Vending Policy Change Forces Microbrewery to Adapt

East Carolina University changed their alcohol policy for college sporting events: they will no longer allow draft beer to be served. Since Uptown Brewing Company is the sole craft beer proprietor for East Carolina University, the microbrewery made the shift to canning and this will make them the first American microbrewery to can light beer

While many alcoholic beverages, like hard liquors, are zero carb, beer has often been an exception. As consumers have become increasingly concerned about their health, major beer manufacturers have begun making at least one beer in their lines lower calorie and lower carb. However, beer drinkers who favored microbrews have been largely out of luck until now.

In a nod to the famous—some would say infamous—Billy Beer of the 1970s, the brewmaster at North Carolina’s Uptown Brewing Company developed their own Billy Beer for company head Billy Dunn. According to brewmaster Benjamin Self,1 Dunn is a fan of “macro lagers,” the light beers that major American producers like Budweiser and Miller make, so Self came up with his own version.

Drinking on the Light Side

The result of Self’s tinkering is not only a light beer with the same crisp taste as iconic American beers, but also a beer that’s lighter in other ways. Thanks to the manufacturing process, it’s naturally made low carb and low calorie. In addition, the ABV, or alcohol by volume, is 3.2 percent. That makes Billy beer less potent than the average mass-market beer, which comes in around 4.5 percent ABV2 and other craft beers, which clock in at an average 5.9 percent.3 It also has a 12 on the IBU scale, which measures bitterness.

Those last details, of course, might not matter to many Americans as much as the calories and carbs do. That’s because as more people become better educated about the foods they eat, they’ve also taken a closer look at the drinks they consume. Drinks can often be a source of hidden calories and larger amounts of sugar than people realize. The amount of sugar in some drinks, even in soft drinks we know aren’t healthy, can be shocking.

Changing Demands

It can be easy, though, to forget about the amount of sugar in drinks that aren’t naturally sweet, like beer. However, beer wouldn’t exist without sugar and after the brewing process, some carbs remain. (Liquors eliminate carbs due to their distillation process.) However, small adjustments by brewers can lower the carb counts for beers, as with Billy Beer. If more microbreweries aren’t doing it, it’s likely because they don’t see a profit in it or because consumers haven’t asked for it.