What's your Dram-size

[jimidrammer]

How many ounces do you call a drink? I don't mean for tasting, but just a sit and ponder size dram. I like to sample 5 or 6 expressions on any given night after work and each usually consists of 1 to 2 oz. I'm just wondering because there doesn't seem to be a set standard. Excuse me if this has been discussed before , I am new to this forum. Thanks.

[Ed]

Hello All,
An interesting question. It depends!
It depends on how 'good' I am being, what time I can start drinking, what time I have to be up the next day and what I will be doing the next day.
My 'evening' might only be a couple of hours long as I usually finish work are 9:10 pm and should be in bed by midnight if I have to get up and work. In that case I will have three or four ounces all together. That's if I am good. Now today I finish work in the afternoon so I will probably start drinking around 5:00 pm. My first dram will be about and ounce and a half to two ounces and might last me as long as two hours. A lid for your glass is highly recommended at that pace. I use a soy sauce dish that is usually used with sushi. Tomorrow I have a long day at work so I can't drink too much, but six to eight ounces over six or seven hours and I should be fine. Now, it depends on how many whiskies I want to try how big each dram is.
Ed

[bamber]

My drams / pours are all multiples of 5cl, with 5cl being by far the most common. I do this to monitor my alcohol intake, which as a whisky nut, is way to high. Fortunately another drink calms me down if I start to fret about it

[Ed]

Hello All,
Hello Bamber,
Um, doesn't cl mean 100 milliliters? Sounds like you are pouring some pretty hefty drams!
Ed

[Aidan]

I have no idea how much I put into the glass. I just pour it out. I prefer to have a good few small ones than one giant ones, for some reason. I think it smells nicer when there's less in the glass.

[Admiral]

Ed,

1000 millilitres = 100 centilitres = 1 litre

Therefore, Bamber's 5cl dram is actually only 50ml, which is the official size of a whisky miniature!

One fluid ounce roughly = 30ml.

Here in Australia, 30ml is the standard measure when a pub serves you a spirit.

(i.e. if you ask for a double, you'll get 60ml, or two fluid ounces).

When I pour myself a dram at home, I tend to just splash some in until the glass looks comfortable. Usually, this is somewhere between 30 and 50ml.

Cheers,
Admiral

[bamber]

I actually meant 2.5 cl / 25ml

This is a standard UK single.

[lucabeer]

40-50 ml. Yes, I like a big dram!

[Ed]

Hello All,
Hello Admiral,
Yes, of course, I don't think in centiliters, but milliliters. I put the decimal in the wrong place. I don't really think in fluid oz. either, even though I am an American. I have been in Japan too long. For some reason the Japanese don't use centi- very much even though they use the metric system. Only centimeters are used never centigrams or centigrams.
Back to whisky and drams, I tend to think in units of 40 ml. The reason being 40 milliliters of 43% whisky is about equal to one 350 ml beer 5% in alcohol content. When I started drinking whiskey seriously I wanted to know how much alcohol I was drinking in 'beer units' I sometimes put my glass on a kitchen scale and weigh my pour if I am keeping close track. Mostly I just slosh what looks to be about what I want of that particular whisk(e)y.

Hello Bamber,
Glad we got that sorted out. However, thinking of you downing great heroic drams of half a liter of so was kind of fun...
Ed

[bamber]

Hi Ed,

It does sound good - giant ultra thin brandy balloon, 2/3 full of one of your favourite malts

[hpulley]

Probably half an ounce to two ounces, depending on my mood, whether I'm having one or a few, etc.

Harry

[Aidan]

My drams / pours are all multiples of 5cl, with 5cl being by far the most common. I do this to monitor my alcohol intake, which as a whisky nut, is way to high. Fortunately another drink calms me down if I start to fret about it

Yeah, you'd be better off just drinking from the bottle.

I am all confused when it comes to measurements - so I'm not one to talk.

[bamber]

My drams / pours are all multiples of 5cl, with 5cl being by far the most common. I do this to monitor my alcohol intake, which as a whisky nut, is way to high. Fortunately another drink calms me down if I start to fret about it

Yeah, you'd be better off just drinking from the bottle.

I am all confused when it comes to measurements - so I'm not one to talk.

There are days ....

[Aidan]

[Tom]

40 to 50 ml, i have one every evening and often two or three.
if i taste at home then about 5 times 30 ml.

[Lawrence]

Usually at home I try to aim for an ounce, but if I'm out on the town then I usually go for a double. Repeatedly.

[Dan G]

If I'm just at home, reading or listening to music, I do the method Ed mentions earlier - just slosh some into a glass until it looks like enough. I use either a tasting glass (like the ones from Whisky mag) or a crystal tumbler, and I know about what 2 oz looks like, and shoot for somewhere in that area. And I try to limit myself, no more than 2 per night, not more than 4 times a week.

I do most of my out-of-the-house drinking at a private club, where its doubles (usually free poured, so quite large) are $7.00 for any brand they have on hand. usually not a great selection but it varies.

[/george]

At home or out my measure is 2 or 4 cl. When I want to taste different whiskies I take 2 cl portions otherwise 4 cl.

Usually my purse or body tells me when to stop.

[Deactivated Member]

I actually meant 2.5 cl / 25ml

This is a standard UK single.

Most of the places I've been in the UK have gone to 35ml, which I think is just about right for me--1 1/4 oz. My pours at home are right around that.

In the States, I'll often find when I order a malt that I get a ridiculous portion--3 or 4 ounces or more. Not that I'm complaining! But a lot of bartenders don't seem to know what they're serving. If you order it neat, they fill the glass as high as they would on the rocks. If it was my bar, they'd get better training than that.

[bamber]

True - there are a lot more 35ml singles in the UK these days. A tumbler of Scotch sounds good in theory, but probably means having to go home a bit eariler than planned

[hpulley]

MTH, shhhhhhhhhh! Some of us like getting 7-8 oz of whisky for the price of one shot! At a hockey arena once the cheap seats were full so I went to the balcony where they have a bar. For some reason the only cups they had were plastic beer cups. They had the Classic Malts there so I ordered a Talisker. The bartender was about to fill the cup with ice when I shouted "No ice! No ice! No ice!" Then she proceeded to fill the cup up with what must have been 8-10 oz of Talisker. Good thing I wasn't driving home...

Harry

[Ed]

Hello All,
Hello Harry,
Here in Japan, if you order a coke no ice you get a half a glass of coke. Since the ice is just as expensive to the vendor as the coke it doesn't make much sense. Good luck getting a 10 oz whisky...
Ah, well, sour grapes don't go well with whisky.
Ed

[Deactivated Member]

Harry, I had a similar experience with a Balvenie 15. It was supposed to be a good-night dram and I had to drive the next morning. Ow!

I'm moved to start a thread on glassware, which will appear momentarily.

[Deactivated Member]

There's no such thing as a measure, it's never enough. (did I just sound like an alcoholic??? Oh no not again )

Cheers,

Erik

P.S. However, I usually have between 35 and 40 ml and then add some water to it.

[Admiral]

Perhaps now would be an appropriate time to actually provide a definition for the word "dram":


"Dram....a measure of whisky, the size of which depends on the generosity of the pourer."

Cheers,
Admiral

[Deactivated Member]

A dram is actually a specific measure, is it not? Anyone here know offhand what it is in ml? (Where the hell is Mr. Picky? He would know.)

[Deactivated Member]

Yikes. 3.69669121737883 ml, or an eighth of an ounce. Not much of a drink!

[Ed]

Hello All,
Hello Mr TattieHeid,
In that case I had 40 or 50 drams last night.
Ed

[Mr Fjeld]

The official international size of a dram is the same as the specific amount of spirit that goes into mixing drinks. It's supposed to be 4 cl, but in some countries "double" drinks/drams are allowed.
I cannot post a link or reference, but the reason why I know this is that in Norway the maximum is 4cl and it's based on the international standard. Only in a few longdrinks are we allowed to enjoy up to 6 cl - but those exceptions are few and far between.
Can't say it bothers me tough, I think 4 cl is just about the right amount of whisky and if I want to taste several whiskies (up to 4) the first ones are no larger than 2c. And I don't like "drinks/longdrinks”.


Cheers!
Christian

[Deactivated Member]

My figures came from http://www.convert-me.com/en/ . If there's another "official" definition of a dram, I'd be interested to see a reference.

Mr. Fjeld, what on earth are you doing up and posting at this hour?

[Mr Fjeld]

My figures came from http://www.convert-me.com/en/ . If there's another "official" definition of a dram, I'd be interested to see a reference.

Mr. Fjeld, what on earth are you doing up and posting at this hour?

Good morning Mr Tattieheid!
Well, the local time is 0750 am as we speak. But you are right - I could be sleeping because I broke my elbow and is on a sick leave. It's just that there's so much to learn about whisky and I cannot afford to sleep it all away .......must not sleep........must not sleep......


Edit: I had difficulties finding a link but here's one - but in Norwegian I'm afraid. Anyway, it states that the usual unit of alcohol is generally considered to be between 8 - 13 gr. In the Scandinavian countries the official size of a unit is 13g which equals 4cl of strong spirit/33c. of beer and 12cl of red wine. I have to say the last one is very suspicious as the alcohol percentage in wine can vary as much as 4-6 percent.

http://www.tidsskriftet.no/lts-pdf/pdf2 ... 20p%C3%A5'

Cheers!
Christian

[Deactivated Member]

For your interest, there's no actual reference for a dram. It's the measure you are comfortable with. The only measures I know are: a small dram, a decent dram and a large dram. What ever suits you best

Cheers,

Erik

[Mr Fjeld]

I'm afraid there's an official size/amount in the Scandinavian countries - at least in Sweden and Norway where 4cl is the maximum amount you can buy. Actually, the law so strict that I'm not even allowed to buy for a friend at the bar and bring it to him. One person - one drink - and no more than 4cl

Cheers!
Christian

[Deactivated Member]

Christian,

Ofcourse there's a legal size and that's what you'll get in restaurants and bars etc. That will vary from country to country, from continent to continent and from state to state. All regulated by their own laws and licences.

But I was actually talking about a dram-size in general, how much whisky does man poor him self in glas. And that brings us to the word dram, that for that matter there's no actual size, just a measure you are comfortable with.

Cheers,

Erik

[Mr Fjeld]

Of course there's a legal size and that was currently discussed in this thread, although the header says otherwise. The reason why I mentioned it was because off the board members own experiences differed so much. But I agree with you - there's no "true standard" of the right amount to pour in the dram. My own preferences are about 2 when I'm tasting several different whiskies and about 4 cl whenever I'm "just enjoying" a whisky!

Cheers!
Christian