From: joseph@joebloe.maple-shade.nj.us (Joseph Nathan Hall)
Newsgroups: alt.beer
Subject: "Light" [Re: Amount of Alcohol in U.S. beer?]
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 92 23:50:03 EDT
Organization: 5 Sigma Software
Reply-To: joseph@joebloe.maple-shade.nj.us
X-Mailer: uAccess - Macintosh Release: 1.5v5


In article <1992Aug22.034906.3933@rosedale.uucp> (alt.beer), dcb@rosedale.uucp (Dave Breneman) writes:
) In article <1992Aug14.155543.19272@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> jmartens@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Jeffrey D Martens) writes:
) >
) >In Canada light beers have lower alcohol content than regular; this is
) >not true in the US.
) >
) Would you care to explain this?
) It flies in the face of known light beer manufacturing technique:
) 
) 1) Brew regular American Pale Export Full Of Adjuncts.
) 
) 2) "Blend with additional water from the original source"
)    (cut it with tapwater)
) 
) 3) "Enhance the effervescence"
)     (re-carbonate it like pop)

This is really a gross oversimplification.  Sure, you may be cynical
about the mass market brewers, but personally I think it is better to
admire (and learn from) their brewing skills and just not drink their beer.

Let me quote from Fred Eckhardt in "The Essentials of Beer Style"
in the section "Training Yourself" (to taste beer):

  Let us not forget that Bud, the current best-selling U.S. beer,
  is an excellent example of the brewer's art. ... My recommendation
  is Budweiser because it is made locally (or nearly so) across most
  of the U.S., and because it is clean tasting, well made, nearly
  always fresh, and universally available in this country.  It is
  clearly the standard from which to judge others of its type.

(Don't take this out of context--I'm not claiming that Fred says
Bud is one of the world's best tasting beers.  He's just saying that
it's one of the world's best MADE beers.)

Let's not blame the quality of American mass-market beer on the
brewers.  The mega-breweries go to great lengths to brew a
consistent product in huge quantities, despite seasonal and annual
variations in supplies that would put consistency out of the reach 
of all but the most sophisticated small brewers.  It's unfortunate
that they are applying their skills to the production of the finest
lawnmower beers in the world when they could instead be producing
the finest "real beer" in the world.  But this is the fault of the
American beer drinking public as much as it is the fault of brewers
or their marketers.

(Microbreweries have no trouble getting supplies of consistent
quality, since their quantity requirements are so low.  But the
mega-breweries face the same problems as, say, MacDonalds, which
can't introduce some products because ... well ... there just might
not be enough chopped chicken of the right kind available, anywhere, in
the US!  The large brewers just take whatever grain is available, at
whatever nitrogen and protein makeup etc. the current growing season
produced, and whatever hops is available at whatever alpha/beta
acid levels it wound up with, and make the best of it.  Hmm.  I
shouldn't forget "the corn" and "the rice."  ;-> )

Anyway, the point of "light beer" is reduced calories.  You get
reduced calories by reducing the starting gravity of the brew.
The result will be a beer with normal alcohol but less body (Miller
Lite) or normal body (in the sense of lawnmower beers) but less
alcohol (Bud Light).  Sure, more water is part of the solution.
But, hell, even strong beer is mostly water anyway.

) The watering-down process obviously reduces the alcohol content,
) unless the beer is cask-conditioned afterwards. :-)

Beer brewed at a normal strength is rarely, if ever, "watered down"
after fermentation.  It happens that Coors brews beer at high gravity in 
Colorado and ships the fermented wort to its East Coast "bottling plant" 
(or whatever they're calling it now) for dilution, but this is a 
deliberate step.  It's not as if they take regular Coors and dilute it to 
make Coors Light.  Really, it may seem hard to believe, but they do care 
how the stuff tastes.  (It just doesn't taste *much*, that's all.)

There are even a few homebrewers (not including myself) who have tried
high-gravity brewing.  The process in and of itself is not inherently
disreputable.

) The inventor of light beer was the biggest con artist of our generation.
) Water-down cheap beer and sell it for more money.
) What a scam!

No, I think this "con artist" was just following in the footsteps
of the people who created "Light Cream Cheese" and "I Can't Believe
It's Butter" and ice milk, diet salad dressing and any number of other 
inferior-tasting products that are supposedly better for your waistline.
We seem unable to control the quantity of food and drink we ingest
in this country, so we look to manufacturers to control the quality.
They do the best they can given the constraints (no calories yet tastes
like something loaded with yummy sugar and fat) and we buy the results
in embarrassing quantities.

Personally, I'd rather eat a smidgen of puff pastry from time to time
than a steady diet of Diet Twinkies or something similar.  Likewise
I'd rather have one or two homebrews than four Bud Lights.  But obviously
I'm weird.

uunet!joebloe!joseph   (609) 273-8200 day   joseph%joebloe@uunet.uu.net
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