The Number of Calories in Every Popular Beer

There’s a widespread misconception that beer is more fattening than other alcoholic beverages. Pretty much everyone is familiar with the term “beer belly,” but “bourbon belly” or “Beaujolais belly” haven’t entered the lexicon of American slang. Sure, beer is typically consumed in larger quantities than other types of booze, and its carbonation can lead to bloating, but both spirits and wine are more calorically dense than virtually any brew out there.

All alcoholic beverages contain calories, and drinking too much of any of them will inevitably lead to weight gain. While beer doesn’t contain any fat, it does contain alcohol (fermented sugars), unfermented sugars, and various grains that all contribute to its calorie content. On the bright side, beer does contain essential nutrients like carbs, B vitamins, minerals, and trace amounts of protein and antioxidants. However, these elements vary in quantity depending on the beer style in question.

In general, the higher a beer is in alcohol, the more calories it will have, but this isn’t a hard-and-fast rule. Miller High Life and Corona Extra, for instance, have the same ABV, but slightly different calorie counts. Carbs derived from a brew’s residual sugar content as well as whatever adjuncts or grains might be at play in its recipe also factor into the number of calories in any given brew.

Finding a beer’s calorie content is not always easy. The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) doesn’t require beer brands to list nutritional information on their product labels, so why would they bother? These facts not only take up valuable can (or bottle) art real estate, most craft breweries would prefer that their customers remain blissfully ignorant to the calorie content of their barrel-aged pastry stouts.

While most choose to plead the fifth, more brands than ever before are now transparent when it comes to their beers’ calorie counts. Perhaps they’ve subscribed to the Beer Institute’s Voluntary Disclosure Initiative, maybe their beers are served at restaurants with 20 or more locations, or they might just be loud and proud of their light beer’s low calorie content.

To save health-conscious beer lovers the trouble of opening up another Google tab to check a beer’s calorie count every time they consider a purchase, we’ve cataloged the calorie contents of 50 different popular beers available in the U.S. There are a few regional delicacies in the mix, but most of the beers below can be found in stores from coast to coast.

The Number of Calories in Every Popular Beer

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