# Light Beer



## The Gabba Goul (Feb 11, 2005)

Anybody else drink light beer??? I susally start dieting around this time of year so as to shed anything I may have picked up over the holidays anhd get back down to my "playin weight" for summer time...

but anyway...light beer...it ummm...it's not so great...it's like beer and water mixed together or something...

Usually, If I'm just stopping to grab a brew on my way home from work, I'll just pick up one of those big @$$ cans of Coors Light or something, but as somebody who usually drinks Guiness or Chimay, this is far from satisfying...lately when I go out, I'll order a Sam light...which is actually pretty darn good and is the closest thing to beer that I've tried in a light beer...

Any other lo-cal recomendations???


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## Laxplayer (Apr 26, 2006)

The Gabba Goul said:


> Anybody else drink light beer??? I susally start dieting around this time of year so as to shed anything I may have picked up over the holidays anhd get back down to my "playin weight" for summer time...
> 
> but anyway...light beer...it ummm...it's not so great...it's like beer and water mixed together or something...
> 
> ...


I like Sam Adams Light and Amstel Light as far as light beers go. Since I live in St. Louis, I also drink Bud Light and Michelob Light sometimes, usually at ballgames or hockey games.


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## Armchair (Nov 12, 2006)

I prefer my beer to have at least _some _flavour.


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## Isaac Mickle (Nov 28, 2006)

since it is low alcohol, guinness qualifies as a light beer for your purposes. compare the calorie content of it and other stouts to whatever you normally drink.


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## Lushington (Jul 12, 2006)

There are some matters that simply brook no discussion: light beer is one of them. It is an indefensible abomination, and its appearance in the marketplace during the early 1970s was conclusive proof of the irreversible decline of civilization. Coors Light may be the worst of the lot, which is saying something. Avoid them all. If you must drink and diet concurrently, change beverages for the duration of your weight loss regime. Stick to neat gin or whiskey.


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## Lushington (Jul 12, 2006)

Isaac Mickle said:


> since it is low alcohol, guinness qualifies as a light beer for your purposes. compare the calorie content of it and other stouts to whatever you normally drink.


A quick look indicates that Guinness Draught is 125 calories per 12 oz. and ghastly Coors Light is 102 calories. So Mr. Mickle is correct, and the meager savings in calories is scarcely worth the degraded taste of CL. Guinness Extra Stout is 176 calories per 12 oz., Anchor Porter is 205 calories, and mighty Sierra Nevada Stout is 210 calories. Given that all of these roasted malt beauties are miles ahead of light beer in every conceivable way, the small savings in calories is scarcely worth considering, unless you suck down a dozen or so. And if you drink a dozen bottles of SN Stout you'll have other problems to deal with besides weight loss.


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

Register another vote for Sam Adams, light!


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## Acct2000 (Sep 24, 2005)

Since I've been in my weight loss plan, I don't drink much alcohol any more. (I had been gradually cutting back since age 35 anyway.)

Since I drink it so seldom, I don't worry about calories when I do have one. I only have light beer if I'm at someone's house and that is what is offered.


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## Isaac Mickle (Nov 28, 2006)

Dear Lushington, 

Have you checked the calorie content for Beamish? 

I believe it is as low as from-the-tap or pub-can Guinness. Speaking of which, it is about time for one.

The "extra" in the titles of some of those stouts refers to extra alcohol (at least, that's how I read the label), so I would stay away from "extra" anything if one was looking for lower-calorie beers.


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## cgc (Jan 27, 2007)

Most light beer only saves around 20 or so calories per 12 ounce serving compared to the 'full' lagers they are based on (110-120 vs 140 calories). This is not going to amount to much weight loss for moderate consumption.


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## The Gabba Goul (Feb 11, 2005)

thanks for the info everybody...I've been buying Guness again...I'm still staying away from the Chimay for now...although yesterday I drank quite a few Pyramid "hefs", truth be told I dont like "hef" that much, but after drinking mostly Coors light, I gotta admit, it wasnt bad...

although...I tell ya...Sam light...a dynamite lager...deffinately worth drinking even if you're not doing the light beer thing...


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## jbryanb (Oct 2, 2006)

I do not drink light beer, but I know people who swear by Heinekin Light and Becks Light, as the closest light beer to a "true" beer.


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## The Gabba Goul (Feb 11, 2005)

I've yet to try heinekin light...I used to love Heinekin...but now-a-days if I drink Lager it's Sam Adams...

as an aside...am I the only person in the wrold who thinks that Becks is just like too gosh darn sweet??? I mean...it's like ridiculously sweet...if I'm gonna go that rout...I'd rather have an alc-o-pop (Sparks, Smirnoff Ice, etc...)


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## Danny (Mar 24, 2005)

The Gabba Goul said:


> I've yet to try heinekin light...I used to love Heinekin...but now-a-days if I drink Lager it's Sam Adams...
> 
> as an aside...am I the only person in the wrold who thinks that Becks is just like too gosh darn sweet??? I mean...it's like ridiculously sweet...if I'm gonna go that rout...I'd rather have an alc-o-pop (Sparks, Smirnoff Ice, etc...)


Beck's is considered crap in Germany. Just as Foster's is in Australia. That's what they do, market the bad stuff to Americans who don't know any better.


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## Armchair (Nov 12, 2006)

Danny said:


> Beck's is considered crap in Germany. Just as Foster's is in Australia. That's what they do, market the bad stuff to Americans who don't know any better.


I don't think you can even buy Foster's in Australia!


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## 16128 (Feb 8, 2005)

Yeccch!

The calorie-conscious can stick to white wine or clear liquor (straight booze lacks carbs - just don't put any foo-foo mixers in it.)

When I'm on the dieting wagon, slimline tonic and gin for me!


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## MichaelS (Nov 14, 2005)

Lushington said:


> There are some matters that simply brook no discussion: light beer is one of them. It is an indefensible abomination, and its appearance in the marketplace during the early 1970s was conclusive proof of the irreversible decline of civilization. Coors Light may be the worst of the lot, which is saying something. Avoid them all. If you must drink and diet concurrently, change beverages for the duration of your weight loss regime. Stick to neat gin or whiskey.


Come on, stop holding back and say what you really think!

I agree fully with what you say, no beer unless its real.


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## samblau (Apr 2, 2005)

Is it that hard to just have one or two beers? I know that during the NFL playoffs I throw back a few...but man, light beer is just awful, for the most part. Amstel light is decent as is Sam Adams Light but neither hold a candle to the real thing. The new Heineken light tastes like diet water. I guess I shouldn't complain....I'll alternate between liquor and beer which apparently is terrible for you. I enjoy a vodka and club or a martini if made well and a nice glass of wine always has a place but nothing replicates a cold pint of a nice beer, doesn't have to be pretentious but the Coors and Bud Light can be left on the beer pong table where they belong.


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## The Gabba Goul (Feb 11, 2005)

samblau said:


> the Coors and Bud Light can be left on the beer pong table where they belong.


LoL...we always used to play beer-pong with MGD...


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## johnjack11 (Oct 13, 2006)

Light beer is a funny beast the "light" initially referred to the lower alcohol content. It is only in the past few years that the calorie brigade have stepped up!


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## Gurdon (Feb 7, 2005)

As I have at most one or two beers in the course of a year, the thought of drinking Bud or Coors or other bland stuff, let alone light beer, is really disgusting.

My approach to bars and drinking situations is to perhaps have a few sips of something good, say Boont Amber Ale, and then switch to mineral water.

I didn't realize Becks was supposed to be of poor quality. Was this the case 40 years ago, when I first had occasion to try it? I recall that I couldn't finish the bottle, but assumed this was because I wasn't sophisticated enough. I'm glad to hear that Anchor Steam Beer is still good.

Cheers,
Gurdon


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## Lushington (Jul 12, 2006)

Gurdon said:


> As I have at most one or two beers in the course of a year, the thought of drinking Bud or Coors or other bland stuff, let alone light beer, is really disgusting.
> 
> My approach to bars and drinking situations is to perhaps have a few sips of something good, say Boont Amber Ale, and then switch to mineral water.
> 
> ...


If you tried your bottle of Beck's forty years ago in the United States, you probably tasted a foul, limpid liquid totally unfit for human consumption. Far from demonstrating your lack of sophistication, your refusal to finish the bottle revealed an inherently refined palate, much superior to many of your contemporaries. Forty years ago the US brewing industry had reached its nadir. Most regional breweries had folded, or had been acquired by corporate titans who were hell-bent on producing millions of barrels of alcoholic, hop-flavored water vaguely modelled on pilsner-style lagers. At that time, some of the larger European brewing cartels recognized that a substanital market could be created in the US by marketing products that were only slightly more drinkable than Bud, Miller, Falstaff, and the like. Heineken, a totally undistinguished Dutch brew, was among the first to sieze this opportunity, and others soon followed suit, Becks among them. Many of these products were shipped to the US in dark green bottles, a very poor storage medium for beer that was looking at a shelf life of months, if not years. The result was the characteristic "skunky" smell and taste of Heineken, Beck's, and other "European" beers that one so often encountered in those distant days. However, so degraded was the American beer palate at that time that many believed this ghastly off-flavor was how good beer was supposed to taste! If memory serves, Heineken even promoted such nonsense in an ad campaign during the late 1970s, but I might be imagining this. In any event, the upshot was that American sophisticates were willing to shell out premium dollars for spoiled, third-rate Dutch and German beer, which tasted far worse than a standard-issue bottle of Bud, simply because they didn't know any better. _Plus ca change . . ._ Fortunately, Fritz Maytag, savior of Anchor Brewing, and Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi, founders of Sierra Nevada, came to the rescue.


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