Even though “beer guts” are a myth, there are low calorie beers out there designed for easy imbibing without the fullness of other bigger beers. These are the beers you throw on ice in a Styrofoam cooler and take them tailgating or sit around a bonfire on a beach during a hot summer night. 

In 1967, Dr. Joseph Owades, a biochemist, developed a process to remove the starch from beer and leave it with less calories and fewer carbohydrates, thus creating light beer. He marketed it as Gablinger’s Diet Beer produced by Rheingold. It was for those beer-bellied working men who wanted to shed those pounds but still enjoy a cold one. The advertising was unappealing and the beer turned out to be a flop, but it started a light revolution. Owades shared his formula with a friend at Peter Hand Brewing of Chicago, the makers of Meister Brau, and the magic word was added to end of Meister Brau: Lite. Phillip Morris, then owner of Miller Brewing Company, liked “Lite,” and after buying assets from Meister Brau, introduced the beer Miller Lite in 1973 with the slogan “tastes great, less filling.” Light beers were in full swing. In 1978, Coors Light shot a silver bullet in the light beer craze.

In 1982, Bud Light, the number three beer sold (by volume) in the world, came on the scene. Bested in sales only by China’s Tsingtao and SABMiller’s Snow, also in China, Bud Light is the most popular light beer on the planet. Other flavors include Bud Light Lime, a short-lived Bud Light Wheat, the less diluted, higher alcohol content Bud Light Platinum, as well as multi-fruit flavored Bud-a-Ritas, and Bud Light Cheladas, a mixture of Bud Light and clamato juice.

Many light beers are made by one simple step that can save big cost and man hours:  brewing a regular beer and then diluting it with water. A brewery can take 10,000 barrels of beer and make 13,000 with the simple addition of more H2O. What the brewery does is brew a high original gravity beer and then cut a good majority of carbs and lower the alcohol with dilution. Very large breweries substitute more inexpensive adjuncts for malt like corn and rice with more fermentable carbs, getting the desired high gravity brew for dilution. Another method of creating a light beer is the use of “super yeasts,” or yeasts with extra enzymes derived from fungi, to further break down the unfermentable dextrins in a finished beer. This maintains a more complex taste.  

There is a myriad light beer out there. There are some boast the lowest calories and some that use the super yeast method and have decent taste but easy drinkability. Ironically, there is only a 10 calorie difference between Bud Light and Guinness Draught. I would never put light beer down and have been known to drink a Bud Light Lime at the races as an easy, refreshing quaff when I do not want a filling craft beer, especially in the heat. Believe or not Beer Advocate cofounder Jason Alstrom gave Old Milwaukee Light an 85 (good) score, stating, “This is what a light beer is supposed to be...”

Adam Shugan, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits beer consultant - Gainesville

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