"Lighter" Craft Beers

Organic Ur pils is pretty good
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/31/81

For the most part anything lower in ABV will be lower in calories. However I only drink for flavor and don't even check beer calories. I only drink one or two days a week. But with healthy eating,heavy lifting and cardio I see no reason the beer would have any affect. My body fat % is around 11 right now and I drink about 3-4 beers Sat and sometimes sunday. Many are BA, or imperial, stous,quads etc..higher calories

So my real recommendation is lift heavy weights! and do cardio and the beer wont matter unless you drink multiple a day. I would much rather drink less and flavorful than more and low calorie, low flavor.

 

Rodenbach Grand Cru is 6% (along with most other Flemish beers). If you have access to lambics, those are mostly all around 5%.

Many of the German styles fall around 5% (and Berliner Weisses are even lower, ~3.5%), so maybe branch out from Weihenstephaner and Spaten there. Ayinger, Sprecher, and Aecht Schlenkerla are all solid. YMMV on finding good a Kolsch or Alt.

Some of the lighter stouts, like milk or oatmeal stouts, will fall into the ~5% abv bucket as well. Young's Double Chocolate and Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout are both ~5%.

If you're looking for something hoppy, you might try aggressively hopped APAs or IPAs. Those will usually come in under 6%, so that's stretching it.

All that said, as someone in a similar position and with similar tastes, when I want a high ABV beer I find it easier to cut calories elsewhere and still hit my macros. It helps to limit it to a single bottle as well.

 

Yeah I wish they distributed cans! Luckily my local craft beer bar has it on tap at the moment.

 

Agreed. I'm a big fan of Weihenstephaner's Oktoberfestbier too -- get it while you can!

 

Besides Pils and lagers, many ambers fit the bill if you like those. The hoppier ones are up to 6%+, but most are below. Some of my favorites that you should get in NJ include:
Troeg's Hopback Amber
Bell's Amber
Rogue American Amber
Stone Levitation

Most local breweries can pull off a decent Amber as well. Odell Levity is great and at 5%, but doesn't sell out east.

 

Carton is primarily a draught-only brewery - with cans only recently being done with the help of a mobile canning service and AFAIK* those cans were only sold at the brewery. Many bars and liquor stores with growler stations do carry their beers, of course.

Also, IIRC* they self-distribute in-state, so no NJ distributors carry their brand.

* You can try to confirm these statement on their website, but it is a very annoying "too cute for it's own good" type of site and doesn't seem to work well on Firefox and not at all on my older version of Explorer. http://cartonbrewing.com/

 

To the OP and all others concerned about calorie count in their beer: Pick your poison. Either drink what you want, like or tastes best to you and eat healthy by cutting back on the high calorie fattening, greasy foods, or drink low-calorie lower taste beers and eat what you want. My vote is drink good and eat healthy. I've been eating longer than I've been drinking and I still have some catching up to do.

 

Not sure if this was mentioned but New Glarus immediately comes to mind..

 

Weihenstephaner Original. Stupid good.

 

It's so true, that labatts that only has 52 calories tastes nothing like good beer. Everything really good has calories.

 

Work out more and keep drinking the beers that you like.

 

More expensive than it should be, but Cisco's Sankaty Light is actually a really good beer.

 

Here's a kilo of coarse salt and an open wound. Rub away, sir. Rub away.

 

^This.

I do crossfit and play rugby. Good beer is quality fuel! I've always understood that as long as you aren't sitting on your can 24/7 you can drink whatever you want.

 

It is possible to brew a lower calorie beer that is flavorful.

An example would be a Berliner Weisse but these are not widely distributed.

Since the OP lives in NJ he should be able to find Yard’s Brawler which is an English Mild Ale that clocks in at 4.2% but is still very tasty. Below is a description from the Yards website:

“Boasting superior taste and champion flavor, Brawler is crafted in the style of English session ales. This malt-forward, ruby colored ale features flavors of freshly baked bread and caramel that dominate the aroma and palate.”

It is tasty from the bottle but if you are lucky enough to find it on cask, BUY IT! Brawler really shines on cask.

Cheers!

 

Id consider Zombie dust to be 'light'

 

Odell Levity. It's 5% and around 150 calories. Not personally one of my favorites from them but it rates very well overall.