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). Mr. Kasper Volume percent is a common expression of a solutions concentration. ... Bottles of cachaça, a Brazilian alcoholic beverage. ... Alcoholic proof is a measure of how much ethanol is in an alcoholic beverage, and is approximately twice the percentage of alcohol by volume (ABV, the unit that is commonly used presently). ... Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac. ...

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%

Juice is the liquid naturally contained in plants. ... A selection of bottled beers A selection of cask beers Beer is the worlds oldest[1] and most popular[2] alcoholic beverage, selling more than 133 billion liters (35 billion gallons) per year - producing total global revenues of $331. ... Alcopop is a term coined by the popular media to describe bottled alcoholic beverages that resemble drinks such as soft drinks and lemonade. ... Cider in a pint glass Cider (or cyder) is an alcoholic beverage made primarily from the juices of specially grown varieties of apples. ... Barley wine or Barleywine is a style of strong ale originating in England in the nineteenth century (derived from the March or October beers of the 18th century) but now brewed worldwide. ... A glass of red wine This article is about the alcoholic beverage. ... A glass of tawny port. ... Bottles of strawberry liqueur A liqueur is a sweet alcoholic beverage, often flavoured with fruits, herbs, spices, flowers, seeds, roots, plants, barks, and sometimes cream. ... Spirits redirects here. ... A barrel is a hollow cylindrical container, usually made of wood staves and bound with iron bands. ... Whisky, or whiskey, refers to a broad category of alcoholic beverages that are distilled from fermented grain mash and aged in wooden casks (generally oak). ... Caribbean rum, circa 1941 Rum is a distilled beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses and sugarcane juice by a process of fermentation and distillation. ... A reservoir glass filled with a naturally coloured verte next to an absinthe spoon. ... Neutral grain spirits (a. ... Rectified spirit or rectified alcohol is high concentration alcohol purified by the process of rectification (repeated or fractional distillation). ...

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. In physics, density is mass m per unit volume V. For the common case of a homogeneous substance, it is expressed as: where, in SI units: ρ (rho) is the density of the substance, measured in kg·m-3 m is the mass of the substance, measured in kg V is...