Alcohol by volume

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Alcohol by volume (ABV) is an indication of how much alcohol (expressed as a percentage) is included in an alcoholic beverage. This measurement is assumed as the world standard. Another way of specifying the amount of alcohol is alcoholic proof. An "alcoholic proof" is roughly twice the alcohol by volume (although this does vary in some countries, see main page for more information). In some countries, alcohol by volume is referred to as degrees Gay-Lussac (after the French chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac).

[edit] Typical examples

• fruit juice (naturally occurring): 0.1–0.3%
• beer: 3–9%
• alcopop: 4–7%
• cider: 4–8%
• barley wine: 10–15%
• wine: 10–15%
• port wine: 20%
• liqueur: 15–55%
• liquor (aka spirits): Typically 40% and up, but recently introduced (U.S.) 'light' liquors are only 20%
• "cask strength" whisky or rum: 60%
• absinthe 55–89.5%
• neutral grain spirit: 95%
• rectified spirit: 96%

[edit] Conversion quotients

Given a value in ABW (alcohol by weight) you can convert it easily to ABV using the following formula:

ABV = 1.25 × ABW

or, inversely:

ABW = 0.8 × ABV

These quotients are a fair approximation to the real values; since the ingredients change from beverage to beverage, it is impossible to have a universal formula, as the density of the beverage minus alcohol varies. In addition, the relative volume of water and ethanol varies with temperature, and the mixing of water and ethanol produces a less than the combined volume, due to the fact that the ethanol molecules will dissolve somewhat in between the water molecules. The above explained value works best for beers, for example.