To most readers of this website, it is probably no surprise to hear that light beer continues to tank in the U.S. The Wall Street Journal relays that Advertising Age reported this week that sales of Bud Light are down 5.5% this year and Miller Lite is down 7.5%. Eric Felten, a drinks columnist for the WSJ, has an entertaining article today discussing the problems light beer is encountering:
The marketers don’t really know what the problem is. Maybe it’s just that the marginal caloric savings promised by these diet beers no longer seems worth putting up with lousy beer.
He goes so far as to buy a bunch of light beer for a blind taste test:
Taking notes in my blind tasting I quickly found myself running out of ways to describe vapid nothingness. Natural Light was “flavorless”; Michelob Ultra was simply “bland”; Coors Light was “blah”—though it did have the slightest hint of sweetness, as if an ounce of (bad) ginger ale had been diluted with pint of club soda. Miller Lite had a slightly foamier consistency (the Vortex bottle at work?) but no particular taste that could be discerned through the suds; Bud Light earned the honorific “least awful, but just barely.”
No wonder these beers are so heavily advertised. No one would think to drink them otherwise.
Cheers to Eric for bringing to light the true crappiness of all these light beers to the readers of the WSJ, many of whom are big shot lawyers, business leaders, etc…who love nothing more than a bottle of crap beer when the day is done. Maybe they’ll be a little self-conscious after reading this. Probably not, though. They’re probably just excited they can drink triple hopped crap out of a vortex bottle now.
Make sure to check out the entire article on the WSJ website.
What’s amazing is that light beer sales went down in the last quarter for the first time, ever. It’s never not gone up!
lots of light beer drinkers are discovering pyramid/widmer “hefeweizen”
Big shot lawyers (etc) don’t touch light beer. They tend to drink wine, cocktails, and when turning to beer, the big craft beers (i.e. Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams, etc) or the mega-imports (Heineken, etc). In another lifetime before relaunching out here in Seattle, I was one of those lawyers at a big firm near Wall St. And the number of times I saw any of my colleagues consume beer from Bid-Miller-Coors is zero. EXCEPT for one big caveat: Blue Moon. You did see the that on occasion in those circles.
Now the hipsters, that’s another story. They drank PBR like there was no tomorrow.
C’mon guys, it’s one thing to not want to drink a macro, but it’s another thing entirely to slam those who do. Isn’t the craft beer community supposed to be about sharing the great things about beer, educating about great beer, and welcoming others to join in the fun?
A lot of craft beers suck too. I’ve tried a couple and some literally taste like heineken mixed with dirt. I don’t wanna the taste the soil that the hops were planted in. Personally, I just want to relax and catch a buzz. I like beer that is affordable and drinkable, because I like to drink a lot of beer. I really think some people just want to embellish themselves with the sophistication of drinking something that is expensive or “crafted,” in spite of how aversive the taste really is.
I think the above poster is already loaded or not fluent in English.
There are 2 reasons why light beers are so popular, the main reason is because light beers are the ONLY kind of beer that women will drink, so their wimpy husband or boyfriend “adopts” what their woman drinks because they don’t have the balls to tell them “screw light beer”.
The other reason is the marketing that most suckers out there fall for. (for example how on earth did AOL’s crappy internet service become so popular in the 90’s when there were far better alternatives?….it was marketing, it was the only service that the morons saw in commercials)
Light beers are the grossest beverages. I have tried them all, ONLY because someone offered them to me and there was nothing else. I have no idea why they even exist, and if someone is drinking beer for the buzz then you have to drink more if that were possible. Also, light beer leaves the most horrible aftertaste in your mouth and on your breath the next morning and well into the day, as if you had drank some watered down sewage runoff. I always would prefer Heineken, St Paulis Girl, Oktoberfest, Becks, Pilsner Urquel, Carlsberg Elephant malt liquor…these are ‘real’ beers… add to that Molsen, and maybe Sam Adams and a few others for North American beers, and Corona… I can tolerate the cheaper American beers if needed, but in taste they pale in comparison, though a Camo Ice or Steel Reserve 211 will give a quicker buzz..though tastes aweful..still prefer those over any light beer!