# A mole of beer - how big? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 24, 2010, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mole-of-beer-how-big/558186 "2010-10-24T14:33:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mole-of-beer-how-big/558186/21 "2010-10-25T17:26:19Z")
Has anyone else ever dialed 602-1023 and asked for Avoagadro? ---
**Author:** ![Amblydoper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@Amblydoper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amblydoper)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mole-of-beer-how-big/558186/22 "2010-10-25T17:58:46Z")
why not 10:23 on 6/02? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mole-of-beer-how-big/558186/23 "2010-10-25T18:06:08Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > We’re gonna need a bigger fridge." - Sheriff Brody. You just got yourself a free beer the next time we’re hanging out, **Maus**. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mole-of-beer-how-big/558186/24 "2010-10-25T20:37:23Z")
> [@](#): > > Has anyone else ever dialed 602-1023 and asked for Avoagadro? There’s actually a sandwich shop on campus called Avogadro’s Number, and their phone number ends with 6023. By the way, if you ever ask a theoretical physicist his phone number, he’ll tell you “It’s of order 10[sup]7[/sup]”. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mole-of-beer-how-big/558186/25 "2010-10-25T20:45:54Z")
> [@Sigene](#): > > umm. > > No. water (1.00g/ml) is denser than ethanol (0.789g/ml) My mistake, but my off the top of my head assumption that a mole of ethanol was greater in volume than forty six grams of water used the correct relationship. So I knew what I was doing in my own head anyway. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mole-of-beer-how-big/558186/26 "2010-10-25T21:32:50Z")
Some Bitters, Milds, Wheat beers, and most “Lite” beers have an OG ranging from 1020-1040. The majority of beers fall in the 1040-1050 range including most Lagers, Stout, Porter, Pale Ale, most Bitters, and Wheat beers. From 1050-1060 you’ll find, Oktoberfest, India Pale Ale, ESB (Extra Special Bitter). In the 1060-1075 range will be Bock, strong ales, Belgian doubles. Above 1075 are the really strong beers like Dopplebocks, Barleywines, Imperial Stouts, and Belgian trippels and strong ales. [http://www.faqs.org/faqs/beer-faq/part2/section-1.html](http://www.faqs.org/faqs/beer-faq/part2/section-1.html) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mole-of-beer-how-big/558186/27 "2010-10-25T21:36:27Z")
To be clear, there, “OG” is an abbreviation for specific gravity, and the units are kg/m^3? So pure water would be 1000? ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2010, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mole-of-beer-how-big/558186/28 "2010-10-25T22:28:07Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > To be clear, there, “OG” is an abbreviation for specific gravity, and the units are kg/m^3? So pure water would be 1000? Quoting from the linked article: Specific gravity is a measure of the density of a liquid. Distilled water has a specific gravity of 1.000 at 60F(15C) and is used as a baseline. The specific gravity of beer measured before fermentation is called its Original Gravity or OG and sometimes its Starting Gravity (SG). This gives an idea of how much sugar is dissolved in the wort (unfermented beer) on which the yeast can work. The range of values goes from approximately 1.020 to 1.160 meaning the wort can be from 1.02 to 1.16 times as dense as water (in British brewing the decimal point is usually omitted). When measured after fermentation it is called the Final Gravity (FG) or Terminal Gravity (TG). The difference between these two values is a good gauge of the amount of alcohol produced during fermentation. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mole-of-beer-how-big/558186/29 "2010-10-26T09:16:39Z")
> [@fuzzypickles](#): > > Nerdiest. Day. Ever. No, that would be Ramanujam’s Number Day, July 29. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mole-of-beer-how-big/558186/30 "2010-10-26T09:27:03Z")
Getting back on topic, then, it would appear that a mole of beer (as opposed to a mole of beers) is a Thing That Don’t Exist. Simply because a mole is better suited to measuring the number of molecules in, say, each ingredient, and because the ingredients aren’t mixed in a 1:1 ratio (a 1:1 mix of hops and water just sounds _nasty_), one mole of one ingredient - water, let’s say - would mean generally less than one mole of things like esters and sugars and whatnot. Or, I suppose, there would be some way of determining the relative proportions of each ingredient, calculating the molecular weights thereof, and then make a rough guess as to what volume would encompass 6.022 \* 10^23 molecules in total, regardless of the number of molecules of each component. (Or what **Polycarp** said.) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mole-of-beer-how-big/558186/31 "2010-10-26T11:02:30Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > To be clear, there, “OG” is an abbreviation for specific gravity, and the units are kg/m^3? So pure water would be 1000? Unit-less. It’s a ratio, obtained dividing the density of something by the density of something else (which must be properly referenced; “water at 4ºC”, “water at 20ºC” and “water at 25ºC” are popular). ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2010, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mole-of-beer-how-big/558186/32 "2010-10-26T12:33:11Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > Ah, but that’s not going to be a large enough fridge for a mole of beers, because you need space for the bottles and the air between them. And some sort of racking or shelving so that the bottle layers don’t get crushed. Last thing we need is a planetary body of beer contaminated by a lot of glass shards! Not quite true. At that volume of beer, its own gravity will be more than enough to hold it together. We don’ need no steenkin’ bottles! And out in space (or in Saskatoon) it’s cold enough that it’ll freeze, so when all’s said & done we’ve got a beer comet bigger than Earth. That’s a kegger to remember … If only we could. Imagine everybody on earth looking like [http://www.latenightmistakes.com/](http://www.latenightmistakes.com/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mole-of-beer-how-big/558186.md?page=1)