Alkaline Alcoholic Drinks List

This alkaline alcoholic drinks list extends my alkaline beverages list. That list covers all key drinks from the USDA Key Foods list, whereas this list covers all alcoholic drinks from the full database.

Before I explain and present the list in detail, there are some important facts you need to consider. However, if you just want to see the numbers, see Alkaline Alcoholic Drinks List. Also, beneath that list, I have included links to related information.

Alkaline Alcoholic Drinks Facts

  1. Most of the information you will read elsewhere on the Internet about acid or alkaline alcoholic drinks is wrong
  2. If you are drinking enough alcoholic drinks to significantly affect alkalinity, you are drinking more than is healthy
  3. Alcohol affects metabolism in ways that are separate from the acid load of PRAL nutrients. So you must support PRAL estimtes with urine pH tests if you drink alcohol.

1. Acidic Alcohol Myth

There are thousands of Internet pages that describe alcoholic drinks in general, and beer in particular, as acidic.

They are all wrong. (but please see my Beer PRAL is NOT pH comment below).

That notion comes from a lab test where drinks are incinerated until all water is evaporated, and all fats and proteins destroyed. The resultant inorganic ash is measured for pH. That value is meaningless for nutrition purposes. Our bodies use organic matter as well as inorganic matter. Destroying organic matter produces false results. This is not how our bodies work.

If you see alkaline nutrition information based on ash pH tests, you should ignore it. If you paid for that information you should seek a refund or sue the publishers.

2. Beware Excess Alcohol

Excess alcohol is not good for health. Because there are links between alcohol and specific diseases. So I will investigate those disease in detail as time allows. The most obvious is probably obesity. When you consider that the average drink has 150 calories, then 5 drinks blows a massive 750 calorie hole in your total calorie allowance.

You can see from the PRAL values listed below that most alcoholic drinks are alkaline or neutral. But even the most alkaline alcoholic beverage, red wine, is only slightly alkaline. You would need a whole bottle (around 600 calories) to balance the acid load of a small portion of beef (around 300 calories). Of course, you can exercise more to balance the calorie load, but alcoholic drinks in excess make healthy eating difficult. It is up to you to assess your own health risks. If you have any concerns about your alcohol intake you must discuss this with a health professional. That also applies if you drink more than the recommended alcohol limit.

3. Is Alcohol Acidic?

Several studies show that alcohol affects acid-base balance in the body. This is separate from how nutrients in the PRAL alkalinity calculation affect acid-base balance. Because in PRAL calculations, alcohol is neutral. But alcohol affects how kidneys function. So PRAL values do not tell the full story. For example, we can see that the nutrients in red wine will reduce the acid load in the kidney as a result of digesting those nutrients. But we cannot tell how the alcohol content of wine affects metabolism in other ways.
Unfortunately, I cannot find any studies explaining combined effects of PRAL and alcohol. So you should consult your doctor about tests for liver function, kidney function, and urine pH.

Alkaline Alcoholic Drinks Explanation

Unlike most of my alkaline foods lists, I present the alkaline alcoholic drinks in typical serving sizes. This makes it easier to compare different drinks. I took the serving sizes from the USDA database, but you need to compare this with your actual drink size. Particularly at home, and parties, drinks are often much bigger.

In my alkaline beverages list, the serving size is shown in grams to make a 100 calorie serving. This is different in the list below. In the alkaline alcoholic drinks list, I’ve used common serving sizes, so calories vary from drink to drink. If your serving size is bigger than the value shown in the table, you should increase the calorie count, and the other values accordingly.

Alkaline Alcoholic Drinks List

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Alkaline Drinks Table Explanation Serving Help Calories Help PRAL Help Sugars Help Sodium Help

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Long Description Serving Size Calories PRAL Score Sugar (g) Sodium (mg)

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wine, table, red 1 serving, 5 fl oz 125 -3 1 6

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wine, table, red, Merlot 1 serving, 5 fl oz 122 -3 1 6

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wine, table, all 1 serving, 5 fl oz 123 -3 1 7

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wine, light 1 serving, 5 fl oz 73 -2 2 10

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beer, light, BUDWEISER SELECT 12 fluid ounce 99 -2 0 11

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wine, dessert, sweet 1 glass, (3.5 fl oz) 165 -2 8 9

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wine, dessert, dry 1 glass, (3.5 fl oz) 157 -2 1 9

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pina colada, prepared-from-recipe 1 cocktail, (4.5 fl oz) 245 -2 31 8

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wine, table, white 1 serving, 5 fl oz 121 -2 1 7

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wine, table, white, Chardonnay 1 serving, 5 fl oz 123 -2 1 7

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beer, regular, BUDWEISER 12 fl oz 146 -1 0 11

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beer, light, BUD LIGHT 12 fl oz 103 -1 0 11

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pina colada, canned 1 can, (6.8 fl oz, 200 ml) 526 -1 0 158

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whiskey sour, prepared with water, whiskey and powder mix 1 packet, prepared 169 -1 16 48

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rice (sake) 1 serving, 6 fl oz 235 0 0 4

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beer, light, MICHELOB ULTRA 12 fl oz 96 0 0 11

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wine, cooking 1 fl oz 15 0 0 1

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daiquiri, canned 1 can, (6.8 fl oz, 200 ml) 259 0 0 83

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liqueur, coffee, 53 proof 1 jigger, 1.5 fl oz 170 0 24 4

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liqueur, coffee, 63 proof 1 jigger, 1.5 fl oz 160 0 17 4

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beer, light 1 can, or bottle (12 fl oz) 103 0 0 14

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whiskey sour, prepared from bottled mix 1 portion, (2 oz mix + 1.5 oz whiskey) 162 0 14 65

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daiquiri, prepared-from-recipe 1 cocktail, (2 fl oz) 112 0 3 3

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beer, regular, all 1 can 153 0 0 14

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whiskey sour, canned 1 can, (6.8 fl oz, 200 ml) 249 0 0 92

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creme de menthe, 72 proof 1 jigger, 1.5 fl oz 186 0 21 3

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distilled, gin, 90 proof 1 jigger, 1.5 fl oz 110 0 0 1

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distilled, whiskey, 86 proof 1 jigger, 1.5 fl oz 105 0 0 0

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distilled, all (gin, rum, vodka, whiskey) 80 proof 1 jigger, 1.5 fl oz 97 0 0 0

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distilled, all (gin, rum, vodka, whiskey) 94 proof 1 jigger, 1.5 fl oz 116 0 0 0

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distilled, all (gin, rum, vodka, whiskey) 100 proof 1 jigger, 1.5 fl oz 124 0 0 0

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distilled, all (gin, rum, vodka, whiskey) 86 proof 1 jigger, 1.5 fl oz 105 0 0 0

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distilled, all (gin, rum, vodka, whiskey) 90 proof 1 jigger, 1.5 fl oz 110 0 0 0

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distilled, rum, 80 proof 1 jigger, 1.5 fl oz 97 0 0 0

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distilled, vodka, 80 proof 1 jigger, 1.5 fl oz 97 0 0 0

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tequila sunrise, canned 1 can, (6.8 fl oz, 200 ml) 232 0 0 120

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liqueur, coffee with cream, 34 proof 1 jigger, 1.5 fl oz 154 1 9 43
Alkaline Alcoholic Drinks Table

Which is your favorite alkaline alcoholic drink?

Alkaline Alcoholic Drinks Review

The alkaline alcoholic drinks list tells us that many alcoholic drinks are alkaline, especially wine. In fact, only 1 drink in the alcoholic beverage list is acidic. Most alcoholic drinks are about neutral, and therefore they have little effect on an alkaline diet. If you stay within your calorie limit, alcohol is an acceptable part of an alkaline diet.

If you have any questions, experiences, or opinions about alcohol, please share in the feedback form below.

Leave Alkaline Alcoholic Drinks to read more Alkaline Food Lists.


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2 replies on “Alkaline Alcoholic Drinks List”

  1. pH Value of Beer

    Wrong

    Sorry, you are wrong on this. Bud light, bud, lagers in general are around 3.5, i.e., acidic. I’ve measured pH straight from the can. Typically stouts like Guiness are less acidic, around 4.3, but still orders of magnitude greater hydronium concentration than water. Please stop spreading false information.

    • PRAL Value of Beer – NOT Ph

      Hi Jdwricky, I’m sorry that my information alkaline alcoholic drinks is confusing.

      The pH properties of any food or drink are completely different to what is generally meant by alkaline drinks. It might be better if I referred to alkalizing drinks. This is because in nutrition, we are concerned with the effects of food and drink on our bodies. In the introduction above, I mention the dangers of measuring pH using the ash method. That is the most common error when measuring alkalinity for nutrition. The other error is to measure pH directly.

      As I pointed out in my explanation of the PRAL calculation:

      There are some food charts published to show the pH values of food, measured from the actual food or drink item. This is only relevant to canning factories and other parts of the food packaging and distribution industry.

      I hope that explains the different methods of calculating alkaline alcoholic drinks. I’d be very pleased for any suggestions about how I might rewrite this page to make it clearer.

      As I’ve just asked elsewhere, are there any health conditions where the physical pH of food is more important than the effect on pH balance after digestion?