Fattening Beers: Calories and Carbs Breakdown in Time for Octoberfest

On the heels of Oktoberfest and with football season in full swing, The Daily Beast crunches the numbers on hundreds of brews to find the 50 worst for the waist.

Americans love their beer—consumers imbibed nearly a two pints more beer per person than they did in 2002—and according to experts, beer may love us back, too.

Beer guts be damned, the classic brew has fewer calories than most fruit juices and fewer empty calories from sugar than hard alcohol. Beer also contains vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. In moderation, it can be good for nerve production, concentration, and circulation.

Gallery: The 50 Most Fattening Beers

“It’s superior to wine,” claims Charles W. Bamforth, the Anheuser-Busch endowed professor of malting and brewing sciences at the University of California-Davis and author of Beer: Health and Nutrition. “There’s more nutritive value in beer and it has the same beneficial impact.”

But not all brews are equal. On the heels of Oktoberfest and with football season in full swing, The Daily Beast decided to determine which beers may not be the best for the buzz. Specifically, the beers were ranked based on which packed the most calories and carbohydrates for the least amount of alcoholic punch.

To ensure a wide range of beers were considered, we looked at the offerings of the largest 15 domestic breweries and the largest five international breweries based on import volume to the U.S. Our final list was whittled further so that no more than three variations of brews from a single brand of beer was included in the top 50. We used data from the manufacturers when available, using reliable third party databases if necessary.

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