Canadians boast longer lives, safer communities, free nationalized healthcare, a cleaner environment,
the most gold medals in Olympic hockey, and, of course, poutine.
But, contrary to popular belief, one thing they don’t do any different than their friends
to the south is make stronger beer.
When you’re dealing with mainstream beers, those with the highest alcohol are generally
stouts, porters and pale ales, with alcohol by volume (ABV) contents typically ranging
between 4% and 10%, though most mainstream beers tend to stay in the range of 4%-6%,
such as Canada’s popular Labatt (5% ABV), which edges out the United States’ “favorite”
brew, Bud Light (4.2% ABV).
For a few more comparisons using ABV, we have the U.S.’s Busch (4.6%), Coors Original
(5%), Old Milwaukee (5%), Bud Ice (5.5%), Keystone (4.4%), Keystone Ice (5.9%), and
Budweiser (5%).
On the Canadian side, we have Carling Black Label (4.7%), Grizzly Canadian Lager (5.4%),
Moosehead (5%), Labatt Ice (5.6%), O’Keefe Canadian (4.9%), and Molson Canadian (5%).
However, some Americans prefer their beer with a little extra kick, and United States
brewers have delivered.
For instance, the kind people at Dogfish Head make the 120 Minute IPA with an ABV of 20%,
while the evil geniuses at Sam Adams have created Utopias, a brew that boasts a whopping
27% ABV.
Of course, Canadian brewers are no slouches and their breweries have produced some hefty
quaffs, too, including Trafalgar’s Critical Mass Double/Imperial IPA with its 17% ABV,
and the aptly named but apparently discontinued Korruptor (ABV 16%).
As you can see from this, both nations boast brewers that make beers with a variety of
alcohol levels, but there really is very little difference between the nations’ respective
brewers when you average them all out.
This, perhaps, should not come as a surprise as most would like to be able to drink several
beers while socializing or watching sporting events, rather than become completely hammered
off just one or two beers.
As a result, the sweet spot for this type of recreational drinking tends to be in that
4%-6% ABV range favored by brewers the world over.
At this point, you might be wondering where the myth that Canadian beers contained significantly
more alcohol than beers made in the United States came from.
And, indeed, the U.S. also has the reputation among other nations of having weak beers,
not just in comparison to Canada, despite the alcohol levels in reality being pretty
similar on the whole to every other beer drinking nation in the world.
So what gives?
It is generally thought that this comes from the fact that Canada (and most everywhere
else) lists the alcohol levels in their beers by the aforementioned alcohol by volume (ABV).
As with many metrics, the United States initially bucked the trend and went with alcohol by
weight (ABW)- the weight of the alcohol in a drink divided by the total weight.
The key thing to note here is that alcohol is lighter than water (about 0.79 g/cc at
standard pressure and temperature vs. 1.0 g/cc of water).
The result is that the ABW in beers is going to be equal to roughly 4/5 of the ABV.
To illustrate, if you have a typical 12 ounce bottle of beer that is listed at a 5% ABV,
5% of that 12 ounces in the bottle is going to be alcohol.
On the other hand, take that same bottle, but now list it by ABW and because alcohol
weighs about 4/5 of water, by weight, it’s then only going to be about 4% of the total
weight of the beer in the bottle.
It’s the same amount of alcohol in the bottle, but if you don’t pay attention to whether
it’s ABV or ABW, one looks like less than the other.
With most beers in the United States classically listing their beer by ABW, instead of ABV,
this ultimately led to people thinking beer from the United States had about 20% less
alcohol on average than their international counterparts.
Today, of course, most brewers in the United States go with alcohol by volume, but the
undeserved reputation for weaker beers has endured nonetheless.