Beer : Health and Nutrition

Table 5.3 Calorific value of a range of wheat beers (per 355 mL).
Brand kcal
Shiner Winter Ale 189.2
Shiner Hefeweizen 168.0
Pete’s Honey Wheat 154.6
Half Ton Hefeweizen 172.9
Hefeweizen 173.7
Eramosa Honey Wheat 130.2
Celis White 182.9
Penn Weizen 170.5
Weizen Bock 264.8
Ramstien Kristall Wheat Beer 154.1
Classic Wheat Beer 189.0
Hefeweizen 179.7
Hefe-Weizen 157.6
Hefeweizen 147.5
Hefe Weizen 148.8
Wheat Beer 148.9
Whistlepin Wheat Ale 156.4
Kristall Weizen 157.8
Wheat Beer 145.8
Bert Grant’s Hefeweizen 153.4
Ramstein Blonde Wheat Beer 180.5
Hefeweizen 155.5
Jack Whacker Wheat Ale 133.3
Honey Weiss Bier 143.5
Sunshine Wheat Bear 139.8
Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse 151.9
Paulaner Hefe-Weizen 169.0
The Composition of Beer in Relation to Nutrition and Health 101
Sources: Most of the data in this table is reproduced courtesy of Carlos Alvarez & Jaime Jurado (Gambrinus).
The data was originally published by Jurado in a series of articles in The Brewer International. Most of the
remaining information is from http://brewery.org/brewery/library/AlClbinger.html.
weight gain will result. If a person consumes 1.6 MJ (roughly the level of calories in
a couple of pints of beer) more than is needed as an energy supply to maintain bodily
functions then this may result in approximately 1 kg per month gain in weight. However
250 calories is ‘knocked off’ by cycling briskly for 25 minutes, jogging for a similar
period, swimming for 30 minutes, gardening for 50 minutes or walking for 60 minutes.
(In the days when malting and brewing processes demanded hefty manual labour, such
as turning the malt by fork or shovelling out spent grains, the operatives had a generous
daily beer allowance. They didn’t get fat: the beer rehydrated them and replenished the
calories they were burning off.)
Of course it would be totally incorrect to label beer as being a prime factor in causing
obesity in moderate drinkers. Any foodstuff loaded with calories will impact and,
certainly in a consumer society such as the US with its fast food and generously sized
portions, it is likely that for most people alcohol is not the prime source of their excess