Questioning patients about their consumption of alcohol (ethanol) is an important part of history taking. To determine the specific quantity, it is essential to understand how much alcohol is in a bottle of spirits or a bottle of wine or a bottle of beer, and the container sizes in which they are consumed. I am reminded of the executive who asked his assistant to come into his office: “Aren’t you proud of me?” he asked. “I am down to 1 cup of coffee a day.” An enormous cup—probably holding 3,000 ml—was sitting on his desk.
Spirits
The small containers of spirits provided by commercial airline carriers to individual passengers contain 50 ml. Because the 50 ml generally contains 40% alcohol (80 proof), there is 20 ml (2/3 oz) of alcohol in each small bottle. The usual 750-ml bottle of spirits purchased in a store contains 40% alcohol or 300 ml of alcohol, an amount equal to 15 of the 50-ml bottles of spirits.
Wine
The small bottles of wine provided by commercial airline carriers to individual passengers contain 187 ml, and because they consist usually of about 13.5% alcohol, those containers provide 25 ml of alcohol. The usual bottle of wine purchased in a store contains 750 ml, the same quantity as the usual bottle of spirits, but the alcohol content is usually about 13.5%. Thus, the quantity of alcohol in a 750-ml bottle of wine is approximately 100 ml, such that consuming an entire bottle of wine (750 ml) provides essentially the same quantity of alcohol as does consuming 5 50-ml bottles of spirits. Four of the 187-ml bottles of wine are equivalent to the 750-ml sized bottle.
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