smmcdermott

Recipes 

Hey guys, I am fairly new to brewing and was just thinking about all the light beer that I drink when I am out partying. I have no intention of making a light beer but was just curious as to how one was made. If there is already a thread on this please point me in the right direction. Thanks.

Sean

Tonedef131

Recipes 

Why don't you have any intention to make one? They are typically lagers and made with about 60% US pale malt and 40% rice or corn. Bitter them to about 10 IBUs and keep it under 1.040 OG so it doesn't get too strong, the idea is to be able to drink it all night. Pitch big and pitch cold, you want these really clean.

corvax13

Recipes 

Have you ever heard of a "light" wine, or a "light" champagne?

I personally avoid drinking anything with the word "light" in it - it is an insult to the complex, wonderful, flavorful and historic drink that we all love. Making a "light" beer puts it in the same category as soda and all that other crap, which it certainly is not.


Go Sean for knowing to avoid such blasphemy in your brewing!

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corvax13

Recipes 

Sorry, didn't mean to come across as a jackass in my post - it just hit a sour note, I despise all BMC beer with a passion

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JustARogue

Recipes 

Can't you just take a 5 gal recipe and top off to 7-10gals? I'm only half joking.

VTBrewer

Recipes 

That would give you the watery version like the BMC's that brewers dislike. Making a good session beer with low IBU will be *like* a lightbeer, but still good homebrew.

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Tonedef131

Recipes 

Have you ever tried brewing one? They are incredibly difficult and some people enjoy the challenge.

I don't know why for a beer to be a legitimate style it has to have a wine counterpart.

smmcdermott

Recipes 

I was just curious on how they get teh calories so low. I have no idea how many calories are in mine, but a typical light beer is around 100 I believe. I am assuming most homebrews are a lt higher than this. Am I wrong?

Tonedef131

Recipes 

You are correct, most of them have calories further broken down by enzymes and the like. There is no simple way to make beers as low calorie and they do. Their consistency is achieved by always brewing to a higher strength then adding water to achieve their desired abv, they can add more or less water depending on the OG and FG of that specific batch.

JustARogue

Recipes 

From what I've read every percentage point abv in a 12oz beer is equal to 3.75g of alcohol/beer. Each gram of alcohol is 7 calories. So a typical 12oz 5% beer has about 130 calories just from alcohol (never mind remaining sugars, etc.)

The main way to get calories down is to reduce alcohol content. The lite beers have low alcohol content. Thats why they are low in calories. Plain and simple.

Side note: This is why MGD64 can't have more than 2.4% ABV