Low-Cal Archives | Short Brews

Best Tasting Low-Calorie Beers For 2026

Thomas Short — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 14:51:49 +0000

As far as drinks go, beer tends to be one of the highest-calorie options you can choose. But it doesn’t have to be that way, since many breweries have made a bigger effort to create low-calorie beers that are both big in flavor and better for your waistline. Before I continue, keep in mind that all beer has calories. If you’re trying to lose weight, I suggest switching to something with fewer calories. But if you want to make healthier choices without entirely cutting beer from your diet, there are plenty of options available. Here are the best-tasting low-calorie beers (and yes, I’ve tried them all). 10 Best Lo-Cal Beers for 2026 Firestone Walker Flyjack Hazy IPA: 96 Calories The folks at Firestone Walker have done it again! Previous iterations of this list have included brews from Firestone Walker, but Flyjack Hazy IPA makes the list this year. At just 96 calories, this sessionable hazy is a cool 4% ABV, making it a nice balance of drinkability and flavor with under 100 calories per can. Best for: Any type of water activity Heineken Silver: 95 Calories Heineken Silver is one of the only big-name brands that ranks in my favorite low-calorie beers (and best light beers). It only has 95 calories and 3.2 grams of carbs. It’s so light that it basically doesn’t count, and it manages to do so without being devoid of all beer flavor. Of all the light (or lite) beers you find, this is my go-to. Best for: Golfing Deschutes Da Shootz! Pilsner: 99 Calories Doubling as an effort to help people correctly pronounce the brewery name, Da Shootz! from Deschutes Brewing is the perfect sunny day beer. While Da Shootz! comes in at just 4% ABV, drinkers can rejoice that they’re sipping on a beer under 100 calories. Oh, and the artwork is phenomenal, A+ work. Best for: Enjoying indoors Dogfish Head Slightly Mighty Lo-Cal IPA: 95 Calories Slightly Mighty is the best description for this low-cal beer from Dogfish Head. Heck, Lo-Cal is even in the name! I’m pretty sure this is basically a Session IPA, making it one of several on this list. But it’s 4% ABV and has just 3.6 grams of carbs, making it worth drinking if you want a low-calorie option. Best for: Taproom drinking (where available) Shiner Light Blonde: 99 Calories Just sneaking in under 100 calories, Shiner Light Blonde is 4.2% ABV with just 3.4g of carbs per bottle. This is a super light blonde ale that almost drinks like a lager. If you love Shiner Bock and want to cut down on calories, this is an easy beer to sub in. Best for: Daytime social gatherings Guinness: 125 Calories You didn’t think you’d see Guinness on this list, did you? With only 125 calories, Guinness is a surprisingly low-cal beer, and it’s easily accessible, pretty much everywhere you can buy beer. While stouts aren’t the best in the sun, they sure do taste good in a pub at night! Best for: Pubs Lagunitas DayTime IPA: 98 Calories Not only is the Lagunitas Day Time IPA a nice low-cal option, but it actually tastes pretty good. The 4% ABV is well below most of Lagunitas’ normal beers (for reference, they have a 6% ABV pils), and it’s honestly a nice change of pace. Best for: Watching baseball Ballast Point Even Keel IPA: 114 Calories Ballast Point beer is routinely good, though most people probably only recognize the Sculpin IPA. Well, Even Keel is a bit different. It’s got plenty of mango flavor, especially as it warms up a little bit after opening. At 3.8% ABV, this low-calorie beer is perfect for a nice, summery day. If you’re ever visiting San Diego, I highly recommend making a visit to Ballast Point and trying this out. Best for: Drinking while grilling food Athletic Brewing Run Wild IPA: 90 Calories Many beer drinkers are privy to non-alcoholic beers, and some might have even tried Athletic Brewing’s Run Wild IPA. What this 90-calorie beer lacks in alcohol (it is 0% ABV), it makes up for in pure quality. Seriously, you would never know you’re not drinking an alcoholic IPA with this beer. It’s 100% worth trying, and easily the healthiest option on this list. Best for: Post-workout relaxation Michelob Ultra I don’t have to push Michelob Ultra on anyone since it’s the best-selling beer in the country. But it sells so well for good reason. At just 95 calories and 2.6g of carbs, Michelob Ultra does a good job of balancing flavor and lightness, something that most light beers struggle with (or ignore trying to do entirely). Michelob markets itself as a beer for athletes, and that’s honeslty what it’s best for. Best for: Athletic things Other Low-Calorie Beer Questions

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Alcoholic Seltzer Water: The New Beer

Thomas Short — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 23:13:36 +0000

Image courtesy of White Claw We’re here, folks. It was only a matter of time. Beer is dead. Long live the New Beer. Let’s be real, though. You’ve probably through that beer has been in a steady decline since you started drinking beer and forming your own opinions. There are so many styles of beer that even beer drinkers have been asking if beer is beer anymore. If beer isn’t beer, what is beer? Alcoholic seltzer water, of course. Of course I’m kidding. Beer is far from dead, and while craft beer as an industry has slowed, global beer sales are still impressive. Hear me out, though; Corona (and other beers) don’t use real hops. They use synthetic hops. Is that still beer? Other beers don’t use barley and substitute it with rice or corn syrup (as famously exposed on Big Game Sunday by Bud Light). Barley, or at the very least grain, is a main ingredient for beer, so are these beers that use corn syrup still beer? What if a beer didn’t use barley or real hops, just water, yeast and other stuff, is it still beer? Keep this question in mind, dear reader, and explore the exciting possibilities of alcoholic seltzer water being a beer. What is hard seltzer? Alcoholic seltzer water, aka hard seltzer water, is exactly what it sounds like: seltzer water that gets you drunk. These bad boys come in 12 oz cans, clock in around 6% ABV and are currently the rock in my life that’s keeping me from floating away into the great big blue. They also come in different price ranges like beer, and different qualities (like beer). A main ingredient of seltzer water is real fruit. Plenty of sour beers use real fruit, too. Here’s one thing seltzer water isn’t: seltzer water with alcohol added. I know so many people are thinking that it’s just some horrible vodka tonic knockoff. Not nearly. Hard seltzer water is made similarly to beer – that is, it’s fermented. Like lagers, this is a cold fermentation process. The similarities to beer are seemingly endless. Finally, here’s the one big difference: hard seltzer water ferments sugars instead of barley. You hard-core alcohol know-it-alls will say, “hey, all alcohol comes from fermenting sugars DUH.” Yup, that’s true. And if we can get the sugars in beer from corn syrup, can’t we get it from another type of sugar? Is hard seltzer water a type of beer? No, it isn’t. I’ve been screwing with you the whole time. Of course hard seltzer water isn’t beer! Just because something is alcoholic doesn’t mean it’s a beer. Yes, the line separating beer and literally any other alcoholic drink is constantly getting blurrier, and some day we may have a hard seltzer-beer crossover (are you taking notes, AB-InBev?) Until that fateful day comes, we can separate the two. But hey, I still love these seltzers, and this was the perfect excuse to write about them. Is hard seltzer healthy? No, of course hard seltzer isn’t healthy. It’s alcohol. That being said: yes, slamming seltzer water is healthier than chugging porters. Hard seltzers usually range from 100-125 calories, which isn’t too far off from low-calorie beers. But most beers are a higher calorie count. Also worth noting is that hard seltzers have less sugar in them than beer. What?! Really?! Yes, really. Just because alcoholic seltzer uses sugar doesn’t mean it’s a sugary drink. The yeast in the fermentation process breaks down the sugars and turns them into alcohol. Of course there will be sugars leftover, but hard seltzers happen to have fewer leftover sugars than beer. I can confirm that hard seltzer is healthy for the soul, though. That’s one reason to drink them. Related: 4 Beer Cocktails for Every Beer Drinker

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More Buzz For Your Buck: Cheap vs. Nice Beers

Thomas Short — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 18:00:07 +0000

We’ve all been there, particularly if you cared enough to start reading this post. We’ve all wondered whether or not cheap beer is a cheaper, more efficient way of getting buzzed. There’s really no way to mince words with this one, so let’s just get down to the brass tacks. Here’s my formula: I’ll be taking three cheap beers (Coors Light, PBR and Bud Light) and three nicer beers (Elysian Space Dust, 21st Amendment Brew Free Or Die and, why not, Henry Weinhard’s Private Reserve). Next, I’ll include what their ABV is – because, if you were not aware, the alcoholic content of the beer is the part that gets you buzzed. After getting the ABV out in the open, I’ll determine some arbitrary price for the beers. These prices are arbitrary because prices change around the nation, but Total Wine’s prices will work well enough. Here’s the thing: I understand that buying in bulk saves money. However, to keep things consistent with themselves, I’m going to be using the price for a 6-pack. I’ll then skinny it down to price per volume based on that info. Next, I’m going to add in their calorie count. Calories don’t really play any type of roll in this, but a lot of people care about calories, so I’ll add it in to make them feel happy. Finally, I’ll combine the ABV with the price per volume of the beer, and voila! We’ll have our answer. Let’s get started. Which Beer Is Most Alcohol Efficient? I’ve pulled all my information from Total Wine, so prices may vary. If nothing else, this should give you a better idea of which beer is most ABV efficient. To determine efficiency, I took the ABV of a beer and multiplied it by the price per 12 ounces. This is what I call the ABV-Efficiency Ratio, or AER. The higher the number is, the more efficient the alcohol per price. Here’s the efficiency of the six beer, ranked first to last: Space Dust IPA: .137 Brew Free Or Die IPA: .105 Henry Wienhard’s Private Reserve: .065 PBR: .047 Bud Light: .042 Coors Light: .039 The results show that pricier-yet-more-alcoholic IPAs are a better buzz-for-buck than your cheap beers. Light beers were, unsurprisingly, the least efficient – however, they do have fewer calories, and I know some people drink these beers because they’re counting calories, or…whatever. Another fun thing: the worse the beer is, the worse the AER! This isn’t just my opinion, either – Space Dust IPA has a 96 overall on RateBeer.com with 3.69 stars out of 5. Coors Light carries an impressive 0 overall with 1.36 stars out of 5. Here’s a chart with all the information you could ever need, including the calories of each beer (because I know that matters). ABV Cost for 6-12 oz cans Price Per Volume ABV-Efficiency Ratio Calories Coors Light 4.20% $5.49 $0.92 0.039 126 PBR 4.74% $5.99 $1.00 0.047 144 Bud Light 4.20% $5.99 $1.00 0.042 110 Space Dust 8.20% $9.99 $1.67 0.137 247 Brew Free or Die 7.00% $8.99 $1.50 0.105 190 PR 4.80% $6.99 $1.17 0.056 150 Over time I’ll be gradually adding to this list, and someday we will find out what the most efficient buzz-for-buck beer is.

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Can You Build Muscle Drinking Beer?

Thomas Short — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 20:03:24 +0000

We’ve already discussed (lightly) the science behind whether or not beer is good for you. Like all good things, excess is probably going to do more harm than not. That being said, there are health benefits tied to beer – and they could end up boosting your workout results. One of the main parts of working out (or so I’m told) is building muscle. There’s plenty of research on the subject, but the idea is pretty clear: work out, eat protein, build muscles. Easy, right? Naturally, there are nuances to this…and that’s where beer might come in. When Beer Is Good For Your Workout Let’s get something out of the way – do not drink and then lift heavy weights. Just don’t, please. If you’re going to have a beer, it’s likely going to be after your workout. There are all sorts of myths about post-workout nutrition, and one people always told me is that alcohol is bad for your body after a workout. One person even told me that any alcohol reduces the quality of your workout by 60%. I have no idea where they found out that made-up statistic. The jury is still out on whether or not beer can be good, but check this out: one or two beers after a workout results in a higher production of testosterone, and testosterone helps muscles grow faster. In fact, most studies show that alcohol generally doesn’t have negative effects until you get to around 5 or 7 drinks in one sitting. Also, drinking 3-4 beers a day every single day shows negative effects. This makes sense because we’ve all heard that having one drink a day is good for your heart, blood, and body in general. When Beer Is Bad For Your Workout If you plan on binge drinking after a workout, prepare to be upset with your workout results. According to one study, a 150-pound man that had roughly 7 drinks had suppressed levels of testosterone and a measurable decrease in muscle protein synthesis (the scientific name for muscles growing). Unsurprisingly, binge drinking is going to make it harder for your body to build muscles. This isn’t even bringing up how many calories, carbs and all that are in 7 drinks or beers. However, beer does have protein. Most beers are going to offer around 1-2 grams per glass. But what if there was a beer meant for working out? Interestingly enough, some people synthesized the ideal lifting beer. Meet Barbell Brew, a ridiculously expensive beer that boasts 21.8 grams of protein per beer. PER BEER. Apparently, that’s the same amount of protein that you’d find in a big ass steak. It also has under 100 calories and only 1.7 carbs. According to reviews, this beer’s taste is “…distinctive” and that having a full six pack makes you feel “in a word, awful!” But for those desperate to build muscles while drinking beer, it’s worth a try, right?

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