In Australia, the term ‘standard drink’ means a drink which contains 10 grams (about 12.5 ml) of alcohol. One standard drink always contains the same amount of alcohol regardless of the size of the container or the type of drink (ie beer, wine, or spirit).

The term ‘standard drink’ should not be confused with a serving of alcohol, which is often much larger—e.g. a standard drink of table wine corresponds to 100 ml of wine, whereas a typical serve is at least 130 ml.

Know your standard drink

To keep track of how much alcohol has been consumed, drinkers should count standard drinks rather than counting glasses or containers. Counting glasses, bottles, or cans is not a reliable measure as they contain varying amounts of alcohol.

You can imagine how difficult it is to estimate alcohol consumption when large containers such as jugs and casks are shared, glasses are topped up by others, the composition of mixed drinks (e.g. cocktails or punch) is not known, and pre-mixed spirit drinks contain a variable amount of alcohol per bottle or can. In fact, even the size of drinking glasses can vary across venues.

You must also consider that the same alcoholic style of drink can vary in its ‘strength’ and this impacts on the number of standard drinks—e.g. a 375 ml can of beer is sold as:

• Full strength (4.8% alcohol) = 1.4 standard drinks

• Mid strength (3.5% alcohol) = 1 standard drink

• Low strength (2.7% alcohol) = 0.8 standard drink.

Anyone serving alcohol may be asked by a customer to identify how many standard drinks are in a range of products. View the numbers of standard drinks in common containers of various alcoholic beverages in the following slide show.

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