How long does it take for alcohol to leave your blood?

The length of time after you finish drinking alcohol that it will still be in your system depends on how much you drank and the period of time in consideration. Generally speaking, people metabolize alcohol at the rate of 1/2 ounce per hour (that's half an ounce of absolute alcohol -- or one "standard" drink) -- roughly equivalent to: 12 ounces of beer, 10 ounces of microbrew, 6 ounces of wine cooler (or hard lemonade), 1-1/4 ounces of 80-proof liquor or 4 ounces of wine. Therefore, if you consume three standard drinks -- regardless of how long it took you to drink them -- it would take you three hours to be completely free of alcohol. This should hopefully make it apparent that alcohol builds up in your body over time because the liver can only metabolize one an hour. That's why it is dangerous for people to "chug" alcohol or play drinking games. If you consume large quantities of alcohol in a short period of time, you can quickly get a toxic or lethal dose in your blood stream. Unfortunately, once it is absorbed from the gut (which occurs relatively quickly), there's nothing you can do to "get rid" of the alcohol except wait for it to be metabolized by the liver.