hawkeyefan

What is a unit of alcohol, what is hard cider, and what is ale? I read your comments and I don't know what the comparison would be in the U.S. Is hard cider beer with a higher alcohol content? In the US beer is about 3%, wine is about 15% and booze is 80%. In the middle of nowhere in Iowa, these are the choices for alcohol.

lessgravity

What kind of post is this? Ha!

hawkeyefan

Just trying to relate their experiences to mine...never mind.

lessgravity

Sorry! Just seemed strange to me. Good luck.

awuh1

Someone should be along momentarily to answer. I don't know either.

soberhawk

Wine is the same, beer is stronger - booze is 60% and up.

3% beer would be consider light beer (normaly they are 2.8%) - I do not know any 3% straight.

Normal beers are 4-5%, strong beers 5-8% depending on label and type.

I am not UK though.

Mentium

Soberhawk is more or less right. 'Hard cider' (we don't call it that) - the strogner cider is about 5 - 6%, most pub beers are under 5% but some are 5.5. Mostt lagers are around 5% and there are strong lagers at 6 to 7% (and a few in cans at 8%). Wine in pubs is around 11%, though supermarkets sell it up to 14% or so.

Spirits are not actually 60% though - more like 40.

All of it is very high in **** though.

hypochondriac

Actually this is a really interesting question as I have often been confused by the American posts. Do you have units over there? I think we also have a different way of measuring %...

A unit = 25ml of 40% abv spirits

175ml of 12% wine is 2 units and half a pint of beer is 1 unit.

I am not sure what hard cider is... maybe that is the strong flat stuff, usually 6-8%. Normal cider is about 5%. Otherwise there is white cider which is usually stronger.

lager or beer is usually 3% upwards, usually 4 or 5% though.

Ale is the same. I would normally call ale beer and what most people call beer is lager.

We also have tennants super which is like 10% otherwise known as central heating for tramps...

hawkeyefan

Thank you all for the info. I know that any alcohol in any form is bad for those of us on here. I just didn't know when someone said they drank 40 units of cider per week if that was a little, moderate, a lot, or a lot lot. Now I can relate. Thanks!!

Plenny

In the U.S. 1 drink is :

1 oz hard liquor
12oz beer
5oz wine

Right?

As far as I know, in the UK, ale is a style of beer, hard cider is an alcoholic pear or apple cider (somewhat sparkly, usually 5%?), and

Plenny

Haha dunno the UK units either. Sometimes I can kind of gather how much someone may have had by other parts of the discussion. I've never been great with the conversions

mecanix

Alcohol units - Live Well - NHS Choices

you might find this useful ,

Bestwishes, m

hypochondriac

Oh, so you guys actually do measure in 'drinks'. I thought you were just being vague... what's a drink? a pint of wine? So your drinks are like our units?

And what is an oz, how do you measure liquid in ounces?

I have often heard people say 'a handle' too, what's that?

Plenny

1 ounce is like 29 ml.
1 handle is like 1750 ml I think

hypochondriac

Do you mean 75cl/750ml? That is the average size of a bottle wine or vodka here.

soberhawk

I would be lost without google, the anglo-saxon world has made units a lot more complicated than it is.

What about just going over to grams, liters and meter guys?

And while we are at it what about driving in the right side of the road

Plenny

No a handle is an over sized bottle of liquor, like 1750 ml. So, 1.75 liters.
So if you hear somebody say they drank a handle of hard liquor, they drank a lot.

SkyeSea

My brain is still frazzling at the thought of 60%

13unluckyforsom

Lol 60% my AV is getting all crazy excited about the fantasy lol

SkyeSea

At 60% even I would just have to sniff the label lol