Low Carb Beers

[thelastspud]

I dont like all these low carb beers that are in the market right now. Also i dont like how they leave the w off low but that another issue altogether.

What are they? I mean are they just light beers with a tastless sprit added?
Or is low carb just a buzz word that dosent really mean anything because all beers are low in carbs and high in kilojoules?

anyone know basic recipes and mash temps?

I want to stop some mates drinking them and I need some ammo.
Also anyone try stones ginger beer? How can they call it beer when one of its ingredients is carbonated water?

 

[jonocarroll]

I dont like all these low carb beers that are in the market right now. Also i dont like how they leave the w off low but that another issue altogether.

What are they? I mean are they just light beers with a tastless sprit added?
Or is low carb just a buzz word that dosent really mean anything because all beers are low in carbs and high in kilojoules?

anyone know basic recipes and mash temps?

'Low carb' beers have an extra enzyme added to fermentation that breaks up any long-chain sugars to small, fermentable ones. Thus there are very few actual sugars remaining, and the beer finishes very dry. The term itself is a bit of a misnomer, since alcohol is itself a carbohydrate. The term itself is also a crock for the way it's marketed, since you supposedly absorb more kilojoules from the alcohol than the sugars anyway.

That said, there's a market for them, so they're here until that changes. I believe there are a few recipes floating around this site.

Also anyone try stones ginger beer? How can they call it beer when one of its ingredients is carbonated water?

You know that real beer is, like, 98% carbonated water, yeah?

 

[thelastspud]

yeah but you dont start with carbed water and add stuff

 

[MarkBastard]

Low carb beers are low in carbs, which are not the same as kj.

They achieve this by having low residual sugars and then using a dry enzyme to get rid of any additional sugars left after fermentation.

Most of the kj left over is from the alcohol, which is obviously unavoidable, but I've also heard kj derived from alcohol has sweet f all chance of being metabolised to fat anyway.

The reason these drinks are popular is because they are easy to drink, especially in the sun, don't bloat you, are relatively tasteless, and because there's so many of them and they are in fact different to tooheys new and VB. There is the appearance of much more range and diversity in the marketplace because of these beers.

I really doubt very much that they are popular because of any perceived health benefits.

 

[thelastspud]

I really doubt very much that they are popular because of any perceived health benefits.

I think this is one of the main marketing points

 

[jonocarroll]

yeah but you dont start with carbed water and add stuff

I'm sure that writing 'carbonated water' on the label is much more appealing than writing 'water' and 'CO₂' - both of which will be added one way or another.

The carbonation of water isn't the biggest (or, in my opinion, a) reason to not call ginger beer 'beer', but that's a different kettle of fish altogether.

 

[thelastspud]

The carbonation of water isn't the biggest (or, in my opinion, a) reason to not call ginger beer 'beer', but that's a different kettle of fish altogether.

Do we in australia have a list of ingredients that can go into beer and still call it beer or is that just a german thing

 

[jonocarroll]

Do we in australia have a list of ingredients that can go into beer and still call it beer or is that just a german thing

No. The Reinheitsgebot, despite not being active anymore, it actually to protect bakers - they needed access to the wheat to make bread, so wheat was verboden in brewing. Also, to protect the cost of beers (two pfennig per maβ IIRC). Ignore anyone who says a good beer must follow those rules.

'Beer' has no official formal definition that would exclude certain ingredients, though water, malt, hops, and yeast are very common. Ginger beer lacks hops generally. While that doesn't 'officially' exclude it, it doesn't make the list for me.

 

[Adamt]

A standard "full strength" beer has about 600kJ per stubby. A low-carb beer is about 480kJ. So, even though there's 75% less carbs, or whatever, the nutritional energy of low carb beers is only about 20% less.

However, most people I've spoken to who like low-carb beers, drink it because it "bloats them less"... which allows them to drink more, and probably exceed the energy intake they would have got from "full strength" beers, let alone the affects from drinking mroe alcohol.

 

[seravitae]

On that note, even the KJ measure is useless.

KJ content is measured by caliometry, which means burning it and looking at how much energy is removed from the system.

Ethanol is a fuel.. it's going to burn well in a caliometer.

Your stomach is *not* a furnace, so caliometry is useless for giving a good indication of energy aquisition from foodstuffs.

Ethanol as most know is consumed by the alcohol dehydrogenase pathway and doesnt really produce any 'fatty byproducts' (breakdown is ethanol -> acetaldehyde -> acetic acid) so wont contribute a lot to weight gain. However ethanol consumption itself may lend to a particular lifestyle and lowering of metabolic rate which can lead to increase fatty deposits from *other* foods though.

 

[jonocarroll]

KJ content is measured by caliometry, which means burning it and looking at how much energy is removed from the system.

Is it? Genuine question.

My understanding was that a lot of food kilojoule/calorie contents were determined by out-of-date 'standard' measures per unit weights of carbs, protein, etc. Out of date in the sense that scientific knowledge has surpassed the 'standard' knowledge, and discovered that they don't always break down to their pure calorific values.

 

[MarkBastard]

I think this is one of the main marketing points

The only marketing I have seen is that it's "low carb". They don't go on to explain that this means you'll lose weight or anything like that. That is just a conclusion that people seem to jump to (mostly the anti-low-carb crowd, who also seem to be confused about the difference between carbohydrates and kilojoules).

The closest thing I can think of is the Tooheys New White Stagg ad that shows them dropping crates of 'carbs' on Americans, the inference being that yanks are fatties so should love the carbs. I would not personally stick up for that ad. It's really annoying. Blinking bitch annoys the shit out of me.

 

[thelastspud]

I remember burning nuts vs chips and trying to measure temp change to find out energy a long ago in school, I really would have there would be a better way though

 

[Adamt]

Ethanol as most know is consumed by the alcohol dehydrogenase pathway and doesnt really produce any 'fatty byproducts' (breakdown is ethanol -> acetaldehyde -> acetic acid) so wont contribute a lot to weight gain. However ethanol consumption itself may lend to a particular lifestyle and lowering of metabolic rate which can lead to increase fatty deposits from *other* foods though.

Hmm.. I remember reading something about this a while back... isn't the "28kJ per gram" quoted a maximum nutritional energy for alcohol, based on how much acetic acid you piss out before it's further processed?