When you buy commercial brewed light beer you know how many calories there will be in it, you can find it on the label and most of the time it will have about 150 calories. When you are home brewing low calorie beer, it is much more difficult to determine the amount of calories your beer has. There are many things that influence the amount of calories, from the amount of sugar to the carbohydrates from the malt and hobs, even the method of brewing can contribute to a higher amount of calories.
The basic principal of brewing beer is based on the fermentation of the hops and malt and the amount of sugar used in the brew. Different brew recipes will require different amounts of sugar, as will the preference of the person doing the brewing. Some people believe that home brewing low calorie beer can be accomplished by using sugar substitutes or vegetable-based sweeteners instead of sugar, but that can affect the fermentation process as well as the required temperatures for fermentation to occur.
If you are one the ones that have decided to brew your own beer for the first time, chances are you have purchased a kit from which all brews can be made. If the plan is for home brewing low calorie beer the easiest way is to buy a low calorie beer brewing kit.
Add up the calories on the labels
While there are a lot of mathematical formulas involving knowing the specific scientific weight of all of the ingredients to calculate the number of calories in you bottle of beer, one of the easiest ways remains knowing simple addition. When home brewing low calorie beer, simply look on the labels of all of the ingredients in the batch and add up the total calories. Since the product labels typically involve breaking it down per serving, it is usually the amount of calories that will be a 12-ounce serving of beer.
If the calorie count seems too high and you do not plan on doing 150 jumping jacks for every bottle you drink to break even on calories, you can consider using artificial sweeteners. Artificial sweeteners also have calories, but less than regular table sugar. And remember when home brewing low calorie beer is the aim, you may should lower your expectations in taste. Because changing the ingredients can also change the taste of the beer.
