Originally posted by Francophonerobert (Posted in the 'Lena' thread) -



That was a question that I had, Marbella. How many units are there in a 12 ounce of beer with an ABV ( alcohol by volume) of 5%?

francophone


I think it varies slightly from country to country- the beer I drink is also a 12 ounce bottle, it is 5.4% ABV.

According to this site, http://www.cleavebooks.co.uk/scol/ccalcoh2.htm my beers are 1.78 units of alcohol- but that is in the UK- if I then go the International calculator in Spain (where I live) my beer becomes 1.42 units.

I have just seen in the US that same beer counts as only one unit, so it is a bit confusing- seeing as I very rarely drink anything else, I thought it easier to just count drinks:)
As long as we have a reliable chart to log our progress I think that is the most important thing here.


The link for the International Calculator is below:

http://www.cleavebooks.co.uk/scol/ccalcoh3.htm

Since this isn't a horse race, I think the most important thing is that you use a consistant set of metrics. The only winner is yourself.

What we are tracking is progress and hopefully reduction.

If a unit is the same as a "standard drink", which is the term used here in the land down under, then it should be 10 grams of ethanol (alcohol). Here in Oz our bottles and cans have to be labelled by law to show how many standard drinks they contain. One 375 mL bottle/can of full-strength beer contains 1.4 standard drinks, which sounds to like your example of one bottle. One 700 mL bottle of spirits, at 37 percent alcohol, contains about 21 standard drinks. I hope this may be of some help.

Hi all, sure I am being VERY dim here, but would like some help calculating units (have tried websites, but keep coming up with diff. results?!)

Anway, how do I calculate units of 12% white wine?? Thinking that 1.25 bottles is approx 12 units - am I way off?

Afraid maths was never my strong suit.

Ta

Assuming you are not drinking MadDog, 3 oz of wine is normally condiered a drink and is the same as a can of beer or one shot (1.25 oz) of ~90 proof liquor.

I do think the most important thing is to chart your progress. Whatver units you use, be sure to stay consistant.

It really doesn't matter as long as you are consistent. As SR points out, we are using units to measure progress. Just pick a site, print out the summary of units by beverage, and run with it. Here is one: http://www.neraf.org/2sensible.html

The main thing is to be consistent with how you calculate units so the results make sense to you.

I don't exactly measure units, but more or less estimate them. It's difficult, for example, to pour yourself 1 unit of wine, but easy to guess how many units your drank from a 10unit bottle of wine (e.g., 1/2 bottle = 5 units).

I think I may be able to shed some light on why there are different results when trying to calculate units of alcohol...and sorry if I sound like a smart-a**. I'm not an expert, just a person who has been interested in science at times during my life.

It seems that there are two different ways of defining what a basic unit of alcohol is. One method is by volume; this method regards 10 mL of pure alcohol as one "unit". The other method is by weight; this method regards 10 grams of pure alcohol is one "standard drink". Here in Australia the standard drink method is used, and all our bottles, cans, casks, and other alcohol containers are actually labelled with how many standard drinks they contain. However, it appears that some (or most) other countries use the "unit" method. This would not be a problem if we were trying to calculate how much WATER was in a drink, since 10 mL and 10 grams of water are the same thing, but unfortunately 10 mL of ALCOHOL (ETHANOL) does NOT weigh 10 grams! It actually weighs only 7.89 grams, since alcohol is a "lighter" liquid than water (technically, alcohol has a "specific gravity" of 0.789). Looking at it the other way around, 10 grams of alcohol takes up 12.67 mL of space. I think this difference between mL and grams for alcohol is what causes differing results when trying to calculate a standard amount.

The link posted by Q seems to be spot-on in finding how many units are in a drink, and the link to an international calculator posted earlier by marbella should work for any country if you want to find the number of units. For those interested in doing the calculation yourself, do it as follows:

1) To find the number of units (10 mL amounts) of alcohol in a drink, multiply the total volume (in mL) by the percentage of alcohol by volume (ABV or % alc/vol) and divide the result by 1,000. For example, if you had a 700 mL bottle of vodka that was 37.5 % alc/vol (ABV) in strength, 700 multiplied by 37.5 equals 26,250, and 26,250 divided by 1,000 is 26.25, so the bottle contains 26.25 units of alcohol.

2) If you/your country uses standard drinks (10 gram amounts) of alcohol instead, then just do the calculation in step 1 above to find the number of units, and multiply the number of units by 0.789 (roughly 0.8). Using the above example of the bottle of vodka, 26.25 units multiplied by 0.789 equals 20.71, so the bottle contains 20.71 standard drinks. To convert standard drinks to units, multiply them by 1.267 (roughly 1.25).

As has been pointed out, it doesn't matter which way you measure the alcohol, just as long as you always use the same method, so you can see how your alcohol intake is changing over time.

Thanks Greg - very thorough. How are you doing?

MM says a bottle of wine is five drinks .
Dr E's book says 6,5
If the wine is 12 percent it would make 9 units . So any total in units would be higher.
Units I first saw in the eighties . Not all countries have them .
So be consistant for your self and also your readers .
With any luck this post should figure my first signature which I'll comment on.

Thanks for asking shasha, I'm doing well within the medical restrictions that affect my situation.

Elfern, the number of units will always be greater than the number of standard drinks, for every type of alcoholic drink. Dr Eskapa couldn't really give an exact number of units or standard drinks for a bottle of wine, because a bottle may not always be the same size, and different wines have different strengths (percentage alcohol by volume). I know that most bottles of wine are 750 mL, but the different wines can still vary in strength (from 8 to 14 percent).