Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Kirby64 366 days ago
> A pint of strong-ish beer like Stella Artois is 3 units.

No it's not. Stella is 5.2% in the strongest form (some places sell a weaker version that is 4.6%). Both are roughly standard ABVs. At worst, a 20 oz 'pint' of Stella would be ~1.7 units. In most places in the US, a pint is 16 oz, so it would be ~1.4 units. Two pints at worst is slightly over 3 units total.
1 comments
n4r9 366 days ago
Maybe I'm misreading it (or it's just wrong) but this NHS webpage very clearly states that a "Pint of higher-strength lager/beer/cider (ABV 5.2%)" has 3 units:

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/alcohol-advice/calculating-alco...

link
Kirby64 366 days ago
Ah, right. We're both getting it a bit wrong. A 'unit' (10 ml of pure ethanol) isn't actually equivalent to a 'drink'. One 'drink' is considered to be 12 oz of 5% beer, 5 oz of 12% wine, or one 1.5 oz 40% shot. None of those are actually '1 unit', they're all ~1.7 units (~17 ml of ethanol).

I think most folks think in 'drinks' and not 'units'.

So, back to the original comment: 6 shots at most establishments would be ~10 'units' of alcohol. Or, closer to 3.3 20oz pints of beer. 3.3 20oz beers would be enough to get most folks pretty intoxicated if drank quickly; the difference being that 3.3 20oz beers (66oz total!) is a lot harder to drink very quickly than 6 shots, purely by volume of liquid.

link
n4r9 366 days ago
Thanks for the clarification. Though on a lighter personal note I'd definitely struggle to drink 6 shots of gin (or tequila for that matter) in the same day. Awful stuff!
link