ABV is a pretty fundamental topic within low, no, and light alcohol categories because it is the basis for deciding what drinks get included in what category and how we feel about them.
But, like many of the topics we cover in the new Low No Drinker Podcast FAQ series, it might be a term you don't fully understand just yet (like the episode on units, RTDs and zebra striping & bookending)
ABV stands for alcohol by volume. Put simply, it's the percentage of the liquid in your glass that is pure alcohol.
So, if you are drinking a beer with an ABV of 5%, it means that 5% of the liquid in that beer is pure alcohol. The other 95% is made up of water, barley, hops and yeast (and any other ingredients that have gone into making the drink for you).
Typical average ABV's in the UK:
Beers, ales and ciders: 4-6% ABV (though some craft brewers have pushed these boundaries considerably - there's even a 67.5% ABV lager out there (Snake Venom by Brewmeister), which, quite rightly, comes with a warning label on the neck of the bottle–I dread to think what that tastes like!
Wines: Traditionally 11-12% ABV, but increasingly creeping up to 14-15% ABV. This rise is particularly noticeable in red wines, partly due to climate change causing grapes to become sweeter, resulting in higher alcohol content.
Sparkling wines: usually around 12-13% ABV.
Spirits: Around 40%, but this area is more complex as spirits need to meet a minimum ABV requirement for classification; e.g., gin must be at least 37.5% ABV to be legally called gin, which creates a new set of challenges for brands in the low, no, light spirit space.
Average ABVs for drinks in the low, low and light space:
Okay, so when it comes to low, no and light drinks, the ABVs of these drinks are what categorise where they sit in terms of being either low alcohol, no alcohol or alcohol-free.
Alcohol-free: In the UK, alcohol-free drinks have an ABV of up to 0.05%. However, in many countries we import from, like the USA, Australia and parts of Europe, that number is 10x higher as they allow up to 0.5% or more ABV for 'alcohol-free' labelling (the highest being Finland at up to 2.8% ABV).
The UK government is considering (and has been doing so for a while) aligning UK labelling with this international 0.5% standard to help create a more uniform understanding for consumers.
As an aside, there are some who would rather this change not take place and who believe that alcohol-free should be just that. However, it's worth re-iterating something here that you've likely heard before, and that is that you consume a large number of foods and drinks on a daily basis that contain up to 0.5% alcohol; you just don't know about it because it's not required to be noted on labels.
We've all heard about the ripe banana comparison, but bananas aren't the only ones.
I've mentioned grapes already because they're getting sweeter, and they can contain up to 0.5% alcohol as well as ingredients like:
soy sauce
vinegar
pickles
kefir
kombuchas
breads
mustards
and if you are a baker, vanilla extract has 35% alcohol; of course, some of this gets cooked away in the baking, but not all.
The point of all this is to let you know that A) lots of food and drink you consume will contain up to 0.5% alcohol, but B) and this is the most important bit: 0.5% alcohol is not enough for you to get intoxicated.
Many studies have been done, and they all show that the human body will process 0.5% alcohol faster than you could ever get drunk on it. So, if that's the driving factor of your choices as to whether to drink 0.05% or 0.5% drink, then just know that you are in a safe place if you decide to go for a 0.5% beer.
(Please note this is not medical or recovery advice, and if you have an alcohol allergy or dependence, you should seek professional guidance before consuming these drinks)
Back to our list:
De-alcoholised: The term de-alcoholised refers to drinks that originally contained alcohol but have had it removed by some process, and the remaining liquid contains no more than 0.5% ABV.
Low alcohol: Low alcohol drinks in the UK include anything with an ABV of up to 1.2%
Non-alcoholic: Finally, these are drinks that are not typically expected to contain alcohol (like juices (but they do) and squashes).
Making Informed Choices
Surprisingly, these categorisations are currently only guidelines rather than laws in the UK. So always check the ABV percentage on the label rather than relying solely on terms like 'alcohol-free' or 'low alcohol', especially with imported drinks that may follow different guidelines.
THE LOW NO DRINKER PODCAST: FOR MINDFUL, SOBER CURIOUS & ALCOHOL-FREE DRINKERS
Listen to this Low No Drinker FAQ episode on your podcasting app of choice, including Apple & Spotify.
Or catch it on the Low No Drinker YouTube channel.
Do you have a question about low, no or light drinks that you want me to answer for you? Join the mailing list and hit reply to any of my emails to send me your questions.
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