The holidays are a great time to wind down relax and have fun. Its not uncommon that alcohol is a plenty around the holidays. Whether its at a restaurant setting, a wedding ceremony, a business event, a staff function or a party, alcohol is bound to be served for its role as a social lubricant. It helps to bring life to the event and ensures everyone has a great time. If you intend to host an event where alcohol is on the menu, its important that your bartenders or whoever is in charge of serving alcohol do so in a manner that ensures the safety of your guests as well as your establishment.

There are risks to serving alcohol. Being responsible by adopting safe ways to serve can help mitigate these risks. For starters never ever be tempted to serve alcohol to an underage person. Children and teenagers below the legal age should have a kid friendly non-alcoholic beverage at hand to help them feel special and part of the event.

Start to serve food at the beginning of an event. An empty stomach will not go down well with the guests who will actually be drinking. Food, especially one that is high in fat and protein helps to slow down movement of alcohol to the small intestine and onward absorption to the blood stream. You don’t have to provide anything elaborate for food at the beginning. A few appetizers will do. A little food and a cup of coffee at the end will also help.

Gauge whether any of your guests are intoxicated. You have been serving alcohol for a while now. Its a good idea to check from time to time if your guests are alright or starting to get tipsy. A cool way to do this is by counting drinks. To do this correctly you have to know how much alcohol each drink you serve contains. Once you have this info keep tabs on the volume of drinks each of your guests has had. You can also estimate their blood alcohol concentration.By counting drinks and estimating the weight of your guest, you can get a rough idea of their blood alcohol concentration. Do not over serve your guest if you feel they have had enough.

Monitor the behavior of your guests. Have a chat with your guests and observe any changes in physical or behavioral mannerisms. keep an eye out for relaxed inhibitions, impaired motor coordination, weakened judgement and reduced time reaction time. Serving water to guests with these signs may be helpful. Also try to serve one drink at a time to guests. This helps to pace their drinking.

At an event with a bar, limit the number of hours the bar is open. Consider closing the bar at a reasonable time to signal the culmination of the event. A reasonable time maybe about an hour to the end of the occasion. This allows those who have had a little too much time to sober up before they are on their way.

Offer to drop guests home or have a taxi service on speed dial. Despite your best of efforts, someone is always bound to overindulge. Be sure to do your part to ensure there safety plus the safety of other road users. Avoid a scenario where any of your guests goes drunk driving at all costs.

Inquire about getting a professional bartender or catering service that can take care of the alcohol for your event. This helps you not have to worry about your guests knowing there are pros keeping a tab on things.