Trying to figure this out, I drank an 8% Stout. Is this the same as drinking two 4% beers or am I stupid?
Quick edit: I drink three 8% stouts, I assume this is the equivalent of six 4% beers of the same volume?
In: 3
If they’re all the same volume, it’s the same amount of alcohol. Two 4% beers would be more total liquid though, which can affect how you metabolize it.
Assuming the volume is the same yes. For every 100 gallons 4 percent would have 4 gallons of alcohol and 8 percent would have 8 gallons of alcohol
It is not the same.
In terms of total ml or l or whatever alcohol ingested, sure, drinking one 8% drink would give you the same as two 4% drinks.
However, you’d also get almost double the non-alcohol liquid
If something is a percentage of something else, it means “parts per hundred” (per-cent, cent is one hundred like in dollar cents) so 4 percent means 4 parts per 100 – – > 4 oz of alcohol per 100oz of drink
Abv is alcohol by volume. So 350ml of beer at 4% would be 14ml of alcohol. At 8% it would be 28ml. So yes (as long as you consume the same overall volume of beer)
That’s correct.
The alcohol percentage given on a bottle indicates the volume of the drink that is alcohol. So, a 100 mL bottle with alcohol percentage 8% contains 8mL alcohol. That’s the same as drinking two 100 mL bottles of a 4% drink, which each contain 4 mL alcohol. Note that this only works out to the same amount of alcohol if the bottles are all the same total volume (100 mL).
So as you say, if the bottles are all the same volume, three 8% bottles contain contain the same amount of alcohol as six 4% bottles.
Obviously drinking one glass of 8% alcohol would result in less alcohol consumption than if you drank a gallon of 4%. but assuming it’s the same volume, it’s the same *amount* of alcohol but will generally affect you somewhat differently.
First off, when you drink more water with the alcohol it will slow down the rate you metabolize the alcohol. In fact, with a low enough alcohol percentage, it’s literally impossible to get drunk, partly because of the reduction in the rate you metabolize the alcohol and partly because you can only fit so much liquid in your stomach.
Secondly, people tend to drink a glass at the same rate, regardless of what’s in it (outside of sipping drinks like scotch). So it will take a lot longer to consume all the alcohol at a lower % ABV.
Just like making $100,000 every decade means you are super poor, but making $100,000 every month means you are rich. $100,000 is $100,000 but the duration is important.
Also,to work out the units you multiply volume in centileters (ie 70cl vodka) by the percentage (ie 37.5% is 0.375)
70 x 0.375 = 26.25 unit in a 70cl bottle of smirnoff vodka
Yes, your calculations are accurate, but it is quite likely that you don’t drink one 8 % beer in the same time as two 4 % beers, so you will be more drunk by the end of it, because your liver had less time to process the alcohol.
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