Light Beer?

A couple of weeks ago, I got in some pretty serious trouble.

I brought light beer to a weekend away.

I'd been instructed to bring some beer for drinking games, so I did what I thought any normal, logical person would do-- I picked a light beer. I wouldn't consider myself an above average drinker or anything, but I know my way around a flip cup table pretty well. If there's one thing I learned the difficult way in college it's this: guzzling a heavy beer not only slows down your flips but makes for a pretty terrible morning after.

I'd been excited to even see a light beer in the liquor store. I'm slowing learning how to drink beer but as my general preference was "as watery or fruity as possible" in the States I'd thought I'd struck gold. I was all smiles as I walked out, thinking I'd finally found Natty Light's ozzie counterpart.

It went over like a ton of bricks. As it turns out, "light" beer in America and "light" beer in Australia don't exactly mean the same things.

Compare a Bud Heavy and a Bud Light: roughly 5% alcohol to just under 4% alcohol (although some sites said 5% to 4.2%).



*Source: Buzzfeed.com

Not really a big enough difference in my opinion to matter-- it's more about taste preference and the perception that light beer is better for you.

In Australia, that's not quite the case. There's a lot of different types of beers, with "light" being code word for "very pansy" and "worthless."

It was an honest mistake, right? How was I supposed to know there was a difference?

Let me tell you something, though. You bring beer with half the alcohol content of a normal beer and you'll leave the party with half the number of friends you started with. Very awkward.

Half the alcohol seems pretty silly to me and I'd agree pretty worthless, but I'm told some people choose to drink light beer if they want to have a few and still be ok to drive later in the night. I'd say the other option would be to nurse an actual beer or two throughout the night, but I'm guessing it's an excuse to look like you're throwing back with the rest of the crew?

I didn't live the light beer down for the rest of the weekend, especially because after we'd figured out it was the only thing left to drink (ironically we'd used the real beer for drinking games) the only liquor store was already closed for the evening. They didn't even thank me for the absence of a hangover the next morning!!!

There's also "mid" strength beer, which falls somewhere between pansy and acceptable on the range of cool factor. At a Billy Joel concert last night it was the only option at the stadium-- I guess the promoters didn't want to risk all of the middle aged people getting wild and crazy on a Sunday night.

Lesson learned: go for the real stuff, at least in Australia.