Bud Light Platinum math

[calebgk]

How could they produce a 6% ABV beer while still keeping the calories at 137 for 355ml? Adjuncts, like corn and rice? Grain alcohol additions? Unicorn urine?

There has to be an answer. I just haven't found a serious discussion about how they do it that hasn't devolved into opinion and flamewars. I have no intention of trying to clone, but curiosity and discussion could lead to inspiration.

 

[aiptasia]

Rice. AB is famous for drying out their beers with rice.

 

[SynthesisError]

Galactosidase enzymes would be my guess. They convert dextrines and some other unfermentables into simpler sugars. Which would explain why low-calorie beer tends to be so watery.

 

[tlg779]

They probably use yeast nutrients to get the gravity very low like .995 or so gives the beer a very crisp taste and gets the carbs and calories down

 

[tlg779]

I do a very simalat thing when I make a light lager you have to be very carful if bottle conditioning though makes bottle bombs more of a problem

 

[Brewsit]

Having tasted the stuff, and been around drunk people conducting experiments, I wouldn't be surprised if it were just alcohol added. Someone put a vodka in bud light and it ended up, and I quote, "EXACTLY like a Bud Light Platinum!!"

 

[phenry]

Apparently the lighter the body, the longer the mash at AB. And I mean looooong mash. I went on the brewery tour and IIRC, they were saying something in the neighborhood of 6-7 hour long mashes for Bud Light and the like. I thought that was an interesting tidbit of information.

 

[scottland]

Bud light, interestingly enough, is the only light beer out of the big 3 that don't use enzymes to drive up attenuation. As posted above, they do a very long, very complicated step mash. The rest use amalyse enzyme, or something of the like to achieve the same effect

 

[calebgk]

Interesting responses. I still don't want to make this beer, but can some of their techniques be applied to a homebrewers arsenal?

 

[helibrewer]

Interesting responses. I still don't want to make this beer, but can some of their techniques be applied to a homebrewers arsenal?

Some, though when you start playing with enzymes it's really nice to have a lab and Quality Dept. to keep tabs on the process.

 

[schematix]

Bump.

OK so I had the opportunity to talk to an engineer who worked in the packaging area at AB/StL and learned some interesting things.

1. This probably isn't a surprise, but Busch/Busch Light/Natty Light are all basically the same recipe. More interesting is that any f'd up batches of Bud or Bud Light get blended at a 10-15% ratio with the normal beer. Also the last bit of B/BL from the ferms is settled again in another tank and then mixed with the above "value" beers. Also if they need to package one of those beers and they don't have it ready, they just dilute it with DI water (if necessary) and cross package. Apparently SAB/Miller does the same thing for their budget brews.

2. One trick to Bud Light Platinum is HFCS. It is used in the ferm AND post-filtering in packaging in a minuscule amount. It's brewed and packaged full strength. Also as far as the grain it's 6-row and corn, not rice.

Happy cloning

 

[calebgk]

Thanks for adding this. Also, HFCS? Gah! There's enough of it in everything else, it doesn't belong in beer!

 

[Schol-R-LEA]

Am I the only one who read the title of this thread as 'Bud Light Plutonium'? Not that would be a beer with some kick to it...

 

[looneybomber]

Thanks for adding this. Also, HFCS? Gah! There's enough of it in everything else, it doesn't belong in beer!

It's just a sugar. The yeast eat it and convert it to ethanol, so it's not like you're consuming HFCS.

 

[Dirty25]

I thought the calories were in the alcohol itself so a 6% beer should have more calories.

 

[highgravitybacon]

I thought the calories were in the alcohol itself so a 6% beer should have more calories.

They are. 1.044->.998 is 6% abv at 137 calories. No magic. Science.

 

[looneybomber]

Yeah I thought ethanol had 7cal/g where-as protein and carbs have 4cal/g.

 

[chri5]

Yeah I thought ethanol had 7cal/g where-as protein and carbs have 4cal/g.

It does, but remember those ethanol calories came from sugar. In most beers there is still residual sugar, in these they use enzymatic tricks to get almost all of the sugar (0.998!) fermented into alcohol.

A 6% beer at 0.998 has many fewer calories than a 6% 1.012 beer.