"bibulous" might be possible as well, since it has the element of "drinking" already included.

I know this is a correct way of translating the German, but as an AE speaker, I have NEVER EVER EVER heard anyone saying this in my entire life. Not to mention "bibulous". Bibu who? :)

So what would we native speakers say in a natural, colloquial way?

@ daisy duck , if you want to know, we say: " Man, we really warmed up the ice cubes last night!"

@Helmi: Interesting. I've never heard that one.

It just occurred to me that we used to say later about some parties that "alcohol was definitely NOT in short supply" or "the booze was flowing". I guess the German means the same.

Well, Helmi ist not really U.S.
You could say "he or we really tied one on last night"

Hey....donald, I've been looking for you. Guess you were out last night tying one on!

Actually, though, to tie one on means to get drunk (as you can attest to). I didn't think the German "feuchtfröhlich" actually implied getting drunk. But this could be splitting hairs....or feathers even.

@daisy duck: May be you've never heard it, but may be there are some Germans who've never heard "feuchtfröhlich".
Concerning "Bibu who?", that reminds me of a scene in British TV:

Young man: "Excuse me, have you ever read 'Pygmalion'?"
Young woman: "Pig whooo?" :-)

I'm shy around female ducks, as you well know (and I definitely avoid them late at nigh after having tied one on!)
I guess you're right though - the part where you get merry (fröhlich) is missing.

Sigh. Yes, donald, I'm aware you're shy. And when you tie one on, you really get tongue-tied. No more booze for you!

@ Reinhard W.: I didn't mean that I didn't know the word "bibulous". I merely meant that I do not believe that this is a word we AE native speakers would normally use when casually talking about a "feuchtfröhlich" evening. The register is much too high.

@ donald duck , well, where did you get that idea. We create pithy phrases over here all the time, which you might not have even heard yet. But eventually, as they frequently do, they get sucked up.

"bibulous" (excessively fond of drinking alcolhol = trunksüchtig) is rather formal. The AHD has "a bibulous fellow" and "a bibulous evening". Like @daisy duck,, I haven't come accross it in daily conversation. Anyone with Latin 100 to his scholastic glory, might recall "Nunc est bibendum and use "bibulous" epideictically.
"The New (1965???) Wildhagen German Dictionary " gives "a jollification" for "ein feuchtfröhlicher Abend" and for "ein feuchfröhliches Fest" = "a drunken frolic."

@Hajo: my hat is off to you! A sentence with "bibulous" and "epideictically" consecutively! (But no extra points will be given just because "epideictically" is self-referential.)