If you have been drinking Bud Light or Miller Lite, the best-selling light beers in the country,  it might be time to consider a new brew, our taste tests show. Although those two beers were judged very good, several others scored higher. The top light beer: Michelob Ultra Amber, which hit the market just last year.
Americans now drink more light beer than any other kind, and more varieties have frothed up recently to quench that thirst. But shoppers beware: There is no standard for light beer, so you will find calories, and taste, all over the lot.
More expensive brands such as Sam Adams and Heineken have entered the
fray in recent years. Market leader Anheuser-Busch, meanwhile, has
expanded its premium Michelob light line and introduced Budweiser
Select, a “new beer offering a bold taste” and with just 99 calories a
serving. We gathered those pricier newcomers together with top-selling
light brews and beers that have done well in our past tests. Then we
sat down two experts with more than 25 years of experience tasting beer
and put their trained palates to work.
The experts saw no bottles, no cans, no labels. All they got was sample after sample of beer, straight from the fridge, poured
carefully into wine glasses to allow for some foam formation.
MATTER OF TASTE
ALL SIZES Bud Light comes in many containers, including aluminum bottles, far right, but keep an eye on unit costs.
As
they sipped they focused on whether a beer tasted fresh and had a
balanced mix of floral, fruity, malted grain, hops, and other
appropriate flavors. If a beer tasted skunky, stale, soapy, or had a
weak finish, that was noted as well. Overall, the light beers we tested
were similar in quality to domestic and imported full-calorie beers,
but they had a less-intense flavor. We
found that six brews were better than the rest--three light Michelobs,
including the newer Michelob Ultra and Ultra Amber, Sam Adams Light,
Budweiser Select, and Coors Light in a can. Bud Light and Miller Lite
were very good as well, though they fell a notch below the best beers
because of slightly lower flavor complexity. Heineken Premium Light, on the other hand, was described as a “simple beer with boiled hops” and at least some off-notes in
every sample. Taste
matters, of course, but we suspect most people turn to light beer
because of the calorie savings. Fair enough, but note that unlike
“light” food products, there are no government standards for “light”
beer. Companies using the term have to list calories (and
carbohydrates, protein, and fat) on the label. Generally the light
beers are lower in calories than their regular-beer siblings, but you
need to pay attention to the labels. A
Bud Light, for example, has 110 calories a serving vs. 145 for a
regular Budweiser. But the range of calories across the category of
light beers is wide, from 64 calories for the cardboardy Beck’s Premier
Light to 119 calories for the very good Sam Adams Light. The
calorie savings, however, doesn’t exactly give you license to swill.
Light beer has almost as much alcohol as regular beer. The calorie cut
comes mainly from a reduction in carbohydrates. Keep that in mind when
you designate a driver. How to chooseCheck our Ratings
to find the kind of beer that’s right for you. Here’s what else we learned from our tests:
- Pay
less, get more. Except for Sam Adams Light, at about $7 a six-pack, the
best-tasting beers were all in the mid-price range, about $5 to $6 a
pack. Three cheaper beers--Busch Light, Natural Light, and Keystone
Light, at less than $4 a pack--were almost as good and are CR Best
Buys. The other more expensive imported beers (Heineken Premium Light,
Amstel Light, Corona Light, and Beck’s Premier Light) fell to the
bottom of the Ratings because of defects, including oxidized and
metallic flavors.
- New
brews offer a different taste. Most light beers are domestic
lager-style beer, lightly hopped, with pale malt, fruit and floral
character, and a mild flavor overall. Michelob Ultra Amber and Sam
Adams Light are somewhat darker beers with a more intense flavor--more
hops, more roasted malt, more fruit, and, well, more flavor. They also
have slightly more calories than most of the other lights we tested.
Yuengling Light is in the same style, but it didn’t fare as well
because it had cardboard-tasting off-notes as well as some other
defects.
- Try
these calorie cutters. If you’re counting calories, try a Michelob
Ultra, Budweiser Select, Busch Light, Miller Lite, or Natural Light.
All have fewer than 100 calories a serving and taste very good, though
all have slight drawbacks--such as lower flavor intensity. Michelob
Ultra, Budweiser Select, and Natural Light have a finish that tasted a
bit too much like club soda. Run, however, from a Beck’s Premier Light.
Though a beer with just 64 calories per bottle might seem tempting, our
experts said there was “little beer flavor in this skunky light beer
with cardboard and oxidized notes.
- Do not shun cans. They might not be trendy, but they protect beer from light and tend to keep it fresh longer.
- Consider
a keg for parties. In past tests, we found that keg beer tasted fresher
(and therefore better) than beer in a bottle or can. We expect the same
to hold true for the light beers we tested this time around.
- Beer
is a delicate drink. Fresh is better when it comes to beer quality
(“aging” is for wine lovers), and freshness is lost when beer is
exposed to light and heat. So pay attention to expiration dates when
they do exist. Unlike many foods, old beer won’t make you sick, but you
might be in for a nasty surprise if you decide to pop the top of the
can that’s been sitting in the back of your refrigerator since last
summer’s pool party.
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