You’re standing in the booze aisle, scratching your head. Either beer or wine sounds good, but what you really want is the most bang for your buck. The problem is, there’s too much math involved. Sure, you can snag a few beers for the price of one bottle of wine, but the wine has a higher ABV percentage. So, how many beers equal a wine?
It’s a lot to take in, which is why I’ve done the math for you below. You can thank me later.
How Many Beers in a Bottle of Wine: The Math
If we’re talking averages, it’s pretty simple. A standard “drink” contains about 14 grams of alcohol. In America, that 14 grams appears in one 12-ounce, five-percent beer and one five-ounce, 12-percent wine.
That means the average glass of wine (five ounces) has the same alcohol content as the average beer (12 ounces). Because there are 25 ounces (five glasses of wine) in a bottle, and because one beer equals one glass of wine, that means five beers contain the same amount of alcohol.
So, on average, five beers will get you as drunk as a bottle of wine, or vice versa.
But, as you already know, beer and wine come in a wide array of alcohol contents. Here are a few real-life comparisons to help you make good choices.
Barefoot Pinot Noir vs. Corona Light
In order to calculate how many Corona Lights are in a bottle of Barefoot Pinot Noir, we first need to find out how many “drinks” — remember, a “drink” equals 14 grams of alcohol — are in each. To do this, we’ll use a simple equation:
ABV (%) x Volume (milliliters) ÷ 1,000 = Number of “Drinks”
(We’re using milliliters instead of ounces, because the metric system makes math way, way easier.)
Here we go:
Barefoot Pinot Noir has an ABV of 13.5 percent and a volume of 750 milliliters (equaling a 25-ounce bottle), which, when divided by 1,000, means it has just over 10 “drinks” per bottle.
A 12-ounce Corona Light has an ABV of four percent and a volume of 355 milliliters, which means it has 1.4 “drinks.”
When you divide the Barefoot Pinot Noir “drinks” by the Corona Light “drinks,” you’ll see that a bottle of Barefoot Pinot Noir has as much alcohol as just over seven Corona Lights.
Let’s use that same equation one more time.
Sutter Home Moscato vs. Stone IPA
Sutter Home Moscato has an ABV of 10.1 percent and a volume of 750 milliliters, which means it has about 7.6 “drinks” per bottle.
A 12-ounce Stone IPA has an ABV of 6.9 percent and a volume of 355 milliliters, which means it has about 2.4 “drinks.”
When divided by each other, that means a bottle of Sutter Home Moscato has as much alcohol as just over three Stone IPAs.
Phew, that was a lot of math. So, what’d you decide on? Wine and beer? Yeah, that makes sense.
Ian Lecklitner
Ian Lecklitner is a staff writer at MEL Magazine. He mostly writes about everyone's favorite things: Sex, drugs and food.
