Ultra Light Beer::Less Calories, less alcohol content, more profits.

December 6, 2009 – 12:52 pm – Comments Off

MGD 64

First there was regular American beer. It was filling and had a bunch of calories to go along with it; around 150. It also had about 5% alcohol content per bottle. Then came along its fewer calorie cousin the light beer; it had about 100 calories and 4% alcohol content per bottle.

Now there is a new fad that is taking over the country’s breweries. Ultra light beer that has between 55 and 64 calories and has less than 3% alcohol content per bottle.

The commercials were the first things that drew my attention to the ultra light beers. MGD 64 is a beer sold my Miller Brewing Co. It only has 64 calories and 2.8% alcohol. The ads feature someone being able to order a “regular” size beer with 64 calories and his or her friend ordering 64 calories of their favorite beverage and coming up quite short.

The trend has continued because now Anheuser Busch is going to start marketing its newest ultra light beer, Budweiser Select 55, in more markets starting this month.

Of course, all of these beers are targeted toward the people who do not want to be drinking their calorie s or lose their figure to a beer belly and there is a huge market for this here. However, this beer is unlikely to appeal to anyone outside that group.

In an MSNBC article, when people tasted it, they said that it was watered down and one guy went as far as to say that it was like drinking beer flavored water. This is not, in any way, my opinion of how a beer should taste. Then again, the same interviewee said that he didn’t care about the alcohol content because he was “not a college kid trying to get wasted.”

When it comes to the beer brewing process, because there are less of the ingredients such as malted barley during the fermentation process, the end result is a more watery brew with a lesser amount of alcohol in each bottle.