Alcohol comes in a lot of different shapes and sizes. However, not a lot of people are aware of the different alcohol serving sizes. Knowing just how different a “standard” serving can be for each drink can help you make some more informed drinking choices…
Alcohol Serving Sizes: Drink Smarter
Beer
The first of the alcohol serving sizes to look at is beer. Beer comes in a lot of different shapes and sizes. This can make it tricky to know just how much beer you’re drinking at a given time. However, the standard size for a serving of beer is 12 fluid ounces. This is the same amount which you’ll find in a normal beer can or bottle.
Still, there are variants which are larger, which are usually pretty easy to notice. Keep in mind too that a glass pint of beer is 16 fluid ounces, making it slightly larger than a normal serving. This only applies to American pints, however; in Britain, a pint is 20 fluid ounces due to differences in the imperial system.
Wine
Wine can be one of the more deceptive alcohol serving sizes to measure. A standard serving of wine is around 5 fluid ounces. Most people assume that a wine glass is probably right around this normal serving size. However, this actually isn’t always the case. Many wine glasses actually can hold around 12-14 ounces of wine in them!
This becomes especially apparent when you’re at a restaurant that serves wine. Often times, you’ll end up getting more wine in your glass than is standard for a serving. Be sure to keep this in mind when you’re drinking wines, so you know to not go overboard with how much you drink.
Liquor
At first glance, liquor (not to be confused with liqueur) appears to be the easiest of the alcohol serving sizes to understand. After all, a single 1.5 fluid ounce shot glass is one serving of pretty much all standard liquors. However, this means it’s easy to track when you’re making your drinks. Things get trickier when someone else is making them for you.
Some mixed drinks might have more than one shot of liquor in them. Or, they might have a few different kinds of liquor thrown into the mix. This means you can end up having quite a few servings all from one drink. Therefore, try to do some research on the drinks in question beforehand, or ask whoever is making them about just how much liquor is in them.
