Heineken Light Low Carb Beer

I run a low carb site so I've tried pretty much every light beer on the market. Also, when I was in college I drank mostly Heineken. Trying the Heineken Light was a given as soon as it hit the market. I in fact have a bottle of Heineken Light here by me while I type this.

First off, this has 6.8g of carbs so it's not really "very low carb" compared to many other beers on the market. So you have to keep in mind that you're not saving a ton of carbs by drinking this. You could go much lower with other options on the market. That being said, it is less than regular Heineken so you could argue that if you were going to drink the regular stuff, at least you're saving yourself a bit by drinking this one.

Some people say Heineken is bitter. If you had a bitter Heineken you probably had a *skunked* Heineken. In fact some studies show that something like half of all Heineken drunk in the US is skunked and that some people have gotten used to this flavor and think it's "normal". Try going to Europe sometime and drinking a Heineken there and see what it tastes like :) Did you know a beer will skunk in under 10 minutes if it's exposed to sunlight? They even tried using the green bottles which helps somewhat, but still won't prevent skunking.

On the other hand go to Busch Gardens sometime and take their beer course - it's only an hour or two and is a ton of fun. You'll find out that hops - a key part of beermaking - *are* bitter so a certain normal flavor in a beer should be a tang of bitterness. All properly made beers have that tang, because they contain hops. So another question might be if you're not a Heineken fan is if you're reacting to the skunkiness of a bad beer - or if you just don't like most beers in general because you don't like the natural taste of hops.

Some people like Heineken ice cold. The colder you drink the beer (i.e. straight from an ice barrel) the less flavor you get, so you wouldn't taste the bitter flavor or much of anything else :) If you're going to do that, I'd go for the lowest carb beer you can find since at that point it's not going to taste much different, and you might as well not deal with the extra carbs you are getting in the Heineken Light. If you're going to drink it at a more regular beer temperature then it's about the flavor you enjoy.

So what's my summary? I like Heineken. I like Heineken light. Both are light, fresh beers, with a nice flavor balance. The light is of course fewer carbs / calories than the regular so if I was going to drink a Heineken, it makes sense for me to grab the light version. In general, though, at 6.8g per bottle, this isn't something to be drinking multiple bottles a day of. If you do, make sure it's an evening that you're out dancing!

12oz bottle
99 calories
6.8g carbs
0g fat