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Does light beer taste as good as regular beer?
Results so far:
| Yes | 33% | 215 votes | Total: 656 votes | |
| No | 67% | 441 votes |
Yes
by Brett Jamieson
Created on: September 26, 2008 Last Updated: November 07, 2008
Get more than one North American male aged 18 to 88 in a conversation with a six pack, case, or pint in front of them, and it is not surprising when the debate of "Regular vs. Light" becomes the focus of that conversation, even if just for a short moment before moving onto other subjects. However, this debate has surfaced simply to either serve a person's personal preferences, or their ego.
The truth is that light beer vs. regular beer has evolved out of the economic idea of creating product norms and marketing them to their specific market sectors. It is all a result of a marketing campaign developed by Miller to sell "diet" beer to Americans. If you weren't from North America, you wouldn't even be having this conversation at all. "Light" beer is not even sold anywhere but North America.
And the "light" beer that you buy at your local liquor store is nothing like a beer made outside the continent, or in any traditional way. Traditional beer is brewed over a span of 4-6 weeks allowing the full flavours, enzymes and chemical reactions to penetrate the mixture creating the final product, that usually does not exceed 6% alcohol. However, Light beer, is brewed over the course of about a week creating a mixture that is at approximately 25 - 30 % alcohol, at which point they water it down to the 4% alcohol content that light beer is known for and add chemicals to ensure a certain amount of flavour returns to the beverage.
You may ask at this point: Did you vote for the wrong side? Yes it seems like I should be saying that light beer does not taste as good as regular beer. However, I am taking a different perspective on this.
If you look at the North American market of beer production, it is quite obvious that regular beer is simply better tasting than light beer, because it is much easier to find a regular beer that has gone through the proper brewing process in North America than to find a light beer that has gone through this same process. If you look outside the North American market, you will find that there are many beers brewed without the "light" label, that are brewed to a lower alcohol content than others. For example, standard Carlsberg is brewed to 3.8%, even lower than a standard light beer, and in contrast to standard Stella Artois, which is 5.2%.
There are countless examples of this throughout the world, and the flavour in Carlsberg is no more lacking than in any other standard lager or pilsner brewed in the world. It is all about preferred taste in this case, and for some beers that brew both a lighter beer and a stronger beer (For example Staropramen 10 degree beer and 12 degree beer), I can say that I sometimes prefer the weaker or lighter product.
So if you were to argue that "light beer" (as it has been branded) is as good as "regular beer" than it would be an argument that lasts a millisecond. However, if you argued that lighter brewed beer is not as good as stronger brewed beer (or regularly brewed beer, according to North American norms), that would be a conversation that could last for hours!
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No
by Bob Duden
Created on: January 15, 2009 Last Updated: February 18, 2010
The concept of light beer is a marketing ploy foisted off on an American public that continues to push the boundaries toward obesity through it's diet. Just the word 'obese' has such a negative connotation that advertisers can substitute the term 'light' to alleviate a nations fear as it continues to consume beer as a main stream beverage. Buy that 600 calorie fast food burger but wash it down with a light beer and a balance has been achieved. The taste of light beer is irrelevant, as long as the American public continues to buy it. On a personal note, it just doesn't taste the same. There is something missing in light beer.
Simply put, light beer means fewer calories and less carbohydrates than it's counterpart. The sad reality to the concept of removing those extra calories and carbohydrates is that the finished product comes with less taste. It just cannot be avoided because the substitute for those removed calories and carbohydrates is inevitably more water, and we all know just how good water tastes. Sugar is a by product of the fermenting process. Whether it's primarily malted barley and wheat, or a cheaper mixture with rice and corn, the cooked grain produces sugar as it ferments. Sugar is a carbohydrate, and the most likely cause of higher calories. Alcohol is a sugar but we can't take all the alcohol out of beer so, most brew masters, after having obtained the desired amount of alcohol in the fermenting process, will burn off the amount of sugar in the beer to reduce the calories and carbohydrates. This heat process reduces the volume but leaves most of the alcohol content intact. They have to add something to bring the volume back. That product is water, which dilutes the taste.
We have become a society forced to focus on body weight strictly for health reasons. The consumption of too many fats and sugars have turned us into an obese group that seeks affirmation through diet. Even the Surgeon General has taken it upon himself to declare this a national crisis. Cholesterol and calories abound in our daily lives and we look for any avenue to diminish the intake. So light beer has become a solution. Why risk life without that cheese burger when you can wash it down with a light beer?
There's a school of thought that quotes Benjamin Franklin with the adage, "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy". There is also a large majority that claim Franklin never uttered those words as he was a wine lover and did not like the taste of beer. Either way, the words come with historical relevance as the consumption of beer goes back to the earliest settlements of man. The process of fermenting beer is attributed to the growth of cities. Water consumption was dangerous because water supplies weren't purified. Diseases like dysentery and cholera were often spread through the water. Beer was brewed as the alternative and safer beverage, and for centuries we have continued to drink beer.
Today, we have big breweries and micro breweries. We have flavored beers, pilsners, lagers, ales and stouts. You can make your's light but make mine heavy, because beauty, or taste, is in the eye of the beholder. So when you plop yourself down on a stool in your local and ask the bar tender to pour you a tall cold one, the contents of the glass is just a personal choice. My vote on light beer would be no, while your vote might be yes. Your taste buds are different from mine, and my beer tastes better than yours. We can sit there and argue this all night. So, just pour us another beer.
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