Budweiser
St. Louis, Missouri
Rice-adjunct American lager at 5.0% ABV, lagered on beechwood chips. Nutrition databases list 145 calories and 10.6g of carbohydrate per 12oz.
- Ingredients / botanicals
- water, barley malt, rice, hops, lager yeast
In its favor
- ✓Cold lager fermentation keeps biogenic amines low
- ✓Short, simple ingredient list
What to watch
- !Contains gluten from barley malt
- !5.0% ABV is higher than the light lagers
- !Calories run about 35 above Bud Light
Factor by factor
Congeners Low ▾
Byproducts of fermentation (methanol, acetaldehyde, fusel alcohols). Strongly linked to hangover severity; darker, less-distilled spirits carry more.
Histamines Low ▾
Produced by bacteria during fermentation/aging. Trigger flushing, headaches, congestion in sensitive drinkers. High in red wine, beer, aged spirits.
Polyphenols Very Low ▾
Plant compounds with antioxidant activity. Slightly protective at low doses but at high concentrations may worsen hangover via tannin/quercetin reactions.
Sulfites Low ▾
Preservatives (SO₂) added to wine and some beers. Common trigger of headaches, asthma, and allergic-type reactions.
Tannins Very Low ▾
Astringent polyphenols from skins, seeds, barrels. Bind proteins, slow alcohol clearance, and aggravate dehydration-style symptoms.
Sugar Low ▾
Residual sugar amplifies hangover via blood-sugar swings and dehydration. Liqueurs and cocktails are the main offenders.
Additives Low ▾
Colorants, flavorings, glycerin, propylene glycol, sorbates. Cheap spirits and ready-to-drinks often hide these in trade-secret formulas.
Budweiser is brewed from barley malt, rice, hops and yeast, with the beer matured on beechwood chips that mostly give the yeast more surface area. Databases list 145 calories and 10.6g of carbohydrate per 12oz, and the site’s formula (5.0% ethanol plus 10.6g) gives about 151.
The alcohol is the main difference from Bud Light: 5.0% against 4.2% adds about 14 calories of ethanol on its own. No sugar figure is published, so the nutrition table is omitted.
Budweiser questions
How many calories are in a bottle of Budweiser? ▾
About 140 calories in a 12oz bottle at 5% ABV. 98 come from the alcohol and 42 from carbohydrate.
How many carbs are in Budweiser? ▾
10.6g of carbohydrate per 12oz bottle. The producer does not publish a sugar figure, and in beer most of that carbohydrate is unfermented starch and dextrins rather than sugar.
Is Budweiser gluten-free? ▾
No. Budweiser is brewed from barley and never distilled, so the gluten stays in the glass. It is not safe for coeliacs; look for a beer brewed from sorghum, rice or millet instead.
Does Budweiser give you a bad hangover? ▾
Budweiser scores 4/10 on the SpiritFacts Hangover Index, against 6/10 for beer overall. It is low on every hangover factor we track, so most of the morning after comes down to how much ethanol you drink.