Talk:Standard drink

Rationalise with article on "Unit of Alcohol"
I've been amending this article and the Unit of alcohol article to move most non-UK info from that article to this, and vice versa. See also my comments under Talk:Unit of alcohol relating to Globalize/UK. TrevorD (talk) 19:50, 11 February 2015 (UTC)

Older comments
I rewrote this whole article. The former version was misleading, as it gave the impression that the standard drink system was present only in Australia. The system exists in many countries around the world. The Australian definition of a standard drink is included in the new article.

Would be nice if someone could discover why Japan has theirs set so high.--24.209.92.46 (talk) 00:33, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

I am quite sure that the Japanese is based on the common serving size of sake (go) which is (according to wikipedia) 0.1804 liters. Thus, assuming a alcohol content of sake of 13.7% will give 19.75g pure alcohol in one go ((13.679/1.25)*10/(1/0.18.4)) (calculations somewhat rounded). Also according to wikipedia are the alcohol content of sake (wine) normally 9-16% why I believe my calculations are reasonable. However, as this is currently my best reference (http://www.drinkingandyou.com/site/uk/biggy.htm), I won't add it to the page. Someone else maybe have something better, otherwise I'll have another look later.Gleipner (talk) 10:51, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

It would be interesting to know when the term "standard drink" (or a direct translation of it) is used in different countries, though. I can't tell from the article whether or not it is actually used outside Australia. Aoeuidhtns (talk) 13:56, 3 July 2011 (UTC)

Merging unit of alcohol
It has been suggested to merge Unit of alcohol into this article (Standard drink), I don't believe this would be correct as the standard drink could be considered a 'unit of alcohol', especially from a global perspective. I suggest merging them both though - possibly into Alcohol equivalence, although I'm not sure about that title, maybe we should consider changing the name of that article itself to something like 'measurements of alcoholic beverages'. Lee&there4;V (talk • contribs) 15:52, 2 July 2010 (UTC)


 * I agree that there should be a seperate article for unit of alcohol and another article for standard drink. I don't agree that they should be merged into alcohol equivalence; alcohol equivalence is just about equivalent amounts/volume of alcohol when say comparing spirits, beer and wine. I think alcohol equivalence should be a seperate article.-- Literature geek |  T@1k?  23:24, 2 July 2010 (UTC)


 * So maybe we need an overview article that ties these three ( and possibly others ) together? Lee&there4;V (talk • contribs) 12:14, 3 July 2010 (UTC)


 * That would be of help if an overview article could be found, sure.-- Literature geek |  T@1k?  00:50, 15 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Since these comments were made, Alcohol equivalence has been redirected to this article so there are just two of these three related articles left. I have re-opened the merger question at Talk:unit of alcohol. FrankP (talk) 20:51, 14 December 2019 (UTC)
 * I agree with your comment on Talk:Unit of alcohol/Archive 1 that these are pretty much the same thing. Unit of alcohol is already listed in the table of Standard drink, so merging it in is natural, as "standard drink" is the more common term. Unit of alcohol is 6kb while Standard drink is 5kb, basically stubs, so combining them would be a size improvement. There is also some duplicate content, like the labeling discussion, that could be merged. I will add some formal merge banners and do the merge in a week if nobody objects. Mathnerd314159 (talk) 04:49, 30 March 2023 (UTC)
 * ✅ Mathnerd314159 (talk) 01:52, 9 April 2023 (UTC)

fixing photo caption for Adelscott.jpg
The caption for called it a "French malt whisky". This is not so. The label clearly states that it is a flavored beer ("bière aromatisée"). I have altered the caption accordingly. 132.198.241.174 (talk) 00:35, 29 August 2011 (UTC)

citation needed for Austrian standard drink
I don't believe that a standard drink in Austria is 6g. The Anton Proksch institute defines an „österreichische Standardglaseinheit“ (ÖSG) of 20g alcohol, which fits common serving sizes (0.5l beer, 0.25l wine). --Ligneus (talk) 19:00, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

Standard drink list
Could it be that the order of data was mistakenly inversed? Because from what I know (living in Austria) 500ml of beer can never be 3,2 standard drinks. And spoken very simply - you can't tell me that people from the far east consider half a liter of beer ONE standard drink. But if you inverse the data, everything's fine. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.178.174.33 (talk) 03:01, 11 August 2013 (UTC)
 * The chart calculation is wrong. It seems that, for example, a drink in Japan which contains 19.75g of alcohol should be considered more "standard drinks" than a drink from Austria which contains 6g of alcohol. Instead the Japan drink is equal to 1.0 "standard drinks" and the Austria drink is equal to 3.2 "standard drinks". Psyden (talk) 16:46, 16 January 2014 (UTC)
 * The chart confuses alcohol by volume (ABV) with alcohol by weight (ABW). Labelling in the US is ABW for libations and ABV for medical use. ABW is approximately 0.8 ABV. The beers are expressed as ABV (US lager is approximately 3.2 to 4% ABW). However, the average dinner wine is 12% ABW and 80 proof is 40% ABW (not ABV as stated in the chart). Common wines vary from 8% to 14% ABW. Distilled spirits are normally 80 proof, but Vodka varies from 70 to 120 proof. Brandy and other partially distilled wines are usually 18% to 30% ABW. Drbits (talk) 05:15, 18 March 2016 (UTC)
 * The previous comment is not correct. The (US) definition of proof is based on alcohol by volume (ABV), see for example Merriam-Webster and the relevant wikipedia article. The latter also cites the Federal Regulations for labelling beer, wines and spirits with ABV. Looking at the CFR (if I read it correctly) it seems that States might be able to mandate ABW labelling only for beer. I'm not sure if any do (except perhaps for Minnesota's 3.2% beer?) FrankP (talk) 19:41, 12 December 2019 (UTC)

French Standard Drink
According to the table, French Standard Drink used to be 12 grams of alcohol. In July 2015 it was changed to 10 grams, without citing any reference. Any idea which value is correct? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.89.100.238 (talk) 11:44, 19 August 2019 (UTC)
 * I've added a source for 10g as part of the updates I've made to the table FrankP (talk) 13:01, 13 December 2019 (UTC)

How to calculate mg of alcohol in a pint?
How about a formula that allows one to calculate how many milligrams of alcohol is in certain volume of certain ABV. For example how do I calculate how many milligrams of alcohol I have in 500 ml pint of 5% ABV? This way one could count the milligrams and then figure out how many units that is in his country.--Custoo (talk) 12:18, 14 February 2016 (UTC)

How to Calculate Grams of Alcohol for a Specific Volume

 * One liter at 1% ABV is 10ml of alcohol (from the definition). This is just under 8 grams of alcohol. Multiply the number of liters by the percent ABV times 0.8 to estimate grams. For instance for 500ml (0.5 liter) at 5% ABV is approximately 20 grams (25ml) of alcohol or 50ml at 50% ABV is also approximately 20 grams. Drbits (talk) 18:17, 4 April 2016 (UTC)


 * The relationship between ABV and ABW is not that straightforward. If you look at the simplified case of alcohol water mixtures, the volume of a mixture will always be less than the sum of its parts. Also you need to specify a datum for temperature and pressure for which the conversion applies. For an indication of relationship between mixture, temperature and density see .--Parapunter (talk) 21:20, 28 March 2020 (UTC)

Alcohol metabolism
Although this is not authoritative, the state of California (USA) has a simplified chart showing the 95th percentile blood alcohol level comparing body weight, gender, and number of US standard drinks.

This chart can be interpreted to mean 95% of average sized adults metabolize at least .75 ml of alcohol per hour (.6 grams per hour). This is stated as the 95th percentile and does not imply an average metabolism rate. Note that rate of metabolism is related to body mass and is approximately proportional to the mass of healthy liver tissue. The calculation from this chart begins with the statement at the bottom of the chart that alcohol metabolism rate for 95% of adults is estimated to be at least .01% per 40 minutes. After unit conversion, this chart estimates that blood alcohol for 95% of 60 to 75 Kg men will be less than 1 ml/liter/44.3 ml of alcohol.

This chart should not be used as a guide to the legal alcohol limit for driving. The legal alcohol limit for driving varies by jurisdiction and is less that shown in the chart for some jurisdictions (it can be as low as .01ml/liter of blood). In most jurisdictions, one standard drink is allowed, but two standard drinks make many people legally intoxicated, but a delay of 2 hours per standard drink is sufficient for 95% of adults. Drbits (talk) 17:58, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

Updating this page
This 2016 paper investigates the standard drink definitions and consumption guidelines in 37 countries. It seems very well sourced and current. I think it could add value to this article. At the very least the current table should be updated using this source, for instance Portugal is reported to have 12 instead of 14, which is supported by the PT version of this very article. Perhaps the definition has been lowered. Also the table could be expanded (more countries and/or adding consumption guidelines). Personally, I think the "500 mL of 4.5% ABV beer is" column is redundant, it is just another representation of the "Mass" column.

I am willing to help on this edit and learn more about editing Wikipedia, but I am not sure whether expanding the table with additional countries and consumption guidelines is desirable to begin with. I am assuming it is fine to use this one paper as a reference instead of using the citations in the paper? 2001:983:53CE:1:3085:F8E5:7C1B:26AB (talk) 11:12, 30 October 2018 (UTC)


 * I agree it needs some work, I'm happy to contribute. I can see a number of different issues:
 * The introduction could do with greater clarity, especially to make the point that "standard drink" is rather a misnomer, as the point of article is to show that there is no (worldwide) standard, only a bunch of completely different standards in different countries.
 * The values in the last column of the table ("500 mL of beer is") are actually incorrectly calculated, only the one for the US is right as far as I can see, but if the column is to go then this won't matter. Personally I think it adds confusion.
 * Adding more countries would be good, but only if we can be confident about accuracy. Having one reliable source for multiple countries would be good.
 * Having checked the paper cited above it seems an excellent source. I intend to create a new table based on the data from it, and this can be updated in future, if for example some country changes its definition. On the basis that the final column is redundant I will leave it out, so the table will show only grams and mL. FrankP (talk) 16:21, 12 December 2019 (UTC)

Japan
The figure for Japan has been questioned, and I've not been able to verify it from a reliable source. It does appear in this reference which was previously cited in the article, but I have moved it here because it is over 20 years old and I'm not convinced we can rely on it as authoritative: ICAP Report 5 (1998): "What is a 'standard drink'". If anyone can help with up-to-date info about Japanese drink units that would be good. FrankP (talk) 20:23, 12 December 2019 (UTC)

Edited beer percentage
I calculated that a 12oz beer with 14 grams of alcohol in it is 4.11% alcohol, but my calculations may be off since 5% seems to be commonly accepted. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.88.164.217 (talk) 21:56, 15 May 2020 (UTC)

I did my own calculation and since reverted it to 5% which fits much better than 4.1%. Did you assume the density of beer to be 1 g/mL? Also, 5% of 12 oz is the same as 40% of 1.5 oz. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.71.220.241 (talk) 06:27, 10 September 2020 (UTC)

comparison needed
A bar chart comparing the size of different countries' 1 unit would be useful.

Also it doesn't help that different sections are from the perspectives of different countries. 80.6.132.137 (talk) 20:38, 12 November 2023 (UTC)