Hidden away under a stack of manilla envelopes in the GP offices there exists an unpublished taste test between bottled water brands. The report wasnโt killed after one company threatened to sue, though that would make for a great story. In reality, the results were simply uninteresting. Sadly, this water blind testing had more definitive results than our tournamentโs light beer division.
Yes, this was a shameful division. These are the among the most popular beers in America, with devoted drinkers, yet we found it impossible to tell a Bud Light from a Busch Light, or from anything else, for that matter. Actually, we tried to repeat the bracket with new tasters and came away with entirely different results. Our final conclusion was not that our tasters were inept, but that โ as we had secretly feared all along โ youโll find the same variation of flavors in the light beer aisle as you will the water section.
Skinny Drinks
Budweiser Select 55 is advertised as the โlightest beer in the worldโ at 55 calories per bottle, which may be so โ but at only 2.4 percent ABV, you arenโt really drinking much of anything. Bud Light, by comparison, is 110 calories and 4.2 percent ABV. So if you want one serving of alcohol, you can choose 110 calories in a 12 ounce can, or the same number of calories diluted to 24 ounces. Youโre really just deciding how many trips to the bathroom you want to take.
Cutting your caloric intake when you drink isnโt a matter of just switching to vodka or white wine or whiskey. Once you start looking to maximize alcohol per calorie, youโll hit a wall around 100 calories per serving. One 1.5-ounce shot of a typical hard alcohol contains around the same amount of calories as a typical light beer. Of the nine light beers we tested, Michelob Ultra and Natural Light, at 4.2 percent ABV and 95 calories a piece, brought the most alcohol bang per calorie. But we are literally talking about a single calorie difference.