Light beer (sometimes spelled lite beer) is a beer, usually a pale lager, that is reduced in alcohol content or in calories compared to regular beers. [1] Light beers may be chosen by beer drinkers who wish to manage their alcohol consumption or their calorie intake; however, they are sometimes criticised for being less flavourful than full-strength beers, or for tasting or actually being watered down. [2] [3]
After some scattered fits and starts, light beer began to be mass marketed and accepted by American consumers in the early to mid-1970s, following two years of test marketing and promotion. This was followed by a nationwide rollout of Miller Lite in 1975 (then known merely as "Lite Beer from Miller").
Reduced calorie/reduced alcohol "light beer" is distinct from "light lager", which was a historical term that distinguished pale or golden lagers with lighter body (such as German Helles beers) from the traditional amber lagers and other inherently darker beers.
Prior to the development of contemporary light beer, similar styles, such as small beer, had been brewed for centuries.
The first use of the term in marketing was in 1941 when the Coors Brewing Company sold a low-abv beer called Coors Light for less than a year. [4] [5] In 1967 New York's Rheingold Brewery introduced a 4.2% pale lager, Gablinger's Diet Beer, brewed using a process developed in 1964 by chemist Dr. Hersch Gablinger of Basel, Switzerland. [6] [7] Using a recipe developed by Rheingold biochemist Joseph Owades, PhD, it was marketed as a beer for people dieting, and was not successful. [8] The recipe passed on to Peter Hand Brewing Company of Chicago, who sold it as Meister Brau Lite. Peter Hand later rebranded itself as Meister Brau Brewing (to highlight their flagship product in an attempt to go national), but after encountering financial problems in 1972, they sold the Meister Brau line of beers to Miller Brewing Company. The latter relaunched the beer as Miller Lite. [9] In 1978 Coors relaunched Coors Light as a 4.2% abv pale lager. [1]
Reducing the caloric content of beer is accomplished primarily by reducing its main contributors, carbohydrates and ethyl alcohol. [2] Unlike reduced-alcohol light beers produced for those restricting their alcohol content, the alcohol reduction in standard light beer is not primarily intended to produce a less intoxicating beverage.
This is the primary definition in the United States, where popular light beers include Bud Light, Miller Lite, and Coors Light.
Low-alcohol light beer is brewed specifically for those seeking to limit their alcohol consumption for medical, social, legal, or other reasons. Its lower proof allows consumers to drink more beers in a shorter period without becoming intoxicated. Low alcohol content can also result in a less expensive beer, especially where excise is determined by alcohol content. [10]
This is the primary definition of the term in countries such as Australia, Canada, and Scotland. In Australia, regular beers have approximately 5% alcohol by volume; light beers may have 2.2–3.2% alcohol. [11] In Scotland, the term derives from shilling categories, where 'light' customarily means a beer with less than 3.5% alcohol by volume.
Bock is a strong German beer, usually a dark lager.
Low-alcohol beer is beer with little or no alcohol by volume that aims to reproduce the taste of beer while eliminating or reducing the inebriating effect, carbohydrates, and calories of regular alcoholic brews. Low-alcohol beers can come in different beer styles such as lagers, stouts, and ales. Low-alcohol beer is also known as light beer, non-alcoholic beer, small beer, small ale, or near-beer.
The Miller Brewing Company is an American brewery and beer company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was founded in 1855 by Frederick Miller. Molson Coors acquired the full global brand portfolio of Miller Brewing Company in 2016, and operates the Miller Brewery at the site of the original Miller Brewing Company complex.
Tooheys is a brewery in the suburb of Lidcombe, in Sydney, Australia. It produces beer under the Tooheys and Hahn Brewery trademarks, and is part of the Lion beverages group which was acquired by the Japanese Kirin Company in 2009.
Pale lager is a pale-to-golden lager beer with a well-attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness.
Coors Light is a 4.2% ABV light American lager beer sold by Coors of Chicago, Illinois. It was first produced in 1978 by the Coors Brewing Company. They had briefly produced a different low-alcohol beer by the same name in 1941.
Miller Lite is a 4.2% ABV light American lager beer sold by Molson Coors of Chicago, Illinois. It was first produced in 1975. The company also produces Miller Genuine Draft and Miller High Life. Miller Lite competes mainly with Anheuser-Busch's Bud Light. Miller Lite is the official beer sponsor of the Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Brewers, Milwaukee Bucks, Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore Ravens, Chicago Bears, and Bellator MMA.
Castle Lager is a South African pale lager. It is the flagship product of South African Breweries and has been recognised as the National Beer of South Africa, based on the fact that it is 100% grown and produced in the country.
Beer was introduced to Canada by European settlers in the seventeenth century. The first commercial brewery was La Brasseries du Roy started by New France Intendant Jean Talon, in Québec City in 1668. Many commercial brewers thrived until prohibition in Canada. The provincial and federal governments' attempt to eliminate "intoxicating" beverages led to the closing of nearly three quarters of breweries between 1878 and 1928. It was only in the second half of the twentieth century that a significant number of new breweries opened up. The Canadian beer industry now plays an important role in Canadian identity, although globalization of the brewing industry has seen the major players in Canada acquired by or merged with foreign companies, notably its three largest beer producers: Labatt, Molson and Sleeman. The result is that Moosehead, with an estimated 3.8 percent share of the domestic market in 2016, has become the largest fully Canadian-owned brewer.
In the United States, beer is manufactured in breweries which range in size from industry giants to brew pubs and microbreweries. The United States produced 196 million barrels (23.0 GL) of beer in 2012, and consumes roughly 28 US gallons (110 L) of beer per capita annually. In 2011, the United States was ranked fifteenth in the world in per capita consumption, while total consumption was second only to China.
Joseph Lawrence Owades was an American biochemist and brewer of light and industrially produced beer. He adjusted analytical techniques and quality control, was involved in the development of the first modern light beer, creating many new, unique, and successful specialty beers. He is regarded by some as the father of light beer.
Oriental Brewery or OB is a South Korean brewery currently owned by AB InBev, and initially founded by Doosan Group.
George Killian's Irish Red is a red beer, produced and sold in France by Heineken France, and under license in the United States by Molson Coors under the trade name Unibev. Despite the differences in the brewing methods, the marketing of both beers claim legacy to an Irish "original recipe".
Rheingold Brewery, also referred to as Rheingold Breweries, or Liebmann Breweries, was the producer and marketer of Rheingold Beer from 1883 until 1987. This article is about both the brewery and its primary brand “Rheingold,” which has been sold by other companies intermittently since Rheingold Brewery was ended.
The American lager or North American lager is a style of pale lager produced in the United States and Canada. Pale lagers originated in Europe in the mid-19th century and were brought to North America by German immigrants. While the Bavarian and Czech variants of this style may be firmly hopped, pale lager has developed into a modestly hopped beer in the rest of the world and sometimes uses adjuncts such as rice or corn – this is also true in the US and Canada.
Milwaukee's Best is a 4.8% alcohol by volume, American-style pale lager brewed by Miller Brewing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the United States. Its sibling beers are Milwaukee's Best Ice (5.9%) and Milwaukee's Best Light, which is 4.1%. It is sometimes referred to as "the beast."
Anheuser-Busch, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, is the largest brewing company in the United States, with a market share of 45 percent in 2016.
The Christian Schmidt Brewing Company was an American brewing company headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1860, it was the largest brewing company in the history of Philadelphia, producing nearly 4,000,000 barrels of beer a year in the late 1970s. When it closed in 1987, it marked the first time in over 300 years that there was no brewery operating in Philadelphia.
Ale is a type of beer, brewed using a warm fermentation method. In medieval England, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops.
The Peter Hand Brewing Company was an American brewery established in 1891 by Prussian immigrant and American Civil War veteran Peter Hand in Chicago, Illinois. The company is notable for popularizing the light beer recipe it would later sell to Miller Brewing, which thereafter rebranded it "Light Beer from Miller", and, ultimately, Miller Lite. When the brewery closed in 1978, it was the last brewing company in Chicago, until Sieben's River North opened in 1987.
In other countries, the term "light beer" may refer to beer that is lower in carbohydrates. Light beer in Australia is low in alcohol content but not necessarily low in flavour. Alcohol content of light beer may be 2.2%–3.2% ABV.[ dead link ]