker has developed a high alcohol tolerance. It is nearly twice the legal driving limit in the United States.

Sam makes a few passing remarks and gives Dean some pointed looks about his drinking at this time, but doesn't directly challenge him on it until they are in Indiana investigate some warring Witches . Dean is having nightmares and drinking first thing in the morning. He's also shown going to a liquor store for supplies. When he pulls out a hip flask in the middle of the day Sam says "Really? From a freaking flask? What are you - Bad Santa?"

Dean's drinking, while still excessive, seems to plateau after his role in Amy's death is revealed, and remains relatively stable after Bobby's death. Dean carries Bobby's flask with him, and keeps it full. His drinking seems to slacken after the encounter with the Amazons and the life and death of Emma; Dean goes so far as to tell Sam he wants "No bars. No booze – no hot chicks of any kind" on their next case. He does not keep his resolution for long, but he seems more in control.

Later, when the brothers face a shojo, an alcohol spirit that can only be seen by those who are drunk, Sam asks Dean "Can you even get drunk anymore? It's sort of like drinking a vitamin for you, right?" Dean manages to get drunk long enough to see the spirit on surveillance tape, but it takes a significant amount of alcohol, and Dean admits that he has not actually felt debilitated by alcohol in some time. Unlike Sam and Garth, he is sober when he fights the shojo, and so has to take directions from Sam in order to locate it in the room and kill it.

John Winchester

While John is never seen drunk, his excessive drinking is mentioned on a couple of occasions. In the 1.01 Pilot, when Dean tells Sam that their father is missing, Sam twice references his drinking:

Sam: So he’s working overtime on a Miller Time shift; he’ll stumble back in sooner or later.

and

Sam: Yeah, he’s just deer-hunting up at the cabin and he’s probably got Jim, Jack, and Jose along with him. We’re just gonna go bring him back.

Miller refers to beer, Jim is Jim Beam (bourbon), Jack is Jack Daniels (whiskey), and Jose is Jose Cuervo (tequila).

In 1.14 Nightmare, while discussing another hunter who became abusive to his son, Sam says of John, "He could have gone a whole 'nother way after Mom. A little more tequila, a little less demon-hunting, and we could have had Max's childhood. All things considered, we turned out okay, thanks to him." After a pause, Dean agrees, albeit in a qualified way: "All things considered."

In 7.03 The Girl Next Door a 15-year-old Sam responds to Amy Pond when she says her mom has a temper: "My dad does, too. You don't want to see him when he's drinking."

Bobby Singer

Bobby drinks pretty regularly, and certainly on occasions to excess - such as after Dean's death. He often shares a drink with Dean - mainly whatever liquor or 'hunter's helper' he has around - "rotgut aged three days" he tells Crowley. Sheriff Jody Mills comments to Dean and Sam that Bobby has been arrested for multiple drunk and disorderly charges, and another character refers to him as the town drunk. When a leviathan takes Bobby's form and access his memories, it calls him "a drunk like your daddy before you."

The other ritual Bobby has with alcohol is that he tests guests to his house with a drink of Holy Water and then offers them whiskey. We see him do this the first time Dean and Sam visit him and later when Ellen appears after the demon attack on the Roadhouse. Bobby offers Sam beer laced with holy water which reveals his possession by Meg. When Dean returns from hell however, Bobby simply dashes holy water in his face!

After Bobby's death at the hands of Dick Roman, he decides not to accompany his Reaper. He stays on as a ghost, attached to a hip flask he owned, that Dean has taken to using for sentimental reasons. After he starts to become a Vengeful Spirit, trying to kill Roman at any cost, He decides its time to move on, and the boys free him to do so by melting down the hip flask.

Castiel

Dean tries to introduce Castiel to some earthly pleasures when he takes him to a brothel and buys him a beer. Castiel first seriously tries drinking at Bobby's, when Ellen challenges Castiel to a round of shots. Castiel downs five shots in quick succession, and suggests that he is "starting to feel something".

Following the revelation that God is taking no action to stop the Apocalypse, Castiel gets drunk. As he tells Sam "I found a liquor store...and I drank it".

A future version of Castiel is a powerless angel who has come to enjoy drugs and alcohol, including absinthe.

Kevin Tran

The stress of being a prophet drives Kevin to drink. He is drinking whiskey by the time he moves into the Bunker.

Crowley

Crowley's favourite drink is "Craig. Aged 30 years at least. I've been drinking it since grade school." "Craig" refers to the whisky Glencraig.

Rufus

Rufus' drink of choice is Blue Label Johnny Walker.

Episodes

It's not possible to document the characters' every drink, but there are certain occasions when alcohol has led to scenes that are hilarious and scenes that are heartbreaking. And sometimes, it has been pivotal to a case.

1.01 Pilot

Celebrating his LSATs victory, Sam and Jess have shots with a friend at a Halloween party. Later that evening, someone breaks into Sam and Jess's apartment at night, and Sam fights him in the dark. Eventually, Sam realizes the intruder is Dean.

Sam: What the hell are you doing here?
Dean: Well, I was looking for a beer.

Dean tells Sam that their father is missing on a hunting trip. Sam is skeptical that their father needs help, suggesting that "he’s working over-time on a Miller Time shift; he’ll stumble back in sooner or later." Sam agrees to go with him, but tells Jess that his father is "just deer hunting up at the cabin and he’s probably got Jim, Jack, and Jose along with him."

1.06 Skin

Becky, Sam's old college friend, invites what she thinks is Dean in for a beer. In actuality, it is a shapeshifter.

1.17 Hell House

During the brothers' prank war, Sam puts superglue on Dean's beer bottle. His hand sticks to it immediately.

1.20 Dead Man's Blood

Kate the vampire orders "Jack all 'round and leave the bottle," and is served from a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red Label.

1.22 Devil's Trap

In Bobby's introductory scene, he gives Dean a flask and when Dean asks confirms it's holy water. He then take another flask of whiskey, takes a swig and offers it to Dean, who also takes a swig.

2.11 Playthings

Drunk Sam.

The Winchesters are researching deaths at an old hotel. After another murder, Dean goes back to their room to find Sam. He is surprised to discover that his brother is intoxicated.

Sam: You're bossy.
Dean: What?
Sam: You're bossy. And short.
Dean: Are you drunk?
Sam: Yeah. So? Stupid.
Dean: Dude, what are you thinking? We're working a case.
Sam: That guy who hung himself. I couldn't save him.

Sam rambles about his fear or becoming evil, like the other special children. He begs Dean to kill him if that happens. Dean tries to brush off his plea, and Sam reminds him about John's last words. They argue, and Dean reluctantly promises while helping him off the floor and into bed.

Dean heads down to the hotel bar and has a drink himself while speaking to the bartender about the case, a reference to The Shining. The next morning, Sam is suffering from a bad hangover. Dean takes a little pleasure in the misery while Sam is on his knees in front of the toilet.

Dean: How you feeling, Sammy? (Sam groans) I guess mixing whiskey and Jager wasn't such a gangbuster idea, was it? I'll bet you don't remember a thing from last night, do you?
Sam: I can still taste the tequila.
Dean: You know, there's a really good hangover remedy, it's a, it's a greasy pork sandwich served up in a dirty ashtray.
Sam: (heaves) Oh, I hate you.

While Dean hopes otherwise, Sam does remember the conversation and Dean promise, and reminds Dean to keep it.

2.13 Houses of the Holy

At the end of the case, Dean gets back to the room to find Sam rather out of sorts and having a crisis of faith about angels. He takes out a flask of something, takes a swig and then offers it to Sam, who also drinks.

2.14 Born Under a Bad Sign

Sam went missing for a week, and when he finally phones Dean he claims to have no memories of where he has been. Dean retraces his steps, and discovers a gas station where Sam stole a 40 oz malt liquor and threw the bottle at a worker.

Sam later knocks Dean out and runs away. He goes to the Sandpiper Bar in Duluth, where Jo is working. Sam orders a beer, and talks to Jo for a while. He comes on to her, then attacks. She tries to hit him with a beer bottle but is overpowered. Dean bursts in and throws Holy Water on Sam, proving that he is possessed.

Sam escapes to Bobby's place to wreak havoc. Bobby invites him inside and offers him a beer. After the first sip, Sam doubles over in agony, while Bobby drinks impassively. He comments that the beer was laced with holy water, and knocks out the demon.

2.15 Tall Tales

Dean downs some nurples.

Sam and Dean investigate weird happenings at a college. Dean, in the name of investigation, drinks Purple Nurples with a local grad student. In Sam's version of the story, he drinks three of the shots quickly. In Dean's version, the girl and he each savor a shot. The brothers keep beer in their hotel room fridge.

The Trickster, while reading the Weekly World News to come up with new ideas for his victims, enjoys a glass of champagne.

2.20 What Is and What Should Never Be

After escaping the Wishverse, Dean discovers that his girlfriend in his dream - Carmen - is based on a model he saw in an El Sol beer ad.

3.04 Sin City

In a city that seems overwhelmed with corruption, the Winchesters go to the local bar to ask questions. The parish priest, who is later revealed to be a demon, is at the bar, having a drink. Dean is taken with the bartender, Casey.

Casey: What can I get you boys?
Dean: What's your speciality?
Casey: I make a mean hurricane.
Dean: I guess we'll see about that.
Sam: You drink hurricanes?
Dean: I do now.

The brothers prevent a murder in the bar, and have beers afterward. Casey herself turns out to be a demon.

3.06 Red Sky at Morning

Sam, Dean, and Bela have champagne at a fancy party.

A Christmas celebration with plastic cups.

3.08 A Very Supernatural Christmas

The brothers suspect that an "anti-Claus" is kidnapping people near Christmas. According to legend, the creature should smell like candy. Dean thinks the culprit may be a local Santa, who smells sweet when he walks past. Sam counters that he smells like ripple, not candy.

Sam tries to make Christmas for Dean, who wants to celebrate it this year, his last. He gets a few presents, and makes eggnog with whiskey while Dean is out getting beer.

3.10 Dream a Little Dream of Me

Dean finds a depressed Sam in a bar drinking because he is unable to save Dean from his deal. They then get a call telling them that Bobby is in an apparent coma.

A college student has learned dreamwalking through the use of African Dream Root. He can enter a person's dreams if he has some of their DNA. He managed to obtain Bobby's DNA by offering him a beer, and traps Bobby in his own dreams. Sam and Dean manage to save him, and when he wakes Bobby reveals how his DNA was obtained to the brothers. Unfortunately, Dean has also accepted a beer from the student.

3.15 Time Is on My Side

Dean uses a secret weapon to see Rufus.

In the hunt for Bela, Bobby sends Dean to speak with a semi-retired hunter named Rufus Turner who has heard from her. He also instructs Dean to take along a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label. When Dean reaches Rufus's house, the hunter is not interested in helping until Dean breaks out the bottle.

Rufus: Dean do I look like I’m here to help you?
Dean: I’m gonna say no.
Rufus: Then get the hell of my property.
Dean: All right, hey, hey, fair enough. I got one more question for you though. See, I got this ah, this bottle of scotch, and ah, I...is this considered good?

Rufus lets him in, and they drink.

Rufus: You know, I don’t even bother drinking unless it’s this stuff. Nectar of the God’s I’m telling you.
Dean: Yeah, it’s a nice change you know. Most of my whiskey comes from a plastic jug.

4.01 Lazarus Rising

Resurrected, Dean makes his way to Bobby's place. He notices an unusual number of empty liquor bottles around the place, and asks Bobby "What's the deal with the liquor store?" Bobby replies that the months since Dean died "ain't been all that easy."

4.05 Monster Movie

Sam and Dean investigate a "vampire" attacking people at an Oktoberfest celebration where they serve enormous mugs and steins of beer. Dean is impressed by the beer and the bar wenches.

Dean has a beer.

4.08 Wishful Thinking

After a reported sighting of Bigfoot, Sam and Dean follow large animal tracks to a burglarized liquor store. Bottles of amaretto and Irish cream are missing. Dean notes that if it was Bigfoot, then "he's a girl-drink drunk." Mulling over the situation outside the shop, the brothers see a young girl drop off a box of alcohol and magazines with a large 'sorry' note attached to it. They follow her home, where they discover that her teddy bear has become a giant, living, depressed stuffed animal. He drinks morosely while watching television.

Later, at their hotel, Dean wakes from a bad nightmare, clearly about his time in Hell, and takes a long drink from a liquor bottle labeled Skagit Cask, likely meant to be a product of the Skagit River Brewing Co.

4.09 I Know What You Did Last Summer

Sam tells Dean about how he spent his time while Dean was in Hell, including his drunken attempt to make a deal trading his life for Dean's.

4.14 Sex and Violence

Sam and Dean are searching for a siren. Sam and a doctor who has been examining the creature's victims share whiskey in her office. Meanwhile, Dean and FBI agent Nick Monroe have shots together at a strip club they are meant to be watching. Later in the Impala, Dean takes a drink from his flask, and then offers it to Nick. Nick drinks, then Dean takes another swig. Nick reveals that he is the siren. Dean, having been exposed to his saliva, is now under Nick's control.

4.17 It's a Terrible Life

Dean Smith has no alcohol because he is detoxing, perhaps the clearest sign of all that something is wrong with this world.

4.18 The Monster at the End of This Book

Sam and Dean meet the prophet Chuck, who they soon discover is a heavy drinker, especially after his painful visions.

4.19 Jump the Shark

Adam Milligan tries to call John, his father, and ends up making contact with his half brothers. He tells them that John came to see him sometimes, even buying him his first beer when he turned fifteen.

Unfortunately, Sam and Dean discover that this is not their brother, but instead a ghoul who has killed Adam and taken his form and memories.

4.22 Lucifer Rising

While he is being held in the Green Room, Zachariah offers him a bucket full of bottles of Dean's favorite beer as a bribe. Dean is unimpressed.

5.03 Free to Be You and Me

Dean decides to take Castiel to a brothel for what may be Cas's last night on earth. Castiel is terribly uncomfortable. Dean gets them beers, and when he tries to introduce Cas to a girl, the angel nervously downs the beer in a gulp.

5.04 The End

Chuck gets YECs for himself and Becky.

Dean drinks a beer as Sam informs him by phone that Lucifer needs Sam as a vessel. Dean does not react favorably. He goes to sleep, and when he wakes up he finds himself four years in the future. He makes his way through a Croatoan blighted landscape to Camp Chitaqua, where he finds familiar faces, including his own. He also sees a future version of Castiel, a powerless angel who has come to enjoy drugs and alcohol, including absinthe.

5.09 The Real Ghostbusters

At a convention of fans for the Supernatural book series, bartenders are serving "Yellow-Eyed Coolers", bright yellow mixed drinks in tall glasses. Chuck gets one for Becky.

Crowley drinking his favorite type of alcohol - Craig.

5.10 Abandon All Hope...

The demon Crowley enjoys a tumbler of alcohol with lemon while waiting for Sam and Dean to reach him.

Later at Bobby's, Ellen challenges Castiel to a round of shots. Castiel downs five shots in quick succession, and suggests that he is "starting to feel something". The others stick with beer.

5.14 My Bloody Valentine

One of the victims of the week drank himself to death after Famine reignited his latent alcoholism.

At the end of the episode, Dean drinks whiskey from the bottle to deal with Sam's screaming in the panic room from demon blood withdrawal.

5.16 Dark Side of the Moon

Ash's Heaven is the Roadhouse, and it's fully stocked with beer. Ash shares one with Sam and Dean.

Ash's bar Heaven.

5.17 99 Problems

Sam and Dean stumble into a town full of hunters, and drink with the local bartender as they hear the details of the place. That is, until drinking is outlawed by supposed prophet Leah Gideon.

Later, Castiel appears in the brothers' hotel room in response to a voicemail from Sam. Sam quickly notices that something is amiss.

Castiel: I got your message. It was long, your message. And I find the sound of your voice grating.
Sam: What’s wrong with you? Are you…drunk?
Castiel: No!…Yes.
Sam: What the hell happened to you?
Castiel: I found a liquor store.
Sam: And?
Castiel: And I drank it.

A few hours afterward Cas seems to be suffering from a hangover. Dean gives him a bottle of aspirin, and advises him to take the whole thing.

Dean leaves suddenly at the end of the episode, and shows up on Lisa's doorstep. He tells her he is making arrangements for her and Ben so that they will be okay during the bad things coming. Lisa is scared and tries to persuade Dean to come inside for a beer. He turns her down.

5.18 Point of No Return

Zachariah takes another drink as Michael makes his presence known.

At the beginning of the episode, Zachariah is in a bar drinking. Another patron named Stewart strikes up a conversation with him. Zachariah reveals that he has been fired, and he clearly expects to die shortly. The blinding light and lethal sound of an archangel fills the bar; Michael offers Zachariah one last chance. Zachariah accepts. He fishes a piece of broken glass out of his drink and finishes it before leaving the bar full of corpses.

In the next scene, Dean drinks whiskey from the bottle as well as at least one glass as he pack his things and prepares to say 'yes' to Michael.

Like his brother, Adam is offered beer and burgers in the Green Room.

5.22 Swan Song

After Lucifer assumes control of Sam, Castiel suggests that Dean, Bobby, and he "imbibe copious quantities of alcohol and wait for the inevitable blast wave", as he sees no other options. Dean rejects the suggestion.

Once Lucifer is defeated, Dean keeps his promise to Sam and goes to Lisa's house. He asks if he can take her up on the beer she offered him in 5.17 99 Problems.

6.04 Weekend at Bobby's

Not long after the defeat of Lucifer, Bobby summons Crowley to negotiate the return of his soul. He offers the demon a drink, and is quickly turned down for not having his favorite brand of scotch. Crowley prefers Craig, aged thirty years, while Bobby has only rotgut, aged six days.

Crowley refuses to return Bobby's soul, and over the next year Bobby tries to find leverage against the demon. He realizes that based on his alcohol preference, Crowley was probably Scottish when human. He mentions his theory to Rufus, and begins to explain what Craig is when Rufus cuts him off:

Rufus: It's scotch. Only made and sold in a tiny area on the north tip of Kadenus county. It's pd in sharp the long finish of citrus and tobacco notes. Hey what- what am I a heathen? I know what Craig is.

Once he has his leverage, Bobby summons Crowley again. The demon looks worn. He pulls out a flask and a glass, pours himself a drink, and drops two antacid tablets in the liquor.

Note: Scottish breweries Glencraig and Craigellachie are south of Crowley's birthplace, and did not exist when he was human. He may be referring to a smaller, local brewer. Elijah Craig is also a brand of whiskey, but is American in origin.

6.06 You Can't Handle the Truth

Dean calls Castiel when he suspects an angelic weapon may be involved in a series of deaths. Castiel searches and finds no sign. Dean then asks him about Sam and his odd behavior. Cas insists that he has nothing to add. Dean has a glass, and Castiel picks up a nearby bottle to pour him another drink. He tells him he will make inquiries about Sam.

Dean is at a bar drinking when he accidentally invokes Veritas's truth curse. The bartender offers him another drink. Dean says he's working, then decides he could use another.

6.14 Mannequin 3: The Reckoning

Dean says that the best way to deal with the trauma of Hell is to "shove it down, and you let it come out in spurts of violence and alcoholism."

6.16 ...And Then There Were None

Rufus dies because of Eve's latest creation. Bobby, Sam, and Dean bury him. As an act of remembrance, Bobby pours some of Rufus's beloved Johnnie Walker Blue Label on to the grave, before having a drink himself.

6.17 My Heart Will Go On

Fate kills a man through a catastrophic chain of events just by moving his beer bottle.

It is an alternate universe, but Bobby is still grieving for Rufus, drinking more because of it. When Sam and Dean offer him coffee, he tells them to make it Irish. The brothers leave, but Ellen, Bobby's wife in this universe, arrives soon afterward. She comments that he smells like a bar, and orders him to take a shower. Later, he tries to get a beer from the fridge. She takes it from him and pours most of the bottle into the stew she's making, though she does take a swig herself.

6.18 Frontierland

Sent back in time by Castiel to locate Samuel Colt, the brothers stop in at the local saloon. Dean orders the "top shelf" whiskey. The bartender replies that he only has one shelf, and pours Dean a shot. Dean also orders Sam a sarsaparilla, much to Sam's embarrassment. Dean takes a swig of his drink and nearly chokes on the vile liquid. Sam on the other hand enjoys his sarsaparilla.

When Sam finds Samuel Colt, the hunter is drinking Rattlesnake brand whiskey.

6.19 Mommy Dearest

Dean decides on a back-up delivery system for the phoenix ashes that are Eve's only known weakness: he pours some of them into a shot of whiskey and drinks it down. He then taunts Eve until she bites him, and then dies from the ash in his blood.

6.21 Let It Bleed

Balthazar tells Sam and Dean that he "was drinking '75 Dom out of a soprano's navel when you called."

Bobby and Dean sharing a drink in Bobby's panic room.

6.22 The Man Who Knew Too Much

Trapped inside his own mind, Sam finds himself in a bar with an "El Sol" sign. The barmaid Robin is later revealed to be a projection of a woman he killed while he was soulless. Sam realizes that he is actually unconscious at Bobby's house because "This whole time, I've smelt nothing but Old Spice and whiskey." This knowledge enables him to put himself back together and wake up.

7.01 Meet the New Boss

Castiel's brief tenure as "god" provokes drinking from Crowley and from Dean. Crowley hides in a trailer drinking whiskey, but Castiel finds him there. Dean, after repairing the Impala, has resigned himself to the idea that there is nothing more that he can do to save the world. He drinks, and offers some to Sam.

7.02 Hello, Cruel World

Dean and Bobby have some of Johnny Labinski's Kentucky Whiskey after Sam tells them that he is having hallucinations of Lucifer.

Note: This appears to be an invented brand, possibly based on Johnny Drum Kentucky Whiskey.

7.03 The Girl Next Door

Young Sam says that his father drinks, and that he is not someone you want to be around when he does.

7.04 Defending Your Life

After going behind Sam's back to kill Amy Pond the Kitsune, Dean's drinking increases even further. When they find the victim of a case they are investigating was in A.A., Dean refuses to go to a meeting to investigate the case saying "A.A. gives me the jeebs." He later goes to a bar to speak to a witness, and orders a Scotch and Soda, but quickly changes his order to a double scotch. He downs at least three double scotches, only switching to beer when the bar tender indicates an interest in hooking up with him. Sam makes a few passing remarks and gives Dean some pointed looks about his drinking at this time, but doesn't directly challenge him on it.

7.05 Shut Up, Dr. Phil

Dean has been having nightmares, and when he wakes up alone in the brothers' motel room, he starts the morning with a few drinks. Sam comes back from running and challenges him on it. Dean slows down, but stops by a liquor store after questioning a witness. He is later drinking out of a flask, and Sam challenges him for drinking during a case. Dean counters that they are always on a case.

7.08 Season Seven, Time for a Wedding!

Garth uses blueberry vodka to draw a devil's trap in carpet. When Becky lures the crossroads demon Guy to the spot, she drops a lit lighter onto the carpet and it burns along the alcohol, trapping the demon.

7.11 Adventures in Babysitting

As Dean and Sam recover from their grief over Bobby's death, Dean has a beer that is seemingly full one moment and empty the next. He accuses Sam of drinking it, but Sam denies this and gestures to his own beer. He says that Dean must have finished it, although he doesn't remember drinking it. Dean also finds Bobby's hip flask in amongst Bobby's possessions.

7.12 Time After Time

Sam and Dean drink cans of Margiekugel from Wisconsin, a beer named after Production Designer Jerry Wanek's mom (see Leinenkugel).

Dean discovers that Eliot Ness, despite his role in the Prohibition Era, drinks from a flask.

Sam and Sheriff Jody Mills find a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue in one of the boxes from Bobby's Storage Unit. It has a note on it from Rufus, who reluctantly gave it to Bobby when he lost a bet to him. The sheriff suggests that they should drink it in memory of the two hunters, and Sam agrees, saying it would disrespectful not to.

7.13 The Slice Girls

Dean has taken to carrying and using Bobby's flask. He drinks from it in the brothers' stolen car while Sam drives. Later, he has a drink with a woman at the Cobalt Lounge, goes home with her, and leaves the flask at her house by accident. He stops by to retrieve it from her later, and discovers she is a monster.

7.18 Party On, Garth

Garth drunk after one beer.

A group of teens are telling ghost stories around a campfire, when one of them, Trevor McAnn throws and breaks a liquor bottle to scare the others. He is drunk, and the others yell at him for scaring them. Suddenly, he sees something that the other do not, and runs. His brother Ray finds him a few moments later, dead, a hole through his chest cavity.

Later, Ray returns to the woods with a gun. Drunk on Thighslapper alcohol, he sees a glimpse of what appears to be a dark haired girl. He too is killed.

Sam, Dean and Garth investigate, and discover the boys were the sons of Jim McAnn, one of the owners of the Midwestern Brewing Company, which produces Thighslapper Ale, Headspinner Amber Ale and Hardhead Imperial Stout. They go to the brewery to question him and his partner Randy Baxter. The two men had a third partner, Dale Lampert, who they forced out of the company. Dale later committed suicide, after sending his ex-partners an expensive bottle of saki.

At their motel, Sam, Dean and Garth sample bottles of Thighslapper. Garth chugs his bottle in moments, and ends up drunk, to Sam and Dean's amusement. As Dean is refilling his flask, Garth gets an sudden EMF reading from it. They then get a call that Jim McAnn's wife Lillian has been killed. Dean and Garth go to their house, and realize that Tess McAnn saw what happened to her mother. With some encouragement, and scaring from Mr Fizzles, Tess reveals that she saw a woman attack her mother, and that she accidentally drank some of her mom's grown-up drink, a screwdriver she mistook for her orange juice.

Dean realizes that they may be dealing with a creature that can only be seen by people who are drunk. As they drive back to the motel, Garth asks Dean about his flask. When Dean reveals that it belonged to Bobby, Garth speculates that Bobby may still be with them, based on the EMF, and tied to the flask. Dean discourages him, but Garth also tells Sam.

Dean getting drunk to try to see a Shojo.

While they were at the McAnn house, Sam was speaking to Dale's widow, who says that being forced out of the company he co-founded, Dale felt like he had lost his child. The hunters decide that Dale may be taking revenge on his partners, and that it is connected to the bottle of saki he sent. They break into the brewery and find that the saki has been opened. They cue up security camera footage, and see the janitor opening the bottle, but nothing else. To see if the creature is on the film, Sam and Dean get drunk in the office. She on the footage, but as they see her they are interrupted by Randy Baxter. Garth tases him, and they tie him up at the motel room.

Sam and Dean take the box the saki came in to a Japanese chef, who read the inscription for them. The saki bottle contained a shojo, who Dale has sent to attack the families of the men who wronged him. Sam goes to watch the surviving children of Jim, while Dean tries to find a sword to kill it. Garth, left with Randy, talks to him and realizes that Randy has an unacknowledged child - the janitor. He grabs the contents of the motel mini-bar and heads to the brewery. He calls Dean when he is there, and drunk, and tells him the shojo is there. Dean phones Sam and orders him to the brewery. Already intoxicated to watch the other children, Sam takes a cab to the brewery.

Sam arrives after Garth is knocked out, and tries to protect the janitor. Dean arrives, but is too sober to see the shojo. Sam directs him, but the sword is knocked out of Dean's hands. Something returns it to him, and Dean kills the creature.

8.01 We Need to Talk About Kevin

When Dean and Sam meet again after a year, there is the ritual checking that that are both human and not in any way possessed, then the hug and then the talk which coincides with Dean going straight for the fridge and getting two beers out, one for himself and one for Sam. This is done without even asking Sam, just an action that is normal to Dean - a beer for him and a beer for his brother.

8.05 Blood Brother

Dean and Sam break into a hotel room hoping to find Kevin, but Kevin has played them yet again. After it's Clear that Kevin is not there, the first thing Dean does is head to the mini-bar to get a couple of beers out; one for him and one for Sam.

8.06 Southern Comfort

Dean and Sam meet up with Garth again for the first time in over a year. They start working on a hunt together and while Dean and Garth are sitting at a motel table researching Garth reaches for a beer, Dean stops him from taking it before saying:

Dean: Easy there, flyweight. Last time you drank a beer, I had to pick you up off the floor.

8.07 A Little Slice of Kevin

Dean is out on a beer and snack run when he first see's Castiel walking down the side of the road.

8.08 Hunteri Heroici

Fred Jones was an old contact of John Winchester's. When Sam asks Dean if he remembers a Fred Jones, Dean replies:

Dean: Yeah, that guy gave me my first beer. I don't even think I was double digits.

Later in a flashback Sam and Stan Thompson (Amelia's father) bond over beers, as Amelia is taking a phone-call about her supposed deceased husband Don.

8.09 Citizen Fang

In a flashback Sam is sitting drinking beer in a bar when Don Richardson (Amelia's husband) walks in and they meet for the first time. After Dean texts Sam pretending to be Amelia, Sam drives back to check on her, only to find here and her husband drinking beers together. Sam goes back to the original bar where he met Don and has a drink (beer) when he turns to leave Amelia is standing behind him.

8.10 Torn and Frayed

After Dean says goodbye to Benny, he is seen sitting in Rufus's cabin, supposedly waiting for Sam to hopefully turn up after choosing him over Amelia and a normal life. After a quick cut to Amelia turning up to hers and Sams meeting point alone, Sam comes into shot next to Dean with two beers. Sam places the beers on the table and Dean picks one up, opens it and hands it to Sam, then opens his own. They look at each other, Sam nods and then take a swig of beer at the same time. Neither of them say a word, but it is a case of actions speak louder than words, the brothers sharing a beer together means a lot.

Sam and Dean having a drink in the Men of Letters Bunker.

8.13 Everybody Hates Hitler

Dean spots Aaron across the bar, he has a fruity drink with a pink umbrella in it. When Dean looks up Aaron waves at him suggestively. They have an awkward conversation that Dean later recounts as "his gay thing."

Dean and Sam are in the Bunker after the hunt, Dean goes to the fridge and gets out a couple of beers, however after Sam tells him that he is filling out one of the MoL files on the hunt, Dean changes his mind and goes for the decanter on the bookcase instead. Dean and Sam sit at the table, both with expensive glasses of scotch, they each tilt their glass at the other. Then Sam goes back to working and Dean sighs contentedly.

Meg has a drink while Castiel tends to her wounds.

8.17 Goodbye Stranger

Meg seems to have had enough of being helpful to Sam and Dean while in the Morton's basement. She exclaims:

Meg: Figure it out, genius. Is there any booze in this dump?

Later we see Meg sitting upstairs drinking the liquor straight from the bottle as Castiel is tending her wounds during the "Megstiel" moment.

8.20 Pac-Man Fever

Dean enters the Bunker and places beers on the table, he opens one for himself, just as Sam wanders in looking very sleepy, Dean throws a beer for Sam to catch but Sam fails to react and it smashes on the floor leading to the following line from Dean:

Dean: That's why we don't have nice things, Sam.

8.22 Clip Show

Dean serves Sam some food, which consists of a half-drunk beer, jerky, and three peanut-butter cups, he explains that they are running low on supplies.

While they are out, and presumably to try and make amends, Castiel attempts to go shopping for the brothers; one of the first things he grabs is a 6 pack of beer.

When Dean and Sam manage to put Abaddon back together Dean states:

Dean: It worked, you owe me a beer!

8.23 Sacrifice

Sheriff Jody Mills is nervously waiting to meet her date, (which turns out to be Crowley) she is given a glass of red wine on the house from the waitress that obviously knows her.

Kevin has taken to drinking alcohol, while he is explaining about how it is impossible to translate the angel tablet he is pouring himself and alcoholic drink. Which is later smashed on the floor after Castiel grabs him and gives him a strongly worded pep talk.

Dean is sitting at the Bar, keeping at eye on their target. Castiel joins him at the bar and they have the following conversation:

Dean: Free drinks. Your, uh, buddy over there thinks you saved his life.

Castiel: Do you really think it's wise to be drinking on the job?

Dean: What show you been watching?

9.13 The Purge

Following the falling out between Sam and Dean in both 9.10 Road Trip and 9.12 Sharp Teeth Dean's drinking seems to have picked up again. In the beginning of the episode, he is seen sitting alone in the kitchen of the bunker drinking whiskey while researching. Sam enters and asks, "Did you go to bed last night?" To which Dean responded he hadn't, leading us to believe he's falling into old habits of drinking excessively and not sleeping. At the end of the episode, we find him in the same place, and at the end of he and Sam's next conversation, he remains in the kitchen while Sam goes to bed, and the vicious cycle of not sleeping and drinking continues.

9.21 King of the Damned

When Abaddon arrives at Crowley's penthouse in Cleveland, she helps herself to a martini while threatening Crowley.

Trivia

• According to Jared and Jensen at the William S. Paley Television Festival 2006, the prop master Chris Cooper makes fake beer labels for them to use:

Jared: The funny thing about the beers, our prop master Chris Cooper, he is… the beer labels are always fake labels that usually have to do something with the city we’re filming. Like in Texas, it will be Lone Star Lager, in Minnesota it would be Timberwolf Ale. But we are Texas boys.

• From The French Mistake pop-up trivia:
  • The beer bottle labels are individually made by the Art department and then attached by the Props Department
  • The alcohol they drink on set is tea.

• The most commonly seen fictional beer on the show is El Sol.

• During 7.12 Time After Time Sam and Dean drink Margiekugel beer from Wisconsin, which is named after Production Designer Jerry Wanek's mom.

See also

• Purple Nurple

External links

• Dean and Drinking a picspam by smilla02
• lsketch42's Official Supernatural Drinking Game