Alcohol percentages

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

If I drink a bottle of wine, generally 75cl @ 13.5%, why do I feel more pissed than when I drink 3 x 50cl bottles of beer @, say, 4.5%?

I'm drinking twice the amount of beer alcohol, by volume, than the wine.

[Nemo]

Not sure you've totally nailed the maths there (perhaps unsurprisingly given the topic) twice the volume at one third of the alcohol concentration is not twice the amount of alcohol, it's twice the amount of liquid.

I think you need a few more bottles of beer.

[Don Rogers Sock]

Fuck knows Rory

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

But surely, 3 bottles of 50cl  beer is the same amount of alcohol % - 3 x  4.5% is 13.5% - but is also twice the volume.

Whatever, don't bring the Xmas sherry into it

[Nemo]

But surely, 3 bottles of 50cl  beer is the same amount of alcohol % - 3 x  4.5% is 13.5% - but is also twice the volume.

This would be true if the wine was 13.5 units and the beer 4.5 units, but percentages don't work like that (as the percentage shown is a % of the volume, which is a different total in your two examples).

"Units" of alcohol are much given for exactly this reason as it makes it much easier to compare for those who can't do percentages (either before or after the bottle of wine)

[Kinky Tom]

Your 3 bottles of beer comes in at 6.75cl of alcohol whereas your bottle of wine contains 10.125cl.

50*3=150
150*4.5/100=6.75

75*13.5/100=10.125

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

So, the short answer is - keep drinking wine

[Reg Smeeton]

 It's a mystery to me why if I drink 5 pints of 4% ale, the effect seems greater than 5 pints of 4% lager.

[ron dodgers]

mushrooms Reg, mushrooms!

[Ells]

It's a mystery to me why if I drink 5 pints of 4% ale, the effect seems greater than 5 pints of 4% lager.

Carbonation, perhaps?

[michael]

It's a mystery to me why if I drink 5 pints of 4% ale, the effect seems greater than 5 pints of 4% lager.

The same happens to me.

All things being equal, I experience far more repercussions with ale/beer than lager.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

My brother in law has been given a bottle of homemade vodka from a client of his. He's had a sniff and seems OK and we intend to consume it mixed with fresh orange juice and peach schnapps.

God knows what the alcohol % of that will be. Could be paint stripper.

[suttonred]

As a "treat" from some US airmen at Greenham common who frequented our local in the 80's they used to bring something on a Friday night simply called 151. That was its proof. They also used it so they said, as emergency helicopter fuel. Boy did it taste like it.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

Did they mix it with the 'fence tampons' left by those delightful protesters of the fairer sex?

[suttonred]

Who knows. I'd drink anything back then!