Your perfect beer is the perfect blend of barley, hops, yeast, and water. A light beer is the result of compromises.
Anheuser-Busch InBev is betting that American beer drinkers will compromise and make Bud Light Next, a zero-carb beer, a winner. Interestingly, it still has a lot of calories. The premise of this bet is that a segment of beer consumers is interested in reducing calorie intake through carbohydrate reduction. At 4% alcohol (ABV), the effort is a bit confusing. After 130 iterations and a decade, Anheuser-Busch believes they have achieved the holy grail by cutting carbs in their new beer.
“Bud Light Next is the next generation of light beer for the next generation of beer drinkers,” said Andy Goeler, vice president of marketing for Bud Light. The question that arises is: are consumers focused solely on low carbs or low calories, regardless of the calorie source? Low or no carbs are only one part of achieving a low calorie goal.
The motivation to consume beer in the “light” (low carbohydrate) or “non-alcoholic” category is primarily motivated by dietary concerns. No matter what we consume, weight control is a function of alcohol, carbs, and calories from sweets/cheese/processed meats, etc. Carbohydrates and alcohol account for the majority of the calories in beer. For example, the Weight Watchers approach to weight management is to limit calories, and the Atkins diet’s approach is to specifically limit carbohydrates. Choose from starches, sugars or alcohol.
“Today’s consumers have low calorie and low carb options, this is another entry to have something that goes all the way down to zero carbs,” Goeler said. “It’s a big consumer trend that we see in a lot of consumer industries.” According to Calories.info, “An alcoholic beverage, made from fermented cereal grains, beer has calories from both alcohol and carbohydrates.”
Starch/carbohydrate sources are attributed to bread, potatoes, rice, barley, fruit, and pasta; just specifically, when fermented, it converts starch into sugars for the yeast to produce alcohol. High-calorie foods are peanut butter, chocolate bars, cheese, processed meats, fats, and raw sugar.
Trying to keep it simple, think of it this way: “Carbs generally refer to foods high in starch or sugar. Carbs always contain calories (4 per gram), but calories don’t necessarily indicate carbs,” as stated in the article. -“Calories vs Carbohydrates”. diffen.com. Diffen LLC.
But is the beer market becoming too segmented? Selecting a beer based on carbs, calories, or alcohol can be challenging because the calories in a beer are affected by a wide variety of factors, including style. And the style dictates carbs, sugars, alcohol, and protein in the beers. All of which makes for a beer with great flavor and aromas. Note: Residual sugars in beer after fermentation can be around 75%.
The lowest calorie beer, so far, has been the Bud Select 55 at fifty-five calories, 2.5% ABV, and 1.9 carbs. (At 1.9g, that amount contributes about seven calories to the beer.) So why has Anheuser-Busch gone all out with yet another beer that packs alcohol, calories and protein, but no carbs? It seems that the decision is based on marketing issues.
Leaf Nutrisystem conducted a survey asking beer drinkers what they look for in a beer. Taste (85%) was far ahead of price and style considerations when choosing a beer. Obviously, style dictates taste. The three components of beer style that affect flavor/flavor are: grain/malt, hops, and yeast. This raises questions and comments:
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If consumers are interested in the taste of beer, and grains impact flavor just like hops, then why would Anheuser-Busch dive headfirst into the “carb-free” category? The grain is the big contributor to flavor through the malted grain. If grains are a major consideration in the carbs and flavor profile of beers, why drastically play with the grain count (the main contributor to carbs) and not drastically impact calories?
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Cutting carbs will cut calories in a beer. However, one gram of carbs adds four calories to a beer, and one gram of alcohol translates to 6.9 calories. If a person strives to consume fewer calories in their beer, while valuing flavor and mouthfeel, it seems the only course of action is to ‘compromise’ a recipe to juggle the calories through the carbohydrates and alcohol.
Wade Souza, a former beverage executive, comments on Quora about why light beers get a bad rap. “Generally speaking, those light beers lack fully developed craft beer flavors and have a poor, weak taste. The use of rice and other diluent add-ins in the brewing process lightens the caloric content, reduces body and alcohol, but so is the flavor. Plus, the beers are very lightly hopped, so they don’t have a bitter or crisp taste, both of which can add complexity to a low-calorie beer.”
If most people are only interested in the calories in their beer and not the flavors and aromas, then it must be a matter of diet. Beer calories are derived by determining calories from carbohydrates (mainly derived from sugars released from the grain in the mashing process) and calculated calories from alcohol (based on ABV). Then add them up and you have your beer calorie count. You can only get the alcohol from the grain when it is made into a must and fermented with yeast. Carbohydrates are the body’s supply of sugar and reducing carbs will make the beer less sugar and alcohol, hence a light beer.
The value is the result of removing the sugars from the grain/barley. Not all the sugars in the wort are consumed by the yeast. What remains are carbohydrates. This event adds to the taste and style of beer, be it light beer or regular beer.
The calculation of calories in carbohydrates and alcohol begins with the original gravity reading of the wort and the final gravity reading at the end of fermentation. Thereafter a formula is used to arrive at the total calories. Even easier, a computer program can be used to get calories from carbs and alcohol/ABV. Nothing here involves magic or algorithms, here simple math.
The following illustrates how tampering with a beer recipe can influence the calorie, alcohol, and carbohydrate tradeoff. I selected two sample light beer brands to compare with Bud Next. Note the compromises made for each style.
Beck’s Premier Light
ABV-2.3%
calories-64
Carbohydrates (g) -3.9
Dogfish Head Slightly Powerful
ABV-4.0%
Calories-95
Carbohydrates (g) -3.6
Bud Light Next leaving in 2022
ABV-4%
calories-80
Zero Carbs
According to Nielsen, the beer industry grew 8.6% in 2020, representing revenue of $40 billion. The “light” category had $10.6 billion in revenue with 5% growth. This is significant as the wine industry is trying to adapt to changes by making “lighter” wine. Obviously, their focus is on the alcohol content but preserving flavors and aromas.
Travis Moore-Brewmaster, Anheuser-Busch comments on light beer in a Food & Wine article by Mike Pomranz: “Light-style lagers are definitely hard to make with a consistent, repeatable flavor profile.” (Note that the focus here is on flavor.) Moore continues. “All of the beers we brew have a rigorous quality control routine to make consistently high-quality beers…but Light American Lagers can be extremely unforgiving due to their lighter body and more subtle flavor profiles.”
There is no debate that light beers have a firm place in the beer market. Light and non-alcoholic beers are here to stay judging by the large number of entries in the category. In fact, many craft brewers are increasing their offerings. Effort is a delicate compromise between calories, alcohol, carbs, and flavor. Even non-alcoholic participants are gaining ground. The winners will be those who come closest to being described as full body. Selections based primarily on carbohydrate and alcohol content may not be enough motivation to become loyal consumers.
There is a place for light beer with consumers buying for specific occasions. But the selected light beer is compared to a gold standard craft beer: body, mouthfeel, flavors, aromas, and alcohol.
Health!
