Planning Tool
Alcohol Calculator
A simple tool to help you estimate how much to purchase for your gathering. Shake & Gather is a dry-hire service — you provide the alcohol, we bring the bar.
Because Shake & Gather operates on a dry-hire model, you supply the alcohol for your event. This tool is a planning aid, not a finished shopping list: it applies the assumptions you set below, and you can change every one of them.
Your Event
Only the guests expected to drink alcohol are counted in the estimate — non-drinkers, children and guests sticking to water are not.
We start at 1.5. This is our planning assumption for the estimate, not a recommendation or a rule — a slower cocktail hour and a lively dance floor do not drink at the same pace. Set it to match your crowd.
Drink Mix
Your Shopping List
Estimated for 50 guests drinking alcohol over 4 hours — about 300 drinks.
How this number is reached
50 guests drinking × 4 hours × 1.5 drinks per guest per hour = 300 drinks, split 30% beer / 30% wine / 40% spirits. With the default example — 50 guests all drinking, four hours, 1.5 drinks per guest per hour — that is about 300 drinks.
Beer
90 servings
Wine
90 glasses
Spirits
120 mixed drinks
Sizes and rounding
- Beer is rounded up to whole cases of 24 bottles.
- Wine is rounded up to whole 750ml bottles, counted at about 5 glasses per bottle.
- Spirits are rounded up to whole 750ml bottles, counted at about 16 pours per bottle at 1.5 oz.
- The champagne toast counts one glass per guest at your toast, at about 5 glasses per bottle.
- The spirits figure is total beer, wine and cocktail consumption, not a count of individual cocktails. Cocktail recipes can call for different spirit measures, more than one spirit, or liqueurs — so a specific cocktail list may need more bottles than a serving count suggests.
- Shake & Gather's package planning uses separate per-guest beverage allowances. They are a different measure from this shopping list.
Your estimate is a starting point. This shopping list is based on the information and assumptions entered into the calculator. Final quantities and specific bottles may change based on your selected cocktails, recipe measurements, guest preferences and confirmed event details. Please have Shake & Gather review your list against your intake and selected menu before purchasing. Saving a plan does not submit an inquiry or reserve your date.
Save My Event
Keep your event details, favorite bar experiences and shopping list together in one place.
Save this estimate to your event so you can come back to it on any device.
Your Drinks Are Planned
Want Us to Handle the Rest?
Shake & Gather can provide the professional bartenders, mobile bar, ice, mixers, garnishes, equipment, setup and breakdown — and review your shopping list against your confirmed menu before you buy.
Planning Resources
