Calories as a Function of ABV

Or just use ~ 30 calories / 1% like most people.

 

anyone know. I want a list.

 

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=beer+calorie+content+chart

 

Most of the calories comes from the alcohol.

 

Que The Bruery!

 

Yeah, typically I think the "rule of thumb" is 150 calories per 12oz serving of 5% ABV beer... Or 2.5 calories per ABV of beer, per ounce.

Example 1: 10oz of a 8% ABV beer (10oz * 2.5 cal * 8 ABV = 200 cal total)

Example 2: 16oz of a 13% ABV beer (16oz * 2.5 cal * 13 ABV = 520 cal total)

Example 3: 12oz of 5% ABV beer (12oz * 2.5 cal * 5 ABV = 150 cal total)

 

Generally the sweeter the beer, the less sugars were fermented into alcohol and therefore higher calories per alcohol content. I'd suspect heavy, sweet stouts and barleywines such as Bourbon County and The Bruery stouts would top the list.

 

A local brewery near me sent their ImpStout in for analysis once, a pint came out to 400 calories.

 

I was wondering this myself just as a curious homebrewer. If both beers start at the same gravity say 1.070, but one beer finishes at 1.014 and the other at 1.008, the lower F.G. would have more alcohol, but is their a difference in calories? I would think the other beer would still be equal or more since it has more unconverted sugars remaining in the beer.

 

Funny.

 

Brilliant!!!!!!!

 

Ethanol contains 7 calories per gram, carbs contain 4 calories per gram (FYI, fat has 9 and protein has 4). What I don't know is if 1 gram of sugar metabolized by yeast turns into 1 gram of ethanol. Doubt it, but it may be close enough to not matter in a beer or five.

 

http://getdrunknotfat.com/

 

During fermentation, the yeast are deriving energy from metabolism of sugar. So the products of fermentation (alcohol) have to have less energy (calories) that the sugar they started with. The key is that the metabolism also produces CO2, so the mass of alcohol is lower than the starting mass of sugar. So if starting gravity is the same, the beer with more residual sugar will have more calories that the one with higher alcohol.

 

Question: what about the calories contributed by the alcohol itself.

 

As stated above, alcohol is 7 calories per gram versus 4 calories per gram for sugar. There will be fewer grams of alcohol than there were grams of starting sugar after fermentation because of the CO2 loss.

EDIT: glucose (primary sugar in wort) has a molecular weight of 180 grams/mole; ethanol is 46 grams/mole. There will be two molecules of ethanol for each glucose, so it the ethanol produced would have about half the calories of the original glucose.

 

Thanks @CASK1. I knew enough to get started, but you connected the rest of the dots for me.

 

Or Belgian/Trappist - I can drink stouts till the cows come home and don't see any appreciable gain in weight if drunk in moderation. The stuff those monks make? Well..... Let me just say this... Maybe there's a reason they're always depicted as chubby...

 

Not sure exactly what the worst is in this regard, but it's probably made by Southern Tier or Founders.