Lagunitas Nails the Low-Cal Craft Beer

Still waiting for someone to figure out that a 2% table saison has like 60 calories and lots of flavor.

 

https://lagunitas.com/beer/daytime

According to their website, this beer is only available on draft and in cans.

If you find it in bottles, it's not only a different beer, but most likely it's old!

 

As I already stated in post #40:

So, if folks are looking for fresh product they need to purchase Daytime in cans.

I would be willing to bet there is still plenty of Daytime in bottles sitting on shelves.

Cheers!

 

Granted, I haven't had this beer, but session IPAs always leave me unsatisfied. I'd much rather have the 700 calories drinking 4 SNPAs (or something similar) and skip the snacking you will most likely be doing during this session.

That said, I'll still try this new Daytime for shits and giggles. I'm sure it's just fine for what it is.

 

Ah, my bad, I misunderstood. I thought you meant the product would be in either bottles or cans, but just that the can format was new.

 

Lagunitas hoppy stuff is pretty damn superb across the board. Hop Stoopid! Sucks was GREAT for a long while. Waldo’s, Super Cluster, IPA, Dogtown, Born Yesterday, Sumpin’ Sumpin’, etc.

Find ‘em fresh, and they do have dates, and they are some of the best in the West Coast style, regardless of their size or ownership arrangement.

 

And that is indeed a challenging part (at least in my area).

Cheers!

 

With as many hoppy beers as Lagunitas offers, there are usually a couple that are pretty fresh...around here anyways.

 

You are fortunate.

Cheers!

 

From the DFH article (with emphasis in bold by me):

“In fact, Slightly Mighty is bone dry—definitely not a "fruit beer." It has a fragrant hop presence with pleasant tropical notes of pineapple and mango. The body’s palate, however, is more brut champagne-like; likewise, the monk fruit creates a thicker mouthfeel, which makes the beer feel less like your typical thin, "diet" brew. It’s fizzy and quite refreshing, though hardly just hoppy water like many session beers.”

I never heard of monk fruit before. This appears to be a novel solution by DFH to mitigate the hop water aspect of Session IPAs.

Cheers!

 

So, tried my first new Daytime a little earlier and I must say it will be a pretty hard pass for me going forward, All the issues with a typical Session IPA only ratcheted up even more.



It is exceedingly thin and the hop presence is so striking and unbalanced that (ironically for a session Ale) I can’t imagine having more than one. There are a few Session IPAs that I do enjoy somewhat, but this is too extreme for my own tastes.

That said, it has MUCH more flavor than a Mich Ultra, and quite frankly that is the pool Daytime is swimming in with the low calorie count. So it may very welll be mission accomplished for Lagunitas...it will be interesting to see how it shakes out.

 

That is disappointing but not unexpected (by me).

Cheers!

 

I held out a little hope for two reasons. One was that I find most Lagunitas hoppy beers to have a bit more sweetness than most which adds some depth to play off of the sharpness of the hops. The other reason was that the Paste article seemed to suggest that it’s thinness or lack of body was not out of line with other Session IPAs, maybe even a little less noticeable. I didn’t get that at all...straight up carbonated hopwater.

Many may enjoy it, and that’s great, but I really didn’t.

 

I find the one's I do enjoy use something like oats to mitigate the thin body.

Holy crap that's a clear looking beer.

 

I'm sure most are aware of this, but what if you don't want a saison? This fills the niche of people who want a lower ABV beer that also has a decent kick of hops

 

Rather have a miller lite. Pass.

 

Nobody is trying to mass market a table beer, is my point. Instead now people are taking a bad style (session IPA) and actively making it worse to make it as low in calories as possible.

I guess I just don't see the point of making a bad beer that is low in calories, when there are already good beers (table beer, some Berliner weiss) that are low in alcohol and therefore low in calories. I'd take a Coors Light over a session IPA any day, because at least Coors Light isn't actively bad.

 

I actually agree with what your saying but not necessarily the way you are going about arguing it.

To label a style as "bad" is just your personal opinion. Maybe someone out there loves session IPAs. Maybe they love cereal grains and watery beers. Maybe they don't want a sour, funky, berliner or saison. Maybe this news excites them.

It's like saying "Ugh don't buy a shitbox Mustang when you could afford a wonderful Corvette" to someone who just prefers Ford cars.

Now you're right, maybe table saisons should have more marketing behind them. Allagash really did a good job of marketing Hoppy Table Beer (I see it everywhere) so it's not to say it'll never happen. I just think the "table saison" crowd is a much smaller demographic than the "low cal beer drinkers" crowd. I'd even be willing to bet that Lagunitas Daytime IPA would outsell a hypothetical Lagunitas Table Saison. Just my opinion based upon anecdotes, though.

Cheers