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Tenths chart for bar inventory

Counting open bottles in tenths? Here is what each tenth is in ounces and pours, for the three bottle sizes behind most bars. Print it and tape it up where you count.

750 ml bottle

25.4 oz full
TenthOz left1.5 oz pours2 oz poursml
1.025.416.912.7750
0.922.815.211.4675
0.820.313.510.1600
0.717.811.88.9525
0.615.210.17.6450
0.512.78.56.3375
0.410.16.85.1300
0.37.65.13.8225
0.25.13.42.5150
0.12.51.71.375

1 L bottle

33.8 oz full
TenthOz left1.5 oz pours2 oz poursml
1.033.822.516.91000
0.930.420.315.2900
0.827.118.013.5800
0.723.715.811.8700
0.620.313.510.1600
0.516.911.38.5500
0.413.59.06.8400
0.310.16.85.1300
0.26.84.53.4200
0.13.42.31.7100

1.75 L bottle

59.2 oz full
TenthOz left1.5 oz pours2 oz poursml
1.059.239.429.61750
0.953.335.526.61575
0.847.331.623.71400
0.741.427.620.71225
0.635.523.717.81050
0.529.619.714.8875
0.423.715.811.8700
0.317.811.88.9525
0.211.87.95.9350
0.15.93.93.0175

How to count a bottle in tenths

Hold the bottle level at eye height and picture it split into ten even slices from the base to where the shoulder starts. Call the slice the liquid reaches: a bottle a little under half is 0.4, one that's barely touched is 0.9. Full, sealed bottles are whole numbers.

Write it as bottles, not ounces: 3.4 means three full and one open at four tenths. It keeps the count fast and the math for later.

Where tenths go wrong

Most bottles narrow at the shoulder and the neck, so the top tenth holds less than the bottom one. Eyeballing reads a little high on a nearly full bottle and a little low on a nearly empty one. Across a whole bar those misses mostly wash out. If you need every bottle exact, weighing is the other way, and it has its own costs.

The same person counting the same way each time matters more than which method you use. A steady count shows real variance; a count that changes hands every week shows noise.

The numbers behind the chart

1 US fluid ounce is 29.57 ml, so a 750 ml bottle holds 25.4 oz, a liter 33.8 oz and a handle (1.75 L) 59.2 oz. Pours are the ounces left divided by the pour size, rounded to a tenth.

Put the clipboard down. Just say it.

ShelfCall is bar inventory you count out loud, with sales that take the right pours by the recipe. It's in beta now.