Want to know how brewers successfully reduce calories in an India Pale Ale from around 200 to 100 calories? Ask Popular Mechanics!! They found ten low cal IPAs that still tasted good. This is an except from their 2020 article.
“Scaling down the frequently boozy, often hazy, and always pungent ale into a lighter, more refreshing package is an incredible feat of beer engineering.
The biggest portion of calories comes from the typical 6 to 7 percent ABV. All that alcohol makes an excellent solution for extracting aromatic hop oils. And then there are the calories from carbohydrates that provide a beer’s body and sweet balance to the bitter hop oils.
Cutting down the ABV is a matter of using less grain, but then they have to make up for the lighter hop character. Alternative yeast strains can be used for creating juice-like flavor compounds from the hop oils as the beer ferments to broaden the hop character.
Sadly, not all 100-ish calorie IPAs we’ve encountered were able to achieve the precarious balance of big hop flavor in a light and refreshing package. Our research turned up numerous duds that either lacked the hops to taste like an IPA, or were astringent and unpleasantly bitter.”
But that was then and this is now and availability differs by area. Meaning, we’ll have to do some shopping and sampling. It’s a tough job……
Click here for the 2020 article. Some of their finds may still be available in your neck of the woods.
-Jet Cannon
