The Session is a monthly project where a bunch of beer bloggers all blog about the same topic. You can read more about the project here. This is PintLog's first time contributing to the project. This month's host is John Duffy (A.K.A. The Beer Nut), and the topic he has chosen is Love Lager, a meditation on the style that most people associate with the word beer.
When thinking about the typical American Lager, three brands immediately spring to mind: Budweiser, Miller, and Coors (collectively known in some beer circles as BMC). These brands account for the majority of American beer produced each year. Differentiated more by marketing than any tangible product attributes, each brews their own version of the American Adjunct Lager.
Designed with the lowest common denominator in mind, the style is light-bodied, pale yellow in color, fizzy, and lacking in any strong hop or malt flavors. Due to the expense of brewing all-malt beers, and the fact that their customer's palates allow them to, adjunct cereal grains (mostly corn and rice) are used to reduce the amount of malted barley required.*
As if the typical American Adjunct Lager wasn't bland enough already, most Americans actually prefer to buy the "light" version of the style. Made popular by Miller in the 70s with Miller Lite, the Light American Adjunct Light Lager is lower in calories, carbohydrates, and (typically) alcohol content. Unfortunately, they're also lighter in flavor.
So the question to be asked is do these beers offer anything but a cheap and quick way to get drunk? To help answer that question, I decided to do my best to objectively review the three best selling American Adjunct Light Lagers: Bud Light, Miller Lite, and Coors Light (they're also three of the four best selling beers in America regardless of style). And just to keep things interesting, I also reviewed the light version of a local favorite: Lone Star, known as the "National Beer of Texas." We Texans are a funny bunch.





So, after tasting them all, how do they rank?
- In fourth place, Miller Lite - the chemical taste just killed it.
- In third place, Lone Star Light - much blander than the "National Beer of Texas" should be.
- In second place, Bud Light - a fuller body than the previous two beers, but just too grainy to win.
- And our winner today, a total surprise to me, is Coors Light - hardly a full-flavored beer, but the best taste profile of the group.
Remember, just because someone likes these beers, that doesn't make them some sort uncultured philistine. Think how much money they're saving over saps like me!
*Reader Mike, who clearly know a lot more about brewing than me, wrote in to dispute the assertion that brewing with adjuncts is cheaper than with all-malt. Here's how Mike puts it:
Adjuncts used in adjunct lager brewing are not significantly cheaper than barley malt. They were historically used to lower the protein content and astringency of North American 6 row barley prior to the successful Canadian 2 row barley breeding programs of the 70's and 80's for growing dry land barley. Low cost factored into their use more in the past more than today, but an all malt beer before the successful breeding of North American 2 row malt was astringent and tended to be hazy at low serving temperatures. Their use now is about light flavour. Brewing with corn and rice increases energy use and brewhouse cycle times. In the case of high maltose corn syrup cycle times reduce and plant efficiency goes up. This comes at a cost. Corn syrup is generally more expensive than malt lately.Many thanks to Mike for the info.
All malt is used in craft circles because it is actually cheaper and markets better due to the difference. The plant required for using adjuncts is usually prohibitive and is more complicated to use.
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