Mirror Pond Pale AleFrom: Deschutes Brewery ABV: 5%Calories: 212-244

Beer, technically speaking, cannot alone be blamed for the infamous “beer belly.” But there’s an iota of truth in the adage. All those full-bodied microbrews crafted by Central Oregon brewers carry considerable calories. Some local ales can contain as many calories as a light lunch. But the worst offenders might not be what you think. “The general public typically assumes that dark beers must be higher in calories, but this is not true. As a matter of fact, color is really indicative of one thing only, and that is how the beer looks in your glass,” wrote Olan Suddeth, a home brewer, blogger and family man from Alabama, in a recent email.

“Dark beer is not necessarily bitter, heavy or calorie-loaded. Likewise, lighter beer is not necessarily sweeter, easier to drink or lower in calories.”

Consider that Guinness Draught, a popular dark-as-night stout, has fewer calories than Budweiser.

Unless it says “light,” or sometimes “lite,” on the label, you’re probably getting a caloric whammy. Light beers remove the calories by removing some of the alcohol, as well as most of the residual sugars, in the brewing process, “which is why lite beers tend to have such a watery taste,” Suddeth said.

Which is not what most craft beer enthusiasts are going for.

Beers with rich or sweet flavors probably have more calories than blander beers, Suddeth generalized.

“Likewise, higher-alcohol beers will always be higher in calories, with all else being equal, as alcohol is the single item that contributes the lion’s share of the calories to a beer,” he said.

Microbreweries around Central Oregon are generally more concerned with the taste of the beer than the calories, said Deschutes Brewery Brewmaster Brian Faivre.

And the Deschutes Brewery marketing director said low-calorie beer is not really what the company’s customers are looking for.

“We have not received consumer feedback or input stating they’re looking for lower-calorie beer,” said Jeff Billingsley, the director of marketing at Deschutes Brewery. “It’s not something we take into account. … It’s about best-quality and best-tasting beer; that’s what is driving in craft (brewing).”

Faivre said calories in beer come primarily from the carbohydrates and sugar found in malt extracts.

In the process of fermentation, a mixture of water and sugar from malt is used. Roughly 55 to 67 percent of sugar in the mix is fermented into alcohol, Faivre said. A portion of the sugar is left over — 45 to 33 percent. That unfermented sugar is sometimes referred to as the final gravity and is one factor in a complicated calculation that determines caloric content of beers. Faivre said, in more technical terms, there are differences in densities at various points of the fermentation process that are used in the calorie calculation.

The bottom line is, caloric value comes from grams of alcohol and grams of unfermented sugar in the final product. And brewers can modify the proportions if they want to alter the calories or the taste.

“You can really sweeten a beer and remove alcohol and get the same caloric count as a drier beer with more alcohol,” Faivre said.

It is possible for the same kind of beer to vary from batch to batch, although Faivre said part of his job is to strive for consistency.

In the caloric ranges represented here, the lower end of the range would be more accurate when the beer tastes drier, or less sweet. The higher end of the range would be more accurate if the batch of beer is maltier, or sweeter.

Faivre said, as a personal aside, that he wouldn’t want to limit himself to a certain type of beer — especially one that’s less satisfying. So, for about three years, he’s been working with a registered dietitian to learn how to enjoy beer in moderation.

He looks at where his calories come from overall, throughout a day, and if he needs to make room for a beer, he’ll compensate by trimming the carbohydrates from his dinner or limiting his sweets.

“You start working at a brewery and you’re surrounded by so much beer,” he said. “My goal was to find balance for general health and nutrition.”

Eris Craven, the registered dietitian with whom Faivre works, said drinking beer can fit into a healthy diet — even microbrews, which tend to have a higher caloric content.

“It’s about moderation, like everything else in our diet,” she said. Moderate drinking, for a man means two beers. For a woman, it’s one per day.

If someone wants to drink beer, they need to cut calories elsewhere or exercise more, she said. Since exercise has so many extra benefits, she said that’s always a good choice. “If the motivation to get out there is ‘so I can have that beer,’ great.”

Counting calories

The calorie estimates used in this story were calculated from www.homebrewdad.com/beer_calorie_calculator.php.

This site was developed by Olan Suddeth, a “37-year-old father of five from Birmingham, Ala., who has developed an interest in brewing his own beer at home,” according to his website, www.homebrewdad.com.

Suddeth said in an email that the calculator is based on a complicated formula that uses the original gravity and final gravity in a beer, which refers to measurements of sugar content before and after fermentation.

But lacking that information, and using only the percent alcohol by volume, which is listed on the bottle or the menu, it’s still possible for the average consumer to calculate a fairly accurate range of calories. We checked Suddeth’s calculator against a couple of beers with known calorie counts and found it to be accurate.

Suddeth said he created the calculator “for fun, mostly. I frequent a couple of homebrewing message boards, and have seen a few questions related to determining the caloric content of beer. I decided that it couldn’t be very hard to add something like that to my website, and hoped that people would find it to be interesting. Since I posted this calculator, it has consistently been the most visited page on my website.”

— Anne Aurand, The Bulletin

The local craft beers above have been on tap recently and represent a 16-ounce serving, or one pint.

Hop Venom Double IPA

From: Boneyard Beer Company

Alcohol by volume: 10%

Calories: 392-427

Amarillo Anxiety IPA

From: Silver Moon Brewing

ABV: 6.8%

Calories: 275-308

Hodag Cascadia Dark Ale

From: Three Creeks Brewing Co.

ABV: 6.4%

Calories: 261-293

Sweet As- Ale

From: GoodLife Brewery

ABV: 6%

Calories: 246-279

Rotation Red Ale

From: Rat Hole Brewing

ABV: 5.5%

Calories: 229-261

Snake Bite Porter

From: Silver Moon Brewing

ABV: 5.5%

Calories: 229-261

S1NIST0R Black Ale

From: 10 Barrel Brewing Co.

AVB: 5.4%

Calories: 225-258

Mirror Pond Pale Ale

From: Deschutes Brewery

ABV: 5%

Calories: 212-244

Kolsch

From: Phat Matt’s Brewing Co.

ABV: 4.7%

Calories: 201-233

Knotty Blonde Ale

From: Three Creeks Brewing

ABV: 4%

Calories: 177-209

Find out more

Deschutes Brewery lists calories (per 12-ounce serving) for its beers at:

www.deschutesbrewery.com/brews/list

This site doesn’t cater to Central Oregon microbreweries, but has caloric information about a few other beers you might like:

www.realbeer.com/edu/health/calories.php