How Many Shots in a Pint? How Many Shots in a Can of Beer?

by Dane Wilson | Last Updated: January 3, 2022

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Imagine that you’re planning a party and making up a list of drinks for the guests. In order to purchase enough alcohol for everyone to have a great time, you need to figure out how many shots are in a pint. How many shots are in a can of beer? After all, you want to be able to mix up enough cocktails for everyone to be served at least once. So we’ve done the hard work for you. Everything you need to know is right here.

Table of Contents

• Comparing Alcoholic Content by Drink
• What is a Pint?
  • How Many Shots in a Pint?
  • How Many Shots are in a Pint of Vodka?
• How Many Shots in a Can of Beer?
• Let’s Share a Pint
• FAQs

Comparing Alcoholic Content by Drink

When answering the question of how many shots are in a pint or how many shots are in a can of beer, it’s important to know the standard size drink. That way, you can mentally keep track of how much alcohol you’ve consumed (or not) and know when to end your drinking (or keep going).

Keep in mind that, by definition, some drinks are stronger than others, such as mixed drinks compared to a straight spirit. However, when you are drinking one standard bottle of beer, the alcoholic content is usually the same as a single shot of hard liquor and a regular serving of wine.

In other words, a 12 oz can or bottle of beer is equivalent to a 4 oz serving of wine or 1.25 oz of hard liquor. That is a standard drink. A single 750ml bottle of hard liquor, such as vodka, is equivalent to 17 standard servings of alcohol.

For some reference, a Long Island Iced Tea is equal to 3 shots of alcohol, or 3 standard servings of hard liquor. Meanwhile, the 2 oz of gin in a gin and tonic yields about 1.33 shots, putting slightly over 1 standard serving.

What is a Pint?

When talking about pints, it’s important to know what kind of pint is being discussed. A “pint” might refer to the size of a liquor bottle or the size of a glass. Let’s look at the pint size of a liquor bottle first.

Generally, quarter pints, half pints, and pints are available in liquor stores. A quarter pint is 100 ml (3.4 oz). A half quarter is double that. Lastly, the pint-sized liquor bottle contains 375 ml or 12.7 oz.

There are, approximately, 16 ounces in the standard US pint glass. A standard shot glass holds about 1.5 ounces of alcohol. This will differ if you are in the US, UK, AU, or somewhere else in the world, as there is no universal standard for drink measurements. For example, the UK pint glass holds 20 imperial fluid ounces of 568 ml.

How Many Shots in a Pint?

Trying to figure out how many bottles of vodka or tequila to pick up for a party? Being that a standard pint-sized liquor bottle has 12.7 oz, you usually get 8 shots. If you pick up a quarter pint, you get 2 shots. A half pint contains 4 shots.

What about the number of shots in a pint glass? When you divide 16 oz by 1.5 oz, you get 10.6, meaning that there are 10.6 shots in a pint glass.

How Many Shots are in a Pint of Vodka?

As already mentioned, the number of shots you get from a pint will be different depending on where you are in the world. In the United States, you get 10.6 shots of vodka in a pint glass. In the UK, a single pint of vodka yields 18.9 shots, while a pint of vodka in Italy is equal to 11.8 shots.

However, if we’re talking about a pint-sized bottle of vodka at the liquor store, you’re going to get 8 shots.

How Many Shots in a Can of Beer?

You know that a single can of beer is 12 oz. If one shot is equal to 1.5 oz, then there are about 8 shots of beer in a can. This more or less coincides with a pint of vodka (12.7 oz bottle) yielding about 8 shots.

Keep in mind that a shot of beer is only equal to other hard liquors in terms of volume, not potency. Your typical watered-down domestic beer ranges between 5-8% ABV, while vodka has 40% ABV. Therefore, 12 oz (354 ml) of beer with 5% ABV only has about 0.6 oz (17.7 ml) of ethanol. A 1.5 oz shot of alcohol (44 ml) has 0.59 oz of ethanol. This is why one has a larger serving size while maintaining similar amounts of alcohol.

Drinking 8 shots of beer, which is the equivalent to one bottle of beer, is going to be less intoxicating than 8 shots of vodka. Use that knowledge however you wish!

Let’s Share a Pint

How many shots are in a pint? If we’re talking a pint bottle, there is 12.7 oz of drink, or 8 shots. If we’re referring to a pint glass, then you get about 10.6 shots of alcohol. This also answers the question about how many shots are in a can of beer. It’s 8 shots. If you get a pint of beer, it’s a little over 10. Hopefully, that helps you with your drink calculations, so you can get enough booze to keep the partying going all night long.

FAQs