Abstract Ethanol administration in hamsters altered glucose metabolism in the brain, resulting in increased glucose content and decreased incorporation of labeled carbon from 14C-glucose into the amino acids derived via the citric acid cycle and into lactate. In general, amino acid content of the brain changed little after ethanol, but there was a significant decrease in aspartate and an increase in glutamine. These changes in glucose and amino acid metabolism are enhanced by increasing ethanol doses. However, they seem to be an indirect effect of ethanol, since they do not appear until 20–30 min after ethanol injection, despite high blood ethanol levels throughout this period.