Calorie Counting with Sir Arthur Guinness

A couple of months ago, Colleen and I were having a discussion and the topic steered toward calories. Neither of us are calorie counters, but it was stated that Guiness had less calories ounce for ounce than Corona.

I looked into the matter using Google and thought this would make an excellent blog post. In order to give proper credit for this, I would like to acknowledge that these numbers came from RealBeer.com. You may notice that we have a link to them on the side bar. They are really an excellent resource. We also link to RateBeer.com as that is also a fantastic place for beer reviews. The list below is a sampling of beers on the RealBeer website with their associated calories and percent alcohol. A complete listing can be found here. I did not include light beers, since that is an unfair comparison. The main reason that some mainstream beers were included is so you can compare against well known (and possibly lesser) alternatives.

Beer Name	Calories (per 12 oz bottle)	Percent Alcohol (ABV)
Guiness Draught	125	4.1%
Yuengling Lager	135-140	4.9%
Beck's	143	4.8%
Budweiser	143	5%
Killian's	143	4.9%
Coors Original	148	5%
Corona Extra	148	4.6%
Fuller's London Pride	156	4.7%
Miller High Life	156	4.7%
Sam Adam's Boston Lager	160	4.9%
Heineken	166	5%
Blue Moon White	171	5.6%
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale	171	5.6%
Anchor Porter	205	5.6%

I think a lot of people would find this list surprising, since the closest beer in color to Guinness is the Anchor Porter. Guinness beats quite a few beers that are both lighter in taste and color. Some of the reason is due to the fact that Guinness is lower in alcohol, hence why it doesn't get you drunk very easily - heavy on the stomach and low in alcohol. Alcohol provides empty calories, and you may notice that there is, generally, a trend with the beers above in terms of percent alcohol and calories. There are other factors at play in the calorie total (i.e. adjuncts, malts, length of the brewing process), but that would be a post better provided by someone with a background in nutrition.

During my Google searching on the subject, I came across a similar article here that you may find interesting as well.

Cheers,
Paul

oh hey I'm Colleen!

Paul did a good job summing up how we know each other and what our deal with beer is, so I'll just briefly introduce myself.

I'm currently in my second year of grad school, working on a Master of Science in Geography. That's right, Geography. It's real. I specialize in biogeography and human- environment interactions. Basically, I hug trees and play in the dirt. My thesis is about invasive plants and slash and burn agriculture in Mexico, where I spent part of my summer doing research, and where their beer is all the same (not very exciting).

My top five beers at the moment:
1. Sam Adams Hefeweizen
2. Guinness (though this is what I have most often)
3. Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout
4. Victory Storm King
5. Flying Fish Oktoberfish


Also, the score is actually currently 153- 142, as I just tried Bud Light Golden Wheat. Don't ask me why, since I generally avoid stuff with "light" in the name, but it was surprisingly not crappy. I like wheat beer, what can I say.

Other stuff I like: old family photos, traveling, the beach, hugging trees, making and/or listening to music, the state of New Jersey

Also, if Brendan the cousin gets credit for encouraging us to blog about our beer adventures, and Paul gets credit for actually signing us up for the address and starting the blog, I totally get credit for the name. Paul is a dear friend, and my beer friend. I'm so clever sometimes.

Welcome - Paul

When we discussed creating this blog, Colleen said we should each make a post introducing ourselves. This makes sense, since we will have four types of readers (which amounts to quite the Venn Diagram): those who know her, those who know me, those who know both of us, and those who know neither of us. In order to give credit where credit is due, the idea for this blog originally came from my cousin, Brendan.

I suppose an adequate place to start would be to give some background. Colleen and I were in the same play group growing up, and in our college years became good friends again. It was during this time we both realized that a) beer was good and b) that a bar near our home towns has an excellent pint night on Wednesdays and Fridays. In addition, we both went to college in Virginia, so we carpooled to and fro on several occasions during senior year.

It was during my senior year at Virginia Tech that I took the greatest course in the long and stored history of crazy college courses: Brewing Science. If you are a student at VT, please take it. The class was half learn about brewing (the theory) and appreciation of beer (the practical). Class was on Fridays from 2:30-5:30, which was a nice segue into Happy Hour. The first 90 minutes was theory, and the next 90 minutes was tasting. After tasting, I collected a bottle for each beer that I had tasted, and thus my "beer wall" was born. College students tend to put bottles above their cabinets, and I was no different. Between my "practical" homework and the class, I amassed many beers there.

Upon my graduation, I collected all the bottles into bags and took them with me. When I moved down to Virginia permanently, I realized my beloved collection could not come with me. And thus, the beer list was born. From that day forward, I kept a spreadsheet of all the beers I had tried and notes on each. It was during this time, Colleen wanted to join in on the fun. She created a list of her own, and the race to be the better beer snob was born. Lists were exchanged periodically, and if it weren't for that, my list would have been gone due to a computer failure (thanks, friend).

Currently, this lists stand as follows:
Paul - 142
Colleen - 152

At this point, we feel that we have very divergent lists. This blog is to track our exploits, entertain you, and to educate you and each other on different beers we've had. There will definitely be some East Coast bias in the beginning, but I hope to branch out - especially if I am going to overtake Colleen again.

My Top 5 Beers:
Victory Storm King (Imperial Russian Stout)
Anchor Porter
Hoegaarden
Starr Hill Amber Ale
Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale

We haven't decided on an exact format of our posts (musings) yet, but I am sure they will evolve over time. With that, I'll turn it over to Colleen to put her own spin on all of this.

Personal Note: As I said before, I live in Virginia and work for the Federal Government. In my spare time I enjoy trying new beers (duh), being outside, reading, and spending time with the girlfriend (insert "awww" here).

Cheers,
Paul