Units of fiction

St Cuthman’s Ale is probably going to be quite strong (9%?) So in common with other far more famous beers in this style, such as Chimay, it will be sold in 330 ml bottles. This is a beer for sipping, not quaffing.

If the production version comes out at alc 9% vol, each bottle will contain 29.7 ml of alcohol – 3 units. This is at the bottom end of the UK daily recommended allowance for men and at the top end for women. So what do we put on the label ? There’s a voluntary code in existence which covers labelling but it would seem that much to nanny’s horror, brewers and their ilk are not sticking to it:

The evidence from this series of reviews, and the hospital admissions data, clearly make this the right time to consult on a far tougher approach to the alcohol industry,” Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo said in a statement.

“Some sections of the industry are sticking to the voluntary codes, others are blatantly ignoring them.

Presumably, the long awaited legislation would be brought in to enforce labelling like this:

She had better hurry up. This government is unlikely to survive the next general election and I imagine a new one would have rather more important things to worry about given the doleful state of our economy, schools, crime levels and so on.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with putting units on the bottle label and I think that it’s probably quite helpful in allowing people to gauge their intake. Where I do have a problem is the recommended limits. These are made up, or not to mince words, lies.

Subsequent studies found evidence which suggested that the safety limits should be raised, but they were ignored by a succession of health ministers.

The Times goes on to mention an unnamed study that suggests that a man would have to drink up to 63 units a week to face the same risk of death as a teetotaller.

So what is the safe limit? Well it seems that the truth is that no one actually knows for certain although there’s some evidence that moderate drinking is actually good for you.