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These days there is trend in light or low calorie beers and to be sure that the beer you buy is of that kind you only need to check the label to see if the calorie count is around the 150 mark. If you are brewing your own beer at home it is a bit harder to find out what the amount of calories are that is contained in your brew. There are just to many factors you need to take in account, things like how much sugar you have used or the carbohydrates you got from the malt and hobs and, this may sound strange, your brewing method are all things that can greatly influence how much calories are present.

When you want to brew your own beer you need to know the principal of it and that is that there needs to be a fermenting of the hops, malt and sugar. And you will also see that the different brews come with their own amount of sugar that is needed, and this is apart from what the taste of the brew master says. There are people who, wrongly, think that you can use something else to take the place of the sugar, things like vegetable-based sweeteners or other sugar substitutes. These people are wrong because this will affect the process of fermentation and also the temperature that is required for this process to even start.

Maybe this is the first time you want to start brewing your own beer then you probably bought a kit so you only need to use the ready made ingredients. If this is the case then the best thing you could do for home brewing low calorie beer is to buy a beer brewing kit that was specifically arranged for this purpose.

It all adds up

If you want to know the exact amount of all the calories in your brew then there are special mathematical formulas with which you could calculate them, you would also need to know the precise weight of all the ingredients. The next best thing is just to add up all the calories you read on the labels of the ingredients you put in to the brew. You need to keep in mind that the numbers on the labels are probably per serving and this is normally per 12 ounce of beer served.

If adding up the calories in the ingredients keeps you above the 150 mark then you could consider using an artificial sweetener but you need to keep in mind the facts we stated above. Also the taste will be drastically different in respect to the recipe with the original ingredients. Think to yourself if keeping the calories low is worth this difference in taste. Maybe drinking a bit less, and this way enjoying your batches longer, is a better way of watching your weight then drastically changing a beer recipe.

Enjoy brewing your home made low calorie beer, or maybe just buy some and enjoy your normal home brew beer when you want to.