Jerry, I had always heard it as whiskey before beer, you're in the clear. Beer before whiskey is always risky.

Your post reminded me of one of my favorite teachers. She was an English teacher. One morning she came into the classroom, not looking well. She placed her books and briefcase on the table in front of the room and sat down. When class started, she, in a very soft voice, said, "I'm only going to teach you one thing this morning. If you start drinking beer stay with beer. If you start drinking champagne stay with champagne. Don't switch part way through the evening.

Now, anyone making what I think is an excessive amount of noise leaving the room will fail this semester. The class is dismissed".

35 of us tiptoed out of the room. Admittedly, she did have a flair for the dramatic, as she had recently returned from a sabbatical during which she studied Shakespeare in London. I took an inordinate number of English classes just because she was teaching them.
--Bob

I had never heard this expression, but drinking beer and then wine will not safe you from a hangover.

"We all know the old adage: “beer before wine and you’ll feel fine; wine before beer and you’ll feel queer,” and now it’s been rigorously tested by 90 volunteers. Scientists have concluded that drinking beer before wine won’t save you from a hangover, and that any combination of beer then wine, wine then beer, only beer or only wine results in the same hangover intensity. Kai Hensel at the University of Cambridge, UK, says the sayings about beer before wine originated in medieval times, when drinks and hygiene conditions were very different, so they might once have been true."