Is 32 ounces better than a quality 12?

Ok, so the team has a meeting last Thursday. I managed to arrange a covert meeting so I was able to join them. Actually, I had business with Hollow Leg, but he was out buying school supplies, so it had to be postponed until this week.

At any rate, we were at the Winking Lizard, shocking I know, having a few beers and taking advantage of the burger night. I managed to order the baked potato instead of the fries, so that just tells you things were off to a strange start.

Normally, I really peruse the beer menu and think about what I am in the mood to drink. Somehow, magically, I noticed the beer specials section of the menu. It must have been a lie because a 32 oz. Labatt was only $4.

It true that I can be as much of a beer snob as the next person, but you can't disregard a value. I am a bigger sucker for a good deal. Apparently, Sandbox (code name) thought so as well because she ordered one, too.

Maybe it was just that we were both kind of having a hard day. Maybe it is that we would have had to ordered three Traquair House Scotch ales to get the same volume of alcohol. Well, Sandbox would have had Old Peculiar (which is a fav of mine as well.)

It got me thinking, was it really a better value? Labatt was the clear winner in the volume category. However, what about ABV (alcohol by volume). Let's take a look - each of the beers are given a ABV for a 12 oz serving. (all ABVs were obtained from RateBeer to assure parity of measurement.)


Labatt Blue Lager 5.0%
Old Peculiar 5.7%
Traquair House 7.2%

Ok - based on these figures. Labatt is holding Old Peculiar hostage in the value department. So it got a little more complex with Traquair. Here is the dinger. Traquair is a hefty $7/bottle. Even if I only needed to drink 2 of them to get the comparative ABV, you are still looking at $14.

The way I see it, drinking Labatt paid for my burger and the tip. You just have to love those Canadians.