How much am I drinking?

Measuring drinks

When we drink an alcoholic beverage, there are so many variables that it is difficult to keep track of how much alcohol we are consuming. Glasses, cans and bottles come in different sizes. Different drinks contain different percentages of alcohol. The simplest way to measure your intake of alcohol is in Standard Drinks.

What is a Standard Drink?

In Ireland a Standard Drink has about 10 grams of pure alcohol in it. In the UK a Standard Drink, also called a unit of alcohol, has about 8 grams of pure alcohol.

Here are some examples of a Standard Drink:

A pub measure of spirits (35.5ml)
A small glass of wine (12.5% volume)
A half pint of normal beer
An alcopop (275ml bottle)

A bottle of wine at 12.5% alcohol contains about seven Standard Drinks.

A Standard Drink is a drink that contains 10g of pure alcohol.
(10g is the weight of about 12.7 ml of pure alcohol)

In Ireland at present, bottles and cans do not indicate the number of Standard Drinks they contain. So, if you want to know how much you are drinking, you need to know how many standard drinks are in a typical bottle or glass.

A rough guide to Standard Drinks is as follows:

The drink	The strength	The amount	Number of Standard Drinks
Beer Lager Stout	Normal strength (about 4.5%)	Half pint	1
	Normal strength (about 4.5%)	Pint 500 ml can	2
	Strong (7%)	Half pint	1½
	Strong (7%)	Pint 500 ml can	3
Cider	6%	Pint 500 ml	2½
Wine	12.5%	Quarter bottle (185.7ml)	2
	12.5%	750ml bottle	7½
	14%	Quarter bottle (185.7ml)	2
	14%	750ml bottle	8½
Spirits (Vodka, Whiskey, Gin, etc.)	40%	750ml bottle	24
Spirits (Vodka, Whiskey, Gin, etc.)	40%	Single measure in a pub (35ml)	1

Recommended weekly guidelines

Low risk weekly guidelines for adults are:

Less than 11 standard drinks (approx. 110g of alcohol) in a week for women, and
Less than 17 standard drinks (approx. 170g of alcohol) in a week for men