A drinking session in AlcoLog is one continuous run of drinks with a start time and an end time. You start the timer when you pour your first drink and end it when you stop drinking. Every drink in between is logged to that session. This walkthrough takes you from a freshly installed app to your first finished session.
# Step 1. Open the app
The Home screen opens on the session card. Its header reads Start a Session, the big timer reads 00:00:00, and underneath it says Tap below to begin tracking. Below that is the Start Session button, and under it a small link, Forgot to track? Tap here to add a past session, for nights you did not log at the time (see how to add a past session).
Below the card, a first-time user sees No sessions yet. Once you have logged a session, that space shows your last session’s timeline instead, followed by your alerts, quotes and notes.
At the very top, under the AlcoLog wordmark, are two small icons: a chart for Tracking Mode and a leaf for Sober Mode. Tracking Mode is the one this tutorial covers. If Sober Mode is on, Home shows your alcohol-free day count instead and drinking sessions are switched off (Siri’s drink commands tell you so too); see how to use Sober Mode.
# Step 2. Start the session
Tap Start Session. The timer starts running, the header changes to SESSION ACTIVE · Started with the start time, and a stats line appears below the timer: drinks 🍻, units µ, calories 🔥 and cost 💰, all at zero.
The card now holds three buttons: a green + Add Drink, a blue 💧 Add Water / Soft Drink, and a red End Session.
You don’t have to do anything else to record that you’re drinking. The timer is enough. Adding individual drinks is the next step.
# Step 3. Log your first drink
Tap + Add Drink. The Add Drink sheet slides up, laid out in three numbered sections on one scrolling page.
1. What are you drinking? Pick a type from the grid: Beer & Cider, Wine & Champagne, Cocktail & Liqueur, or Spirits & Seltzers. A row of styles appears under it (for beer, Beer or Cider; for wine, Red, White, Rosé, Sparkling and Fortified & Dessert). The Current Selection row below starts on a generic drink such as Generic Beer; tap it to choose a specific brand, varietal or cocktail from the built-in catalog, which fills in its ABV and calories for you.
2. How much? Under Size, a row of chips filters the list by region or container (All, UK, USA, Europe, Australia, Asia, Cans, Bottles and more). It opens on your own region, with a sensible size already selected, for example UK Pint (568ml). If your pour isn’t listed, use the Custom size row at the bottom of the list: type the volume and tap the unit to switch between ml and fl oz. Under Values, the ABV %, Calories and Cost per Drink fields are pre-filled and editable. The cost starts from typical bar prices in your currency; if AlcoLog has no price table for your currency, Cost per Drink starts empty so you can type what you paid. A summary shows the units, calories and cost of this drink. Edits here apply to this drink only, except that an ABV you correct after a barcode scan is remembered for that barcode.
3. When & where? Time defaults to now; tap it if you’re logging a drink a little late. Location tags the drink with a place: tap Set Location. If you haven’t allowed location access yet, the button reads Allow; if you turned it off, Settings takes you to the iOS Settings app to switch it back on.
When you’re done, tap the button at the bottom, which is named after your drink, for example Log Beer 🍺. The sheet closes, a short confirmation appears on Home, and the stats line updates.
The camera icon at the top right of the sheet opens the photo, menu and barcode scanners; see how to use the barcode and photo scanners.
# Step 4. Add another drink
After your first drink, a new button appears on the session card under + Add Drink, named after what you just had: + Another Beer 🍺, or the brand name if you picked one (+ Another Guinness 🍺). One tap logs the same drink again, same size, ABV and cost, with no sheet to fill in.
If you order something different, use + Add Drink instead and pick again. For drinks you have regularly, favorites put them one tap away at the top of the Add Drink sheet.
Soft drinks and water go through 💧 Add Water / Soft Drink, which logs them without adding units.
With Premium, you can also log a drink by voice (for example “Add a beer in AlcoLog”), and it joins the running session like one logged here; see Siri and Shortcuts.
# Step 5. Watch the session timeline build
As you log drinks, a SESSION chart appears below the session card. It groups your drinks into time slots, colored by drink type, so you can see your pace at a glance. Tap the interval label at the top right of the chart (1h intervals to start with) to cycle through 15, 30 and 45-minute slots.
Under the chart, a row shows LAST DRINK: with its time, and Edit Drinks on the right. Tap that row to open your session’s drink list, where each drink has a pencil to edit it and an X to delete it. This is how you fix a drink logged at the wrong time, or one you logged twice by accident. How to edit or delete a drink or session covers it in detail.
# Step 6. End the session
When you’ve stopped drinking for the night, tap the red End Session button. The timer stops and the totals lock in. The card goes back to Start a Session, and the session you just finished stays on Home below the card, as its chart plus totals for drinks, units, calories, amount spent and duration (headed LAST SESSION once the resume window below has passed). It is also saved to History.
If you tap End Session too soon, you can pick up where you left off. For an hour after a session ends, the card shows how long is left to resume it (for example 42m 10s left to resume last session). Tap Start Session in that time and the app asks Resume or Start New?: choose Resume Last Session to carry on with all your drinks intact, or Start New Session for a fresh one. The one-hour window is the default; you can change it, or turn it off, under Settings > Session Control > Resume window.
That’s the whole loop: one tap to start, a couple of taps for the first drink, one tap for each repeat, one tap to end.
# What’s next
The next tutorial covers editing a drink after you’ve logged it: changing the size, fixing the time, swapping the brand, or deleting it entirely. After that, building your favorites so your usual drinks are one tap away.