The Art and Craft of Making Light Beer You Will Actually Want to Drink

Is it possible to make a really good light beer? That’s an increasingly important question for craft brewers, who suffered an outsize hit to their sales during the pandemic.

Small and independent producers’ sales were down about 7%-8%, according to the Brewers Association, with the smallest producers encountering the worst dips—up to 30%—due to their reliance on tap-room business. Consumers, meanwhile, appeared to pivoting to lighter beer styles, with light macro-beer sales surging; Busch Light’s sales were up 44.4%, Miller Lite’s were up 17.2% and Michelob Ultra saw surges of 15.9%, according to a study from InMarket. Studies of consumption habits among millennials and Gen Z drinkers show that more and more young people are reaching for hard seltzers (see our story on hard seltzers made with fruit juice, because they want fewer calories, and lower alcohol levels from their drinks. Clearly, there’s an opportunity for craft beer to recapture some of these younger drinkers with lighter styles.

It’s complicated though. On the one hand, there’s the opportunity to not just make a new, technically challenging, potentially exciting line of beers for a relatively untapped market segment, but on the other, there’s a craft brewer’s reputation to think about it. Imperials, pastry stouts, and barrel-aged beers are much, let’s face it, cooler than light lager.

For many brewers, the idea of making light beer is analogous to a crusty punk band suddenly cranking out bubblegum pop. Diet food and drink—often with good reason— gets a bad rap. Diet ice cream, low-fat cheese, low-sugar juice: the enemy of deliciousness, and frequently, brimming with chemicals. The “light” beers on the market that consumers are most familiar with— Coors Light, Bud Light, Miller Light— seem to be designed, as Greg Koch might put it, “for wussies.”  

This conundrum hasn’t escaped any of the craft brewers we spoke with. Read on for more about the science and art of making delicious light(er) beer.

Jeremy Kosmicki

Flavor First

“I honestly never thought about calories when designing beers like All Day IPA or Solid Gold,” insists Jeremy Kosmicki, Founders Brewing Co.’s brewmaster. Founders, located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, produce more than 625,000 barrels of beer a year. “It was about crafter a lower alcohol beer that had flavor and was easy to drink. The calorie count was the result of targeting light body and reduced alcohol.”

He would never, he maintains, try to create a macro-style light beer under 100 calories. “Mathematically, it’s a tradeoff in that calories basically equal alcohol plus residual sugar, so you only have so much to work with, and you have to find that balance.”

Kosmicki says that going below 130-140 calories is challenging. “Go much lower and the flavor becomes seriously compromised.” The flavor in the 4.7% ABV All Day IPA is far from compromised or weak. It’s a journey through a pine forest, a grove of grapefruit, with a clean finish boasted zested tangerines, and an undercurrent of cracker-malt.

The Science—and Art

Bret Kollman Baker, owner and head brewer of Cincinnati, Ohio’s 30-barrel brewhouse Urban Artifact agrees that lighter beer is often best when lower calorie counts are a side-effect, not the end goal, of the brewing process. “We focus on fruited beers and sours, which are styles that are conducive to lower-ABV and lower-calorie beers,” he explains. “Brewing is like cooking. You’re creating flavor, and if you make a style that is naturally higher in fruit and acidity it is going to taste better and more authentic than trying to make a lower-calorie porter or stout. Styles like that need that richness and full mouth feel to taste the way it’s supposed to.” Indeed, Urban’s Cranberry Lemonade Gose is tart, but well-rounded, like an adult lemonade: salted lemons, cranberries, white flowers.

AleSmith Brewing Company’s head brewer Ryan Crisp concurs, maintaining that crushable IPA’s, lagers, sours, and pilsners also lend themselves to lower calorie beers, without sacrificing character. “It’s difficult to make a beer in the 4% ABV range with the body and flavor of a regular beer,” the San Diego-based Crisp acknowledges. “There’s not a lot of fermentation happening because there isn’t a lot of sugar. If you’re not careful, you end up with a watery beer, and all the hops and fruit in the world can’t cover that up.” The most important thing, he says, was creating more sessionable beers that wouldn’t just sell, but would be something that he and the rest of his team actually wanted to drink. Last month, AleSmith released a Limeberry Twist, which brings limecello, raspberry zing, and salted wheat into a refreshing package.

Becky Ryman

Wallenpaupack Brewing Company’s owner Becky Ryman, agrees that taste comes first, but admits that once she saw that lower-calorie IPAs “were becoming a thing,” she really wanted to see what head brewer Logan Ackerley could cook up.

“We experimented a lot, and we finally produced a lower-ABV version of our flagship beer, Largemouth. Of course we decided to call it Smallmouth,” she says. “I love it, and so do our brewers. They drink it as their shift beer, and one of our best customers, who always used to order a Largemouth and a burger, now goes for the Smallmouth. I asked him why, and he told me that he likes it because he can have more than one, without feeling full. He likes that it’s more sessionable, but still has the flavor, mouthfeel and hop level he craves in an IPA.”

Indeed, Smallmouth, which clocks in at 102 calories and 4.4% ABV, brings the light and crisp, but also herbs, bitter pine, a round mouthfeel.

Will consumers give up their chocolate and lactose-laced Maple Vanilla Breakfast Scone beers? Of course not, nor should they. But for lunch beers, by-the-lake beers, or long nights of drinking on the porch beers, it’s good to know there are several non-wussy options out there now.