Transcript: If you're still drinking vodka to get wasted “faster,” it's time to re-learn everything you think you know about alcohol's potency.  Whether you're looking to get loaded or trying to stay sober, you'll want to start by understanding how much alcohol is in each drink.  A “standard drink” is defined as one-ounce of liquor, a 12-ounce beer, or a five-ounce glass of wine. Despite the commonly held belief that liquor or wine is stronger, every one of these “drinks” contains 1.2 tablespoons of alcohol.  With that in mind, it's even more confusing that each of these beverages lists a different percentage of alcohol on its label. For example, most beers claim to contain 4 to 6% alcohol per bottle.  Meanwhile, wine labels read around 13 to 15% alcohol, and hard liquor labels proclaim to have 40 to 50%. Still, the 1.2 tablespoon rule holds true, and here's why: The percentage of alcohol listed on your bottle is actually the percentage for the entire container. That means that a single beer does have 4 to 6% alcohol. Yet so does a glass of wine, because the 12% listed on the label is divided between the container's four to five glasses. And a fifth of hard liquor shares its 40 to 50% evenly among the 17 shots in each bottle.  As such, all drinks are generally created equal, and you should remember that what you drink matters significantly less than how much you drink!