How Do You Run a Power Hour?

Check your beer supply. You are going to want enough beer to accommodate 7.5 beers per participant. Get 1 shot glass per player Get a Watch or Use the Timer Function on your Smartphone to loop in 1 minute increments. Or, just call out DRINK every time it passes the next minute.

Power Hour

Q: What is the Centurion?

The Centurion is a next level power hour. It adds 40 more minutes to the total time, raising the power hour to 100 minutes even. For those keeping score at home, that's another 60 ounces. Or, 5 more beers. Completing a Centurion results in you drinking over 12 beers. This will cause most everyone to checkout for the rest of the night. Do not leave the house if you are going to attempt a Centurion.

The Drinking Game of the Gods, Power Hour is a 1 Hour Compounding Black-Out.

Written by DP | Updated Oct 27 2022

A handful of shot glasses filled with beer to play the Power Hour drinking game with — Power Hour

What is a Power Hour?

Power Hour is a drinking game that involves players taking one shot of beer every 60 seconds for 60 minutes. That's the simplest way to describe it, one shot, one minute, one hour. That's par for the course for Wade Boggs. That's it. There are no other rules to the standard power hour. There are suggestions on how to conduct one, but no other standard rules.

Drinking games (DGs) are a fixture of the college social scene with 50 to 62% of students reported having played DGs in the past. So you can see, kids have been ripping power hours for their 21st birthday for ages. The only difference now is that those same college kids are trending on social media for their epic drinking escapades. But that's besides the point.

The Power Hour used to be a total pro move. In this case, the pro is for probably, not professional. As in, probably going to get you absolutely black-out drunk. As in, you should probably stay home and not leave the house/apartment/dorm room.

One thing you shouldn't do is conduct a power hour during the Super Bowl. It would be very, very bad to cross the streams, considering how powerful that drinking game is.

How to Play the Power Hour Drinking Game

Check your beer supply. You are going to want enough beer to accommodate 7.5 beers per participant.
Get 1 shot glass per player.
Get a Watch or Use the Timer Function on your Smartphone to loop in 1 minute increments. Or, just call out DRINK every time it passes the next minute.

Power Hour Playlist Ideas

You could make a playlist worth of 1 minute songs drink during the song change. It's ok to use your smartphone for playing the songs. But to be fair, we'd recommend a bluetooth sound bar or, most preferably, a boombox.

There is even a musical artist, Ali Spagnola, who wrote an entire album dedicated to the almighty power hour. The album is comprised of 60 one-minute songs that are all about drinking, songs like Jesus Loves Power Hours, This Frat Sucks, Bar Fight, and This Song Drunk.

Should you need inspiration to pull off a rock power hour, you need only turn to Barney Stinson's Get Psyched Mix CD from the hit show, "How I Met Your Mother". Barney feathers in layers of hair metal from start to finish. Hard not to get up for an hour of drinking to the likes of Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, and Van Halen.

In many ways, conducting a Power Hour is a lot like listening to Roxanne or Thunderstruck.

Themes

Here's a random sample of variations on the Power Hour.

Dubstep Power Hour
Hip-Hop Power Hour (DMX, Run DMC, Dre & Snoop)
Rock Power Hours (70s, 80s, 90s)

Tow girls and a guy checking his watch to know when the next minute is up so they can drink — Sure, you can Power Hour with Champagne if you like

Power Hour Drinking Game FAQs

How many beers are in a Power Hour?

A standard shot is equal to 1.5 ounces. Or, approximately 44 mls, if you're into the metric system, or, you're running a power hour in Europe.

A standard beer is equal to 12 ounces. Or, approximately 355 mls.

Per the power hour rules of one shot per minute, that would mean you would consume 90 ounces of beer in one hour. This works out to be 7.5 beers consumed in one single power hour session.

For many, many people, that is a heroic amount of beer to consume.

How do you survive a Power Hour? Why is it so dangerous?

A power hour is dangerous because of the sheer volume of alcohol you consume in a short period of time. It is, by the very definition, binge drinking. This is not the same as casually sipping on 7.5 beers over the course of a three and a half hour Red Sox / Yankees game. No, a power hour hits you like a left hook from Iron Mike Tyson.

Your ability to metabolize alcohol will determine how well you can survive a power hour. Other factors include:

Fatigue
Food
Illness
Medications
Tolerance

Disclaimer: party at your own risk. You should know your own limits. If the rules described above sound too ambitious, don't play the power hour drinking game.

In 2004, a 21 year old, Jason Reinhardt, died from participating in a Power Hour. Unfortunately, Jason took the concept of Power Hour even more literally, trying to consume 21 standard drinks in an hour. A shot of beer has a fraction of the alcohol that a shot of hard liquor does. That's what makes a Power Hour even remotely possible (for those with a high tolerance to intoxication).

YOU MUST NEVER DO THIS! We are only putting this here as warning to anyone that may consider high levels of consumption. Stop and use water.

What is the Centurion?

The Centurion, or Century Club, is a next level power hour. It adds 40 more minutes to the total time, raising the power hour to 100 minutes even. For those keeping score at home, that's another 60 ounces. Or, 5 more beers.

Completing a Centurion results in you drinking over 12 beers. This will cause most everyone to checkout for the rest of the night. Do not leave the house if you are going to attempt a Centurion.

This is the level that Andre the Giant drinks at.

Can you do a Double Power Hour?

We strongly suggest not. If you want to do a double power hour, which, by the way, is more than the Centurion/Century Club, drink half shots of per minute and not full. That will equate to the same amount as a traditional power hour, only spread out over more time.

What is the Jimmy Timmy Power Hour?

We have no idea. Next.