Calculate how much liquor for a party
Use this calculator to plan your bar in minutes. Enter your guest count, choose the drinking level (low/medium/high), select event hours, and click CALCULATE. Quantities auto scale from a 4-hour, 100-guest baseline (ice shown as 2.5 kg bags). Use the Buy now links to open Amazon in a new tab and order what you need, when in doubt, round up.
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When you hire a bartender for private event,, the first relevant data is the number of guests. You probably have a definitive list when buying the drinks. If the event is daytime or starts in the early hours, or if there are many young people among the guests, you will have to add a few more bottles to the estimated calculation. If it is daytime, it is calculated between 8 and 10 drinks per guest. For an evening event, between 4 and 6 drinks. If the link is in summer, you would have to add 15 or 20% more.
Let's break this down:
- Average Drinks per Guest: This can vary widely depending on the type of event and the drinking habits of your guests. For a general estimate, you might assume 2-3 drinks per guest for a moderate drinking crowd. Adjust this number based on your knowledge of your guests.
Number of Guests: In this case, it’s 50.
Duration of Event in hours: How long will the event last? This could be anything from a couple of hours to an all-day affair.
Percentage of Alcohol Content: Different types of alcohol have different alcohol by volume (ABV) percentages. For example, beer typically has around 4-6% ABV, wine around 9-16% ABV, and spirits (like vodka, whiskey, etc.) around 40-50% ABV. You’ll need to adjust this based on the types of alcohol you plan to serve.
Let’s say you’re serving a mix of beer, wine, and spirits, and you estimate an average of 2 drinks per guest over a 4-hour event. You might use the following estimates for alcohol content:
- Beer: 5% ABV
- Wine: 12% ABV
- Spirits: 40% ABV
Capacity per bottle
To calculate your needs, first, understand bottle capacity in cups. White wine: 120 ml per glass, red wine: 150 ml per glass. A 750 ml bottle typically serves 8 to 10 glasses. Sparkling wine: 140 ml per flute, dessert wine: 75 ml per glass. Simplifying, one bottle of white wine serves 5, red wine serves 3.
Preferences: red wine
According to experts, one 750 ml bottle of red wine serves 3 people. Not all guests will drink this much, while some might drink more. For meals like roast, popular among Uruguayans, the estimated ratio is 80% red wine and 20% white wine per person. Exclude children, pregnant women, and non-drinkers from calculations. For daytime events, consider adjusting to 7 bottles of red wine for every 3 bottles of white wine.
The sparkling, infallible for toast
Surely, for the toast you offer some sparkling wine, but it is also ideal for the reception, a cocktail with snacks on a platter. This is because you can share prominence with red wine and the waiters will fill the guest glasses. Even the demand for white wine can increase in this type of reception. Depending on the case, if it will be drunk on one occasion, the calculation is one bottle of sparkling wine every 8 people. If it’s both, you should double it.
Water and sodas
The water must be on all tables. To do this, let’s calculate half a liter per person. In the case of sodas and soft drinks, these accompany the meals of guests who do not drink, but also add to the snacks. The drink with the highest output is the cola, 70%, the rest you can distribute between orange, lime-lemon and light drinks. In these cases, we calculate one liter per person.
Mixing drinks
In the calculation of the amount of bottles do not forget the spirits, even more so, if your party has a drinks bar. To do this, the main options are tequila, rum, vodka, (How You’re Supposed to Drink Vodka) fernet and whiskey, inclusive. For example, for 50 guests who lean towards long drinks, an estimated calculation for the bar would be: tequila, 3 to 4 bottles; vodka, 3 to 4; rum, 2 to 3; fernet, 4 to 5; beer and one glass per person.
Refreshing beers
A person may drink up to 4 individual beers during the event. The average would be to evaluate between 3 and 4 glasses or porrones of beer per person. Since not everyone will drink beers, an estimated calculation would be one porron per guest adult. If it’s free beer, then 2 porrones per person would be ideal
Other details
During the wedding, not everyone will drink the same. Some will choose wine; others, beer. Everything will be compensated to strike a balance between the quantities consumed. Consider that whoever starts with a drink usually continues with it until the end. If guests arrive after dinner, the same is calculated for them, as it also coincides with a guest replacement. The average consumption of one bottle of alcohol every three people is adjusted for a more fine-tuned calculation.
Moderate consumption is much more enjoyed. These tips will help you make your drinks table. We recommend buying them in a place that allows you to return what has not been consumed and also check the cooling point at the time of serving. Cheers!
