Wine vs Beer: Which Has More Calories?

Wine, per millilitre. Beer, per drink. Both answers are correct, which is why this argument never gets settled in the pub.

Wine is roughly three times stronger than beer, so millilitre for millilitre it carries far more calories. But nobody drinks them in the same quantities. A glass of wine against a pint of lager is a fairer contest, and there the beer usually wins on volume alone.

Here's all three ways of measuring it, because each one tells you something different.

Straight comparison, per 100ml

Wine wins on paper and loses in practice, because this is the least useful of the three measures. Nobody pours 100ml of anything.

As people actually drink them

This is the comparison that matters for most people. A large glass of wine and a pint of lager land within about 15 calories of each other. A pint of strong craft IPA beats both by some distance.

The fairest measure: calories per unit of alcohol

If you're drinking to a limit rather than to a volume, this is the number to look at. It strips out serving size entirely and asks what each drink costs you per unit.

Here wine wins clearly, and the reason is carbohydrate.

Wine is fermented from grape juice and dry wine converts nearly all of it, leaving next to no sugar behind. Beer is fermented from grain and always leaves residual carbohydrate in the finished drink, often 15 to 20g in a pint. That carbohydrate sits on top of the alcohol calories rather than replacing them.

So per unit of alcohol, wine is the more efficient drink. Per glass in your hand, it depends entirely on the glass.

What about carbs?

Not close. A dry wine at 0g sugar carries essentially no carbohydrate. A pint of lager carries 15 to 20g, and a pint of craft IPA can reach 28g.

If you're on keto or counting carbs specifically rather than calories, dry wine is the far easier choice, and it isn't a marginal difference.

Where our range sits

Both sides of the argument get easier when the starting numbers are lower.

Wine, per 125ml glass

Beer, per can

The carbs column is the interesting one. A standard pint of IPA carries around 28g. Ours carry 4g or less, and The Löwecal Lager carries none at all.

So which should you pick?

If you drink by the glass and stop at one or two, wine and beer are closer than the internet suggests, and the specific bottle matters more than the colour or the category.

If you drink by the pint, wine is almost always the lighter option simply because of the volume involved.

If you're counting carbs, wine wins comfortably.

And if you'd rather not choose, the honest answer is that switching within a category saves you more than switching between them. Moving from a standard lager to a low calorie one saves more than moving from lager to wine.

Shop

• Low calorie wine: every bottle full strength
• Low calorie beer: full strength, lower carb
• Keto wine and keto beer

Please drink responsibly. UK guidance is no more than 14 units a week, spread across several days.

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