Find the real cost of an alcoholic drink — price per standard drink, total alcohol content, and how many drinks per dollar you're actually getting.
What it means
In the US, one standard drink contains 14 grams of pure alcohol — that's about a 12 oz beer at 5%, a 5 oz glass of wine at 12%, or a 1.5 oz shot of 40% spirits. The number is a fixed reference so you can compare a beer to a bottle of wine to a handle of vodka on equal footing.
A $9 six-pack of light beer and a $20 fifth of bottom-shelf vodka are not comparable by price alone. The six-pack holds about 6 standard drinks ($1.50 each); the fifth holds about 17 standard drinks ($1.18 each). The vodka wins per-drink even though it costs more total. Price per standard drink is the only honest comparison.
Beer: 12 fl oz (355 mL) can, 16 fl oz (473 mL) tall can, 12 fl oz × 6 = 2,129 mL six-pack, 12 fl oz × 30 = 10,647 mL rack. Wine: 5 oz (147 mL) pour, 750 mL bottle, 1.5 L magnum. Spirits: 750 mL fifth, 1,000 mL liter, 1,750 mL handle / half-gallon. Shots: 1.5 fl oz (44 mL) single, 3 fl oz (89 mL) double.
FAQ
The US definition: 14 g of pure ethanol per drink, which works out to 17.74 mL of pure alcohol. Different countries use different references — UK uses 8 g (one 'unit'), Australia uses 10 g, Canada uses 13.6 g. The choice doesn't affect which option is cheaper; both options are divided by the same number, so the ratio is preserved.
Because higher-ABV spirits pack much more alcohol per mL of container, and the container itself is cheaper to make and ship than equivalent volume of beer. A handle of vodka is almost always the lowest price-per-standard-drink option at any store — that's not a recommendation, just math.
Yes, but you'd enter the alcohol component only — the volume and ABV of the spirit in the cocktail, not the total drink volume including mixers. For a 1.5 oz pour of 40% vodka in a $12 cocktail, enter volume 1.5 fl oz, ABV 40%, price $12.
Run the calculator twice — once for each option — and compare the price-per-standard-drink numbers. Lower wins.
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