What’s a Beer Worth?

I’ve been trying to lose some weight recently and generally take better care of myself. To eat better, get regular exercise and just get off my ass more.
So, part of that is watching my caloric intake. As a net result, my beer consumption has decreased pretty significantly. I stopped drinking during the week long ago, with the exception of the one night a week (usually Thursdays) that we have guests over. But I typically have a few beers Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
I have a friend who thinks nothing of putting away a case or more in a single evening. That is not me. I like what I think of as quality beer: microbrews and imports, and I rarely (at least in the past few years) drink more than three beers in an evening. But I tend to have two-three beers every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
More recently, though, I have been skipping any alcohol on Friday, having a beer or two on Saturday, and maybe one on Sunday.
As a result, I kind of miss beer. I think about it more. And I do enjoy it more when I have one.

I ran across this site recently, trying to get a handle on how many calories beers that I like (say Sam Adams Boston Lager or Sierra Nevada Pale Ale) have. I think I was a little surprised that they didn’t have more calories.
Faced with the information on that site, I began to try to calculate how many Bud Lights (as a generic measure of crappy, but lower calorie, beer) one would have to drink to have the same buzz as a “good” beer. Assuming that lower calorie beers have less alcohol. Which, as it turns out is not necessarily a safe assumption. And Bud Light is not substantially lower in alcohol than the beers that I like.
Take the Sam Adams, for example. Bud Light has 110 calories and is 4.2% alcohol. Boston Lager has 160 calories and 4.75% alcohol. But as you talk about 2 Sam Adams versus 2-3 Bud Lights, what is the equivalency. Therefore I have created the beer equivalency scale (bes). The average twelve ounce beer has approximately 1/2 ounce of alcohol in it: Bud Light is 4.2% alcohol, 12 ounces *.042 = .502 ounces. That’s a “unit” of beer, for this measurement. To get that 1/2 ounce of beer, it takes 110 calories. So 110/.502 = 219. That’s the bes, a measure of how many calories it takes to produce a “unit” of beer. The lower the number, the better. It’s a measure of buzz efficiency, how to get alcohol in your system at the lowest “price”.
Now, I don’t like Bud Light. And there are plenty of beers with a great bes that are absolutely horrible: Anheuser Busch Natural Light is 222, Keystone Ice is an even 200. I wouldn’t drink those beers, whatever their bes.
But, if you are counting your calories, it may be useful to select beers, _that you like already_, that maximize the bes. If part of the reason you are drinking beer is to get a buzz, you should find one that you like that gets there efficiently.

So, some sample bes numbers for your consideration:

Sam Adams Boston Lager: 281
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale: 260
Sierra Nevada Bigfoot: 286
Red Hook IPA: 241
New Belgium Abbey: 238
Anchor Steam: 260
Arrogant Bastard Ale: 220! (I found ABA’s info http://www.calorieking.com/foods/calories-in-ales-beers-arrogant-bastard-ale-7-2_f-Y2lkPTM5NTgwJmJpZD0xMjk4JmZpZD04ODM4Mw.html”>here.)

Sure, you can just look at the calorie totals and alcohol percentages and eyeball it, but if you are going to have more than one, you might be tempted to ask: how many Anchor Steams do I have to drink to get the same buzz as a Bigfoot, and which way would I be better off, from a calorie perspective?
The bottom line is that I should drink less Sam Adams and more Red Hook or ABA.
Who knew?