What is a 40 Pounder of Alcohol?
"40 pounder" is slang, and we found no official definition of it. A common guess is a 1.75 liter bottle of liquor, which is 59.2 fluid ounces by our calculation. The TTB lists 1.75 liters as an authorized bottle size for spirits.
Free download
Standard Drinks Cheat Sheet (PDF): How many US standard drinks and UK units are in beer, wine, spirits and liqueurs, by can, glass and bottle. 33 rows, each with its source.
Thank you
Your chart is ready
We use your email only for this download.No official meaning
No government or industry body defines “40 pounder”. The term does not describe a weight, because alcohol is sold by volume. Treat any size you hear as a guess and check the bottle label.
The 1.75 liter bottle
Under TTB rules (27 CFR 5.203), the authorized metric bottle sizes for distilled spirits include 1.75, 1.5, 1 and 0.75 liters. A 1.75 liter bottle is about 59.2 fluid ounces (our calculation: 1,750 mL divided by 29.57 mL per fluid ounce).
How many drinks is that?
A US standard drink is 14 grams of pure alcohol, or 0.6 fluid ounces (NIAAA). Our calculation for a 1.75 liter bottle at 40 percent alcohol by volume: 1,750 mL x 0.40 x 0.789 g/mL is about 552 g of alcohol, or about 39 standard drinks. Drinking a large share of that in one sitting is dangerous. See our drinks in a bottle guide and the standard drink calculator.
People also ask
Is a 40 pounder the same as a handle?
We found no official definition of either term. A 1.75 liter bottle is a standard size listed by TTB.
How many fluid ounces are in 1.75 liters?
About 59.2 fluid ounces, by our calculation.
How many standard drinks are in a 1.75 liter bottle of 40 percent liquor?
About 39, by our calculation using NIAAA's 14 gram standard drink.
Sources
About · How we verify this · Editorial policy · Corrections
