Find out how much alcohol you need to buy for your guests

How much alcohol to buy is always a consideration when hosting an event. While there are no absolute rules, there are some guidelines that can help. You can also adapt these purchasing guidelines to suit your guests’ product preferences.

Wine

A standard serving of wine is 5 ounces at 12% alcohol by volume. This means that you get:

  • 5 glasses per 750 millilitre bottle
  • 7 glasses per litre
  • 10 ½ glasses per 1.5 litre magnum

Beer

Generally a 341 millilitre (12 ounce) bottle of beer is 1 serving. So a case of 24 beers provides 24 standard beer servings.

Spirits

A 750 millilitre bottle gives approximately 17 standard drinks. You'll need 3 similarly sized bottles of mix. Guest preferences or a party theme may affect the types of spirits you purchase. The following is therefore only a basic guide to deciding how to break down spirit purchases:

  • 30% Canadian whisky
  • 20% vodka
  • 20% rum
  • 10% scotch
  • 10% gin (more popular in summer)
  • 10% liqueurs

Estimating your buying needs for social functions

Follow these guidelines when calculating your buying requirements.

  • Generally, plan on 4 "standard drinks" per person for a 3-hour event.
  • Multiply that by the number of guests you expect to estimate the total "standard drinks" you may need for the event.
  • Translate this number into the approximate servings of wine, beer and spirits.

Number of people

50% beer
(cases of 24)

25% wine
(750 millilitre)

25% spirits
(750 millilitre)

12

1

3

1

25

2

5

2

50

4

10

3

100

8

20

6

150

12

30

9

200

17

40

12

250

21

50

15

300

25

60

18