How many Units?

BennyC · 1 Jun 2007 at 13:28

Hi guys,

wasnt sure weather to put this in here or motors, but here it is anyway!

Ive currently discovered a taste for magners!

Not the cheapest of drinks, but you do get about a pint and a halfs worth.

I was out for a drink with a friend and i was driving, i wasnt sure how many units it totalled so drank just over half the pint and let my friend have the rest to be safe.

I was wondering if its a general rule of thumb for beers and ciders that 1 pint= 1 unit? Does anybody know how much a full bottle of magners work out at in units? (a regular sized one).

Im aware it takes different periods of time to 'disolve/sober up' from the alcohol due to height, weight and helth etc etc.

If someone could claify that would be great

Thanks

Benny C

tom_nieto · 1 Jun 2007 at 13:31

Half a pint of regular strength beer or cider is one unit. However lots of beers these days are upwards of 5% which gives you more like 3 units in a pint.

If I'm driving and at a pub I'll have a lager shandy. I doubt you would have been over the limit with half a pint of magners. Don't try to work it out, as everyone is different and it's very very hard to do it accurately without a meter handy.

vanandjuanunited · 1 Jun 2007 at 13:32

Simple

Dont drink and drive - then you have no worries.

iCraig · 1 Jun 2007 at 13:33

williamw11 said:
Simple

Dont drink and drive - then you have no worries.

Why stop there? Don't drive at all, that way you'll never have any worries about killing someone with your car whatsoever right?

AJUK · 1 Jun 2007 at 13:33

williamw11 said:
Simple

Dont drink and drive - then you have no worries.

'Nuff said.

vanandjuanunited · 1 Jun 2007 at 13:33

iCraig said:
Why stop there? Don't drive at all, that way you'll never have any worries about killing someone with your car whatsoever right?

Good idea...

PhilthyPhil · 1 Jun 2007 at 13:35

I make it 3.7 units for 1.5 pints of Magners (assuming it is 4.3% which I think is correct).

Smiley Man · 1 Jun 2007 at 13:38

its stupid...

a pint of magners is gonna affect the driving ability of a spindly little 17 year old girl a lot more than a big burly bloke in his 50s

Dreadi · 1 Jun 2007 at 13:40

Its down to your body and all but i generally wont have more then one pint of strongbow if im driving.

PhilthyPhil · 1 Jun 2007 at 13:40

Smiley Man said:
its stupid...

a pint of magners is gonna affect the driving ability of a spindly little 17 year old girl a lot more than a big burly bloke in his 50s

That's why the driving limit is 80mg per 100 millilitres of blood and not x pints of Magners or lager or y glasses of wine or whatever.

BennyC · 1 Jun 2007 at 13:40

PhilthyPhil said:
I make it 3.7 units for 1.5 pints of Magners (assuming it is 4.3% which I think is correct).

Ahh rite thanks for that, i know its a rough estimate, but better than nothing.

I dont normally drink anything and drive, and this is the first occasion when I have.

I was having an interesting talk with some friends about how someones whos had a pint, could be no more dangerous than someones who been driving for say 4-5 hours straight or is unwell/ill for example, yet people still do it. I know its not quite the same, but all 3 things affect ability to concentrate and react/co-ordinate.

Smiley Man · 1 Jun 2007 at 13:42

PhilthyPhil said:
That's why the driving limit is 80mg per 100 millilitres of blood and not x pints of Magners or lager or y glasses of wine or whatever.

yeah but the mg in your blood doesnt directly say how its affecting your driving ability (does it)

80mg per 100ml is gonna affect different people differently

correct me if im wrong of course

driving tired is a lot more dangerous than driving with a copule of pints in you in my opinion

Spuds · 1 Jun 2007 at 13:46

Smiley Man said:
its stupid...

a pint of magners is gonna affect the driving ability of a spindly little 17 year old girl a lot more than a big burly bloke in his 50s

A spindly little 17 year old girl is more likely going to be drinking a 2 litre bottle of Tescos cider rather than anything decent like Magners but you point is right which is why if you fail a breath test your taken back to the police station for a blood alchahol level test which is what they use to convict IIRC. Obviously a big burly bloke in his 50s would have a lower blood alchahol level.

Obviously I'm not speaking from personal experience here, I never have more than one pint if I'm driving which as far as I'm awair is under the limit.

BennyC · 1 Jun 2007 at 13:48

Smiley Man said:
driving tired is a lot more dangerous than driving with a copule of pints in you in my opinion

Thats similar to what i think. Ive never driven over the limit, but when i did drive after that half a pint or so i didnt have any music on and found i paid more attention to the road in due to the idea that i'l probaly react slightley slower.

lakitu · 1 Jun 2007 at 13:48

plus magners is only 750ml a pint and a half is 852ml

Meeko · 1 Jun 2007 at 13:49

Some of you seem to be missing the fact that a "regular" sized bottle of Magners only contains 1 pint, not 1.5!

EDIT : Re the above post - all the bottles I've ever bought at a bar or Asda/Tesco are 568ml, not 750ml??!? Where are you finding these bigger bottles?

platypus · 1 Jun 2007 at 13:50

Don't even have half a pint if you're going to drive.

PhilthyPhil · 1 Jun 2007 at 13:53

Smiley Man said:
yeah but the mg in your blood doesnt directly say how its affecting your driving ability (does it)

80mg per 100ml is gonna affect different people differently

correct me if im wrong of course

driving tired is a lot more dangerous than driving with a copule of pints in you in my opinion

I am not expert but I think the reason some people are effected more by the same amount of alcohol is because their body breaks it down more slowly. Hence your burly 50 year old bloke will have a lower blood alcohol level for the same quantity of alcohol consumed. If he was to consume enough alcohol to get his blood alcohol level to be the same as the 17 year old girl then I would assume that they would experience similar effects, although as I say I am no expert.

lakitu said:
plus magners is only 750ml a pint and a half is 852ml

For 750ml it would be 3.5 units and for one pint (568.3 ml) it would be 2.4 units

KaHn · 1 Jun 2007 at 13:57

A normal bottle of magners you get in the pubs

4.5% in a 568 ml bottle gives you 2.556 units.

Thats using the equation given by

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_of_alcohol

Also for the guys saying half a pint is 1 unit, half a pint of stella is 1.4 units so thats a bit of urban myth.

1 unit of alcohol is normally classed as 1 x 25ml shot of 40% abv.

The main reason tiredness and illness is not classed the same as drink driving as they aren't self inflicted.

Tbh if your thinking about drink driving leave the car at home and pay for a taxi you cheap gits

KaHn

Smiley Man · 1 Jun 2007 at 13:59

PhilthyPhil said:
I am not expert but I think the reason some people are effected more by the same amount of alcohol is because their body breaks it down more slowly. Hence your burly 50 year old bloke will have a lower blood alcohol level for the same quantity of alcohol consumed. If he was to consume enough alcohol to get his blood alcohol level to be the same as the 17 year old girl then I would assume that they would experience similar effects, although as I say I am no expert.

also the fact that if the 50 year old bloke drank every day, he'd have a tolerance, so anything up to 3 or 4 pints might not affect him at all, yet there'd still be just as much alcohol in his blood, even though the GABA agonising nature of ethanol is pretty much 0

spuds - that is a very good point

kahn - they arent self inflicted but you could still not drive, if i was really tired and had the flu i wouldnt drive, even though it wasnt self inflicted

i've never drove drunk, but i have driven tired and i do regret it