Low Calorie Homebrew?

kaiser423 said:

Every different type of calorie takes a different amount of energy for your body to metabolize and turn into fat. Fat is easier to turn into fat than some other compounds. So, yea, there's some percentage difference between different food types.

Click to expand...

Fat simply has more calories per gram than other substance. This is not that complex people.

Eat 90 grams of fat = 810 calories
Eat 90 grams of protein = 360 calories
Eat 90 grams of carbohydrates = 630 calories

Your body burns calories, it doesn't distinguish how you deliver them. Your mind, however may be less than satisfied eating 90 grams of fat versus 90 grams of protein versus 90 grams of carbohydrates.

carl spakler said:

Possibly, but a sedentary lifestyle is more likely attainable in a human lifespan.

Click to expand...

Curses to auto correction!

So are the numbers that the breweries use accurate or is beersmith off?

For example, Redhook has a beer named slim chance and this is what they list on their website:

Slim Chance pairs perfectly with seafood and spicy dishes.
Available year round.

Style: Light Ale
ABV: 3.9%
Malts: Pale, Wheat, C10, Carapils, Munich, Vienne, Black
Hops: Alchemy, Saaz, Willamette
Color SRM: 6.0
Bitterness Units: 18.0 IBU
Original Gravity: 1.038
Calories / 12 oz.: 125
Carbohydrates: 10.5g
Brewed Since: 2009

When I plug in a OG of 1.038 and a FG of 1.008 (what beersmith says it will take to get 3.9%) Beersmith says that will be 165 calories, not 125 like Redhook says.

What is the catch?

Redhook is telling you per 12oz where beersmith will always tell you per 16oz . . .

Hodor_Baggins said:

Redhook is telling you per 12oz where beersmith will always tell you per 16oz . . .

Click to expand...

wow, I don't know how I have not noticed that :cross:

david_42 said:

Calories are calories. Yes, alcohol is used first, but that just means something else gets converted to fat.

Click to expand...

Yes.

Drinking alcohol while eating means you immediately burn the alcohol and the body converts your dinner to stored fat or glycogen (a shorter term storage medium).

It's the same idea with a burger meal deal. The sugar in the soda gets burned right away and the burger deposits itself somewhere unsightly...

You should tell her all this and recommend vodka on an empty stomach for dieting purposes. If she buys the logic it could go very well for you. You can thank me later.

BoB

I was drawing a blank as to what my next brew will be. So I asked my live in GF. She said "light beer".

Hence I stumble on this thread.

I'm sure she'd spring for the Bean-O haha

subscribed since the doc said I drink too much.

Hey Forrest,
How does the aforementioned recipe (or your AHS Low Carb Ale) compare to New Belgium's Skinny Dip? As much as I hate "light" beers, when it is 104 here in Austin that beer is pretty damn tasty and refreshing.

Eric

No one has so far mentioned the usually super high carbonation of the low cal beers...we have a beer up here from called 67 (guess how many calories/bottle) and it is really highly carbonated...three volumes at least. It looks like weak tea and there is no discernable hop aroma and little head retention...I shunned it (homebrew snob that I am) until I ran out of my beer....the gf drinks this stuff and I had to admit that it was not bad in a 104F hottub. I just had to drink 6...sure as hell beat getting out and going to the beer store.

IMHO, I don't give a rat's ass whether it's lowcal, lowcarb or lowclass...if SWMBO wants lowcal then I brew lowcal. I wish she wanted a 90min IPA clone. C'est la vie. The point is, at least it's not Zinfandal (how the heck do you spell that anyway) she wants.


Molson's rap (note the use of artistic license):
"Molson Canadian 67 is specially brewed for Canadian beer tastes by blending two-row malted barley, a touch of wheat, and a triple hopping method using four different varieties of hops. The result is a light beer with rich colour, creamy foam, and the clean flavour you expect from other light beers with only two-thirds the calories."

Beano tablets are metioned in this post....Where do you get those from? Never heard of them. Thanks

Primetime said:

Beano tablets are metioned in this post....Where do you get those from? Never heard of them. Thanks

Click to expand...

Go to the pharmacy section of any grocery store...you can get tablets or, as i prefer, drops. Expect to spend $8-$15

If it means anything, the number of calories in a good quality pint is probably less than a 16oz glass of orange juice. I'm sure people think nothing of downing sugary fruit juices for breakfast every morning, but then drink "light" beers to avoid gaining weight.

I believe in a healthy diet and regular exercise. With that, I can afford to consume 1 - 2 good brews every evening.

Beer:Health and Nutrition
Charlie Bamforth
ISBN:978-0632064465

All you will ever need or want to know. I leave a copy of this book on my desk and whenever the teetotallers roll up to preach temperance I simply slide it toward them....works like a talisman. When I get to Davis in June I'm gonna have him sign it...might work from across the room then.

note: it doesn't work as well on SHMBO...apparently they are immune

kcwcc said:

Beer:Health and Nutrition
Charlie Bamforth
ISBN:978-0632064465

Click to expand...

$150 on amazon? ef that.

was planing on using amylase on my cream ale, has anyone tried this before? heard it had less side effects on the beer then beano.

also how do you make the calorie calculation after the addition?

Interesting .

I brewed a mild that beersmith puts at 154 for a pint - I figure that ia 116 a 12 oz bottle.

Looking at this list, I'm happy with that.

LIST OF BEERS AND CALORIC / CARB INFO

bringing this back to life... It's easy to attempt to produce calorie & carb information based on o.g. and f.g.... but where would one go to actually be able to measure this after the beer has been produced and is in your glass?

Makes me wonder how accurate the information on commercial beers really is? What are they doing to verify this? Can you boil off the liquid, trap the alcohol, measure, and get accurate carbs/calories?

I read a few years ago in a Mens Health article that beer calories are unstorable energy Because, I may relay this wrong but that the sugars left in beer after mashing and the effects of amylase and/or fermentation are not full branch sugars so they can not be stored as fat and must be used by the body at the time of aborsption.

Im sure someone will agrue with me about this. But im not gonna lie even if proven wrong im going too stick to my program only eating healthy food when ive been drinking which of course i only do when i care.

Hoodweisen said:

I read a few years ago in a Mens Health article that beer calories are unstorable energy Because, I may relay this wrong but that the sugars left in beer after mashing and the effects of amylase and/or fermentation are not full branch sugars so they can not be stored as fat and must be used by the body at the time of aborsption.

Im sure someone will agrue with me about this. But im not gonna lie even if proven wrong im going too stick to my program only eating healthy food when ive been drinking which of course i only do when i care.

Click to expand...

Any sugar, simple or complex like starch, will be converted to and stored as fat when it exceeds the ability of the body to mobilize them and/or exceeds the energetic demand. Of course, if you are just near that exceeding point, the body will burn simple sugars first, and that is what these articles usually mean.

The problem in alcoholic beverages is that alcohol is as efficient as sugar to quickly provide energy and it actually competes against sugar for that, therefore more sugar is left to be converted to fat should you exceed that metabolic and/or energetic demand.

How about just brewing your favorite beer. Just do the first runnings then add water to get your 6.5 for the boil. Couldn't be any worse than Bud Select 55.

Pick said:

How about just brewing your favorite beer. Just do the first runnings then add water to get your 6.5 for the boil. Couldn't be any worse than Bud Select 55.

Click to expand...

Yep, I don't really pay attention to calories when designing my beers and I am somewhat fit. Select 55 is not even a beer...

I'm surprised nobody mentioned this -

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1809/is-light-beer-made-by-watering-it-down

I'm taking it that alpha amylase would work but that the big brewers use amyloglucosidase. This would raise the alcohol percentage by converting more starches.

Of course it takes away from taste, but I'm assuming that this would drop your FG, meaning when using beersmith assume that your FG would be much lower than expectation. Unless of course you want a SWMBO drinking a high alcohol drink.