I searched the forums and only found one thread that directly addressed this topic, and it was in relation to mead rather than to beer specifically. I've managed to work it out for myself, so I thought I'd share in case anybody else needs this information.
Now I am speaking in regarding to the PointsPlus thing -- I don't know anything about the old points system as they changed over long before my wife badgered me into doing Weight Watchers. So without further ado:
Ideally you'd like to know the number of calories in the beer. If you have FG and OG readings, you can calculate that using brewing software, or with an online calculator like this one. Lucky for us, beer is exclusively carbs and proteins, so we don't need to know WW's weird proprietary formula that does adjustments based on fiber and fat content -- we can just divide the number of calories by 35 and get a pretty good estimate of PointsPlus. To reiterate, if you know or can calculate the number of calories in a beer, simply divide by 35. (Edit: cactusgarrett points out that the WW literature cautions that alcohol is more complicated than just calorie-counting in the PointsPlus system. I totally believe that, and it actually makes a lot of sense to me. That said, the methods herein accurately predict the PointsPlus for every beer WW has actually bothered to publish in their online database, so I feel pretty confident that it should come within a point or two regardless)
Often for commercial beers you may only know the ABV. The Weight Watchers website says it is 5 points for 12 oz. of beer, all styles, which is stupid because let's say that 12 oz. is a Dogfish Head 120-minute, which weighs in at 18% ABV... even if you distilled all the ethanol out of the DFH 120 and diluted it down to 80 proof to make a sort of "beer vodka", it would still yield 3.6 shots, which WW says is about 11 points. And, news flash, there is more in a DFH 120 than just ethanol!
My loose rule of thumb is 1 point per % ABV per 12 oz.. So for example, drinking a 22oz. of Souther Tier Unearthly at 9% ABV is going to be around 18 points, give or take a couple. Caveats: I would set a minimum of 4 points per 12 oz even for very low ABV styles like milds. For light-bodied high-alcohol beers, this method may overcount the points by a little; if this bothers you, feel free to knock a point or so off of a high alcohol beer if it is very light-bodied and fairly dry. Heavier body is not always an indicator of more calories, e.g. Guinness is very low cal because a lot of what gives it body is not digestible, so use your best judgment if you know something about the style. And for very sweet beers, such as sweet or milk stouts which contain a large proportion of unfermentable sugars, you may want to add a point or so per 12 oz.
I hope this is helpful to people. In particular, I have found the "1 point per % ABV per 12 oz" rule to be very helpful because you can do the math in a flash using very little information, and I guarantee it's not going to be off by more than a point or two. Best of luck!
Now I am speaking in regarding to the PointsPlus thing -- I don't know anything about the old points system as they changed over long before my wife badgered me into doing Weight Watchers. So without further ado:
Ideally you'd like to know the number of calories in the beer. If you have FG and OG readings, you can calculate that using brewing software, or with an online calculator like this one. Lucky for us, beer is exclusively carbs and proteins, so we don't need to know WW's weird proprietary formula that does adjustments based on fiber and fat content -- we can just divide the number of calories by 35 and get a pretty good estimate of PointsPlus. To reiterate, if you know or can calculate the number of calories in a beer, simply divide by 35. (Edit: cactusgarrett points out that the WW literature cautions that alcohol is more complicated than just calorie-counting in the PointsPlus system. I totally believe that, and it actually makes a lot of sense to me. That said, the methods herein accurately predict the PointsPlus for every beer WW has actually bothered to publish in their online database, so I feel pretty confident that it should come within a point or two regardless)
Often for commercial beers you may only know the ABV. The Weight Watchers website says it is 5 points for 12 oz. of beer, all styles, which is stupid because let's say that 12 oz. is a Dogfish Head 120-minute, which weighs in at 18% ABV... even if you distilled all the ethanol out of the DFH 120 and diluted it down to 80 proof to make a sort of "beer vodka", it would still yield 3.6 shots, which WW says is about 11 points. And, news flash, there is more in a DFH 120 than just ethanol!
My loose rule of thumb is 1 point per % ABV per 12 oz.. So for example, drinking a 22oz. of Souther Tier Unearthly at 9% ABV is going to be around 18 points, give or take a couple. Caveats: I would set a minimum of 4 points per 12 oz even for very low ABV styles like milds. For light-bodied high-alcohol beers, this method may overcount the points by a little; if this bothers you, feel free to knock a point or so off of a high alcohol beer if it is very light-bodied and fairly dry. Heavier body is not always an indicator of more calories, e.g. Guinness is very low cal because a lot of what gives it body is not digestible, so use your best judgment if you know something about the style. And for very sweet beers, such as sweet or milk stouts which contain a large proportion of unfermentable sugars, you may want to add a point or so per 12 oz.
I hope this is helpful to people. In particular, I have found the "1 point per % ABV per 12 oz" rule to be very helpful because you can do the math in a flash using very little information, and I guarantee it's not going to be off by more than a point or two. Best of luck!
