Value is a package problem
Alcohol per dollar is not a property of a brand name alone. It is a property of ABV × total volume ÷ what you paid. A six-pack on sale can beat a full-price case. A warehouse club case can beat a convenience-store six-pack of the same beer. BoozeRatio computes this from the selected offer: container count, container size, ABV, and price.
Why six and twenty-four diverge
Retailers price for different missions. Six-packs optimize for trial and smaller baskets. Cases optimize for stocking up. Per-ounce prices often fall with larger packs, but not always — seasonal craft four-packs can be expensive per ounce even when the six-pack of a light lager is cheap.
Worked sketch (illustrative):
- Six-pack: 6 × 12 fl oz at 4.2% ABV for $9.99
- Case: 24 × 12 fl oz at 4.2% ABV for $26.99
Total fl oz: 72 vs 288. The case has 4× the volume for about 2.7× the money, so alcohol per dollar is much higher on the case if you will actually use the volume. Buying a case you waste is not savings.
Precedence on BoozeRatio
Price used for rankings follows: your override → selected reference offer → default reference → estimate → unavailable. You can store a local shelf price in the browser without creating an account. Share links include your prices only if you opt in.
Regional references (for example Virginia ABC for spirits and wine) are not national averages. Beer often uses other retail snapshots. Do not treat a control-state liquor price as what you will pay for a grocery lager.
Do not mix contexts
A $7 pint at a bar and a $0.90-per-can case at home answer different questions. BoozeRatio keeps retail-style package offers in the catalog and lets you override; it does not silently blend on-premise and off-premise into one unlabeled leaderboard.
Steps to compare packs
- Open a drink detail page and review alternate offers (12-pack vs 24-pack when present).
- Or open Compare, select the drink, and edit the package price and pack size to match the shelf.
- Read alcohol / $ for that offer.
- Separately read alcohol / 100 cal — pack size should not rewrite composition if ABV and calories per ounce are unchanged.
Responsible framing
Higher alcohol per dollar means more ethanol per dollar spent on that package. It is not advice to maximize intake. Buy what you will consume carefully, store legally, and follow local age laws.
Related: 12 oz vs 16 oz, How regional ABC prices are used.
For adults of legal drinking age. Drink responsibly.
Break-even thinking
Ask how many six-packs equal the case volume and what you would pay for that many six-packs at today’s tag. If the case is cheaper on that apples-to-apples volume, alcohol per dollar will favor the case at identical ABV. If you only wanted six cans this week, the “savings” is theoretical inventory.
Storage, refrigeration space, and local rules about transporting alcohol matter in real life even though they do not appear in the ratio.
Sales and loss leaders
Grocery circulars often push 12-packs and 18-packs rather than full cases. Build the offer you see: set container count and price explicitly. A “2 for $22” deal is still one math problem — total dollars over total volume.
Craft versus macro
Macro light-lager cases compress alcohol/$ dramatically. Craft cases are rarer; craft value usually lives in mix-and-match sixes or variety packs with uneven ABVs — compare each SKU separately rather than averaging the cardboard.
Tie-back to composition
Remember that winning on alcohol/$ does not change alcohol/100 cal. You can buy efficient packages of inefficient (calorie-heavy) drinks. Read both columns or you will optimize the wrong goal.