美国的酒大致可分为啤酒、鸡尾酒、威士忌和葡萄酒。啤酒有淡啤酒和浓啤酒之别；包装采用瓶装、听装和壶装。鸡尾酒和“混合饮料”含有很浓的酒精成分，饮用方式一般有加冰和不加冰两种，其配制方式各种各样。威士忌也是一种烈性酒，而且呈油状，分为黑麦威士忌和苏格兰威士忌。葡萄酒分为红、白两种，但值得注意的是：标有“Chablis”商标的葡萄酒并非法国所产的无甜味的白葡萄酒，而是美国加利弗尼亚州生产的白葡萄酒，该酒在美国享有盛誉。

American beer, with very few exceptions, varies from the mediocre（普通的）to the terrible. There are not many types of beer in the US—"light" and "dark" are two terms commonly used.

It is therefore normal to order beer simply by brand name. In a restaurant, in fact, it is quite all right to order "a beer", and they will tell you what they have.

It is not necessary, either, to specify quantity when ordering beer. If it comes in bottles or cans, you will get a bottle or can, and if it's "on tap"（可以随时取用的） you will get a glass, unless you order a "pitcher"（有嘴和柄的大酒罐 i.e.a jug）. The latter is very convenient thing to do, since you can then take the jug and glasses to your table and keep filling up without going back to the bar. （It is harder, however, to know how much you have drunk.）

Some beer comes in bottles with tops that look as if they need an opener, but you can, in fact, screw（拧开） them off by hand—though you have to be very careful not to hurt yourself. It is possible, in some stores and bars, to find a wide selection of beer from all over the world, especially Western Europe and Australia, and it is good fun to experiment with these.

Cocktails and "mixed drinks" are much more popular and rather stronger in the USA than in Europe, and visitors may not be familiar with some of the terminology（术语）. "On the rocks", as you probably know, means with ice, while "straight up" or "up" means neat and without ice.

There are hundreds of different cocktails, and there is no space here to list all the different names.

In America "whiskey" means bourbon（一种烈性威士忌酒，最初为美国肯塔基州Bourbon地区所产） unless otherwise indicated. Bourbon is a rather oily spirit made from maize（玉米）. Rye（黑麦威士忌酒） whiskey is called "rye" and Scotch whiskey "Scotch".

In bars wine can often be bought by the glass. Don't be misled by names such as "Chablis" is used to refer to white wine, and "Burgundy" to red—Americans seem never to have heard of white Burgundy.

在美国及各州、市、县对饮酒都制定了相关的法律。顾客要饮酒必须达到法定的年龄，一般规定在18至21岁以上。顾客进酒吧时，常需接受保安人员对其年龄进行核实。此时，只需出示自己的驾照或其他有效证件即可，因为这些证件上注有持证人的出生日期。

It is difficult to give a description of American laws concerning alcohol because they vary from state to state and city to city. The following, though, may be noted.

Some towns, even state are totally is sold at all except that they allow the sale of very weak （3.2 percent alcohol） beer, known as "three-two" beer. Some places do not allow the sale of alcohol on Sundays, even in shops—you may find a bar locked over the alcohol shelves. You can see it but not buy it! Other places permit alcohol to be sold on Sunday afternoons and evenings, but not on Sunday mornings. （Note that this means sales have to stop at midnight on Saturday.）In many parts of America, you are not allowed to drink alcohol in a public place.That is, you may not sit in a parkor walk along a street drinking beer, and you cannot even take a nice bottle of wine on your picnic. In some places, people can be seen taking drinks in public places from cans wrapped in brown-paper bags. These are not cans of Coca-Cola. And in many states you are not allowed to drink alcohol while driving, or even have an opened alcohol container in the car. Some bars have a license（执照）only for beer and wine. Others are also allowed to sell spirits（烈性酒）and thus, as Americans say, "mixed drinks".

Many bars have a period known as "happy hour", often longer than an hour, when they sell drinks at lower-than-usual prices. This is usually around 5 p.m. and may be only on certain days of the week.

Legal drinking age varies from place to place but is generally between 18 to 21. Some places permit the consumption（消费）of beer at 18 but spirits only at 21. Others permit the consumption only of "three-two" beer from 18 to 21. （Young people therefore often drive from one place to another with more liberal drinking laws.） In any case, in some parts of the USA young people are allowed to vote, marry, raose children, keep full-time jobs, be tried in courts as adults, join the army and even buy guns—but NOT have a glass of beer. In some places people aged between 18 to 21 are allowed to go into bars but not allowed to drink.Another even more interesting aspect of American drinking-age laws is that in some places people below legal drinking age are not even allowed to sell alcohol.

In most places these drinking laws are fairly rigidly enforced（严格地实施）. You may, for example, find people lining up to get into a bar and discover that the queue is caused by a guard on the door who is asking everybody for ID（身份证）. If you ask him why he wants to know who you are, he will inform you that he actually wants confirmation（确认） of how old you are. On such occasions Americans often show their driving licenses, which have their date of birth written on them.