The Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division has launched CALCohol, a mobile site that calculates standard drink sizes and the number of alcohol servings per container. The goal of CALCohol is to educate consumers, retailers and servers how much alcohol is in any given beverage.

USDA guidelines state that 0.6 ounces of pure ethyl alcohol constitutes one standard drink. The old adage “a drink, is a drink, is a drink” refers to the equal alcoholic content of a 12 ounce beer, a five ounce glass of wine and a 1.5 ounce serving of liquor. However, this is only accurate at the conventional alcoholic content of five percent alcohol by volume (ABV) beer, 12 percent ABV wine and 80-proof liquor. This comparison standard no longer applies in today’s marketplace because many new alcoholic beverage products blur the lines between the categories of beer, wine and liquor. The correct serving size for an alcoholic beverage must be determined by alcoholic content, not just category.

“As the marketplace trends to flavored and sweeter products, it becomes more difficult for the consumer to be aware of how much alcohol they are consuming. CALCohol is a tool that will quickly identify the number of standard servings and may show, on some occasions, one drink is more than enough,” said Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Commission Chairperson Jim Clayton.