ABV - A dummy's guide

Hi,

ok, I understand the theory of what Alcohol By Volume is. I get it.
What I scratch my head at is this;

I have my 5 gallon batch of lovely homebrew with an ABV of (for example) 5%. That means that I have 5 gallons of 5% abv, correct?

Now (seriously, I'm not a dummy but can't get my head around this) I take my 5 gallons and put into my many bottles; ABV - 5% per bottle, oui?

Ok.. So I drink 5 bottles and I'm feeling pretty darn good.

5 bottles at 5% does not equal 25 % alcohol intake, does it?
If I take a straw to my 5 Gallons of 5%, would I still not get completelly fit shaced?

Thanks in advance for a proper breakdown.

J

BAL depends on the amount of alcohol drunk, not the ABV.

jaymack said:

5 bottles at 5% does not equal 25 % alcohol intake, does it?
If I take a straw to my 5 Gallons of 5%, would I still not get completelly fit shaced?

Click to expand...

Quick math lesson here:

when you add percentages, without actually changing the ratio, then the percentage will always stay the same. Percentages measure fractions of a whole, not a quantifiable unit per se.

Alcohol "intake" is not measured by "percentages". So, let's say that you drink 5 bottles at 5% ABV each. Meaning that, if the bottles are 12oz each, that's 60 ounces total fluid intake. 5% of 12 is 0.6oz...so in each bottle you have .6oz of alcohol. Which means that, after ingesting 5 bottles, you have ingested a total of 3 oz of alcohol, which is still 5% of 60oz.

This is not exact but from memory, I am sure someone here will have the exact numbers. The acohol content of a 12 oz beer is close to the content of a mixed drink. The body can metabolize so much alcohol per hour, and more than 2 per hour will get you close to the DWI limit for most states.