How Many Calories are in my Beer?
Over the last seven years or so I have added a couple extra pounds, well more like a 30% increase; not good or healthy. At the beginning of June I started a weight loss plan on Weight Watchers® and have lost 10 lbs following their online program guide over the first 2 weeks. So far what I like about this program is that I can eat the foods I want, and at the same time see how good/bad that food is for my weight loss goals. With the Weight Watchers® Point® system or any other weight loss program, a big part of staying on track, with in your goals, is watching the amount of fat and calories you take in.
The good thing for us beer Connoisseurs, there is no fat in beer, but beer has a tremendous amount of calories. My problem when I was entering my food and drink intake on my weight loss plans’ online system, there was only light beer and regular beer. If I’m drinking a 12 oz glass of pilsner(4% ABV), it may only be 150 calories, but If I drink a 12 oz glass of Dogfish Head 120minute IPA (18% ABV at 45°plato), that would be over 600 calories. A huge caloric difference between the same serving size of beer. For my current plan, 1 Dogfish Head 120 minute IPA would be 34% of my daily allowance, where as the pilsner would only be 11%.
The problem I’ve been having and I’m sure many others have too, how many calories are in my beer? There are very few breweries that list calorie information on their websites, so you end up guessing. Since beer is a very simple drink, all the calories are from one place, the alcohol. If you know the ABV (alcohol by volume) you can roughly calculate the calories in beer. The color and clarity of a beer have nothing to do with the number of calories. It is exactly related to the amount of sugar in the “beer” when fermentation starts and how much is left over when you are done. The more sugar at the start will give you a higher ABV, but if there is unfermented sugar left over at the end (attenuation) the calorie range will fluctuate a bit. This is why I said roughly and why the chart below has a calorie range.
Alcohol by Volume (ABV) to Calories conversion chart*.
| ABV (%) |
Calories – Low End |
Calories – High End |
| 1.0 | 64 | 90 |
| 1.5 | 75 | 101 |
| 2.0 | 85 | 113 |
| 2.5 | 100 | 126 |
| 3.0 | 113 | 139 |
| 3.5 | 126 | 151 |
| 4.0 | 139 | 164 |
| 4.5 | 151 | 176 |
| 5.0 | 163 | 191 |
| 5.5 | 176 | 203 |
| 6.0 | 189 | 216 |
| 6.5 | 201 | 228 |
| 7.0 | 213 | 239 |
| 7.5 | 226 | 253 |
| 8.0 | 239 | 264 |
| 8.5 | 251 | 276 |
| 9.0 | 263 | 290 |
| 9.5 | 276 | 303 |
| 10.0 | 290 | 315 |
| 10.5 | 302 | 327 |
| 11.0 | 314 | 341 |
| 11.5 | 327 | 352 |
| 12.0 | 339 | 364 |
| 12.5 | 351 | 378 |
| 13.0 | 365 | 390 |
| 13.5 | 375 | 402 |
| 14.0 | 389 | 414 |
| 14.5 | 401 | 427 |
| 15.0 | 413 | 440 |
| 15.5 | 426 | 452 |
| 16.0 | 438 | 464 |
| 16.5 | 450 | 476 |
| 17.0 | 463 | 488 |
| 17.5 | 475 | 500 |
| 18.0 | 489 | 513 |
| 18.5 | 499 | 525 |
| 19.0 | 513 | 537 |
| 19.5 | 524 | 551 |
| 20.0 | 538 | 562 |
| 20.5 | 548 | 574 |
| 21.0 | 562 | 586 |
| 21.5 | 573 | 599 |
| 22.0 | 585 | 611 |
* Chart is a rough estimation for a 12oz serving. For exact calories, Original Gravity and Final Gravity must be known. Low end assumes a final gravity of 1.010 and the high assumes a final gravity of 1.017. Some styles of beers may exceed the high end by a significant amount, such as a Russian Imperial Stouts or Sweet Stouts.
For my own personal use, I usually take the middle between the high and low. For a much sweeter beer, I would error on the high side of the scale. I use this chart to gauge how many calories I have consumed with the beer. If I know I have been “good” during the day I have higher ABV beers later, but if I haven’t I will either cut out beer (OUCH!) or have one that I know is lower in alcohol.
The chart seems decent for a rough gauge of calorie content, but some of the info sounds confusing if not completely false. For example, you state, “Since beer is a very simple drink *which I would argue that it’s not* , all the calories are from one place, the alcohol” – this is just not true. Alcohol (ethanol) along w/residual sugars are the main sources of calories. Thus, using the original gravity and final gravity is definitely not the best way to calculate calorie content. For example a beer with an OG of 1.060 and FG of 1.020 will have the same ABV% as a beer with an OG of 1.050 and FG of 1.010, but it will have a much higher calorie count because of the substantially higher amount of residual sugars.
Casey,
I appreciate the feed back and I would like this formula to be more accurate. But, it is not just guess work it is based on a scientific formula.
This formula is completley based on residual sugars, here is how I calculated the numbers in the chart
cal per 12 oz beer = [(6.9 × ABW) + 4.0 × (RE – 0.1)] × FG × 3.55
ABW = Alcohol By Weight
RE = “Real Extract” (RE, in °P) is a measure of the sugars which are fermented
FG = Final Gravity
Without these numbers any “formula” will only be an approximation. Which is why for my calorie Range chart I used a specific final gravity and calculated backwards to determine the ABV (Alcohol by Volume) which you can then convert to ABW by a simple formula (ABW = (0.79 × ABV) / FG). This is the only accurate way to determine calories. Since most breweries do not list these “Beer Secrets” we have to guess based on one data point, ABV, instead of two.
So based on above formula:
If a beer has a OG (original gravity of 1.048 and a FG of 1.010 would result in a beer of 5% ABV and 163 calories.
If a beer has a OG of 1.055 and a FG of 1.017 you will get a beer that is also 5% ABV, but has 189 calories.
So you see without the Original Gravity (OG) and Final Gravity(FG) it is not an accurate measure of calories because when a beer is done fermenting the attenuation for every beer will be slightly different resulting in more or less unfermented sugar in the beer. The more unfermented sugar left in the beer the more “sweetness” (and calories) a beer has as opposed to a beer with less sugar will taste “drier” (and have less calories then a sweeter beer with the same ABV)
“Does My BUTT Look BIG In This BEER? Nutritional Values Of 2,000 Worldwide Beers”
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