I’ve never been concerned about the calories in my beer. I would rather exercise a little more or skip dessert than drink less-than-full-flavored beer. But even if you are concerned about beer calories, you don’t have to drink beers that taste watered down.

Most light beers save only about 20 to 50 calories per bottle—and some even outweigh regular beers. It’s mostly marketing, says Garrett Oliver, Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster and author of The Brewmaster’s Table (Ecco, 2003). Want maximum taste, minimum guilt?

MSN has an article on the “most satisfying beers for under 140 calories” that lists five full-flavored beers that have fewer calories than most full-flavored brews but aren’t considered “light” beers:

Guinness Draft Bottle - 125 calories
Yuengling Premium - 135 calories
Sol Cerveza Especial - 127 calories
Victory Lager - 138 calories
New Belgium Skinny Dip - 110 calories

I confess that Guinness is the only one on the list that I have had personally. Feel free to relate your experiences with these or other low-calorie beers in the comments.

(Thanks gservo!)

Update: If you would like to know how many calories your favorite beer has, I found a PDF with the calorie count for over 1200 beers. It also has ABV and carb information. Unfortunately, it isn’t free but $6.95 isn’t bad for the amount of reasearch involved in collecting this information.

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