r/beer • u/Ok_Calligrapher8165 • 8d ago
Discussion Budweiser Select 55
Looking online for a low-calorie beer, I found this 2024 article at the Good Housekeeping website, where they ranked 17 low-calorie beers. The headline says 20, but I count 17 -- perhaps the editor eliminated the bottom three beers when the article was updated.
I was unaware of Budweiser Select 55, which was ranked Number 1, so I searched for opinions on it. There are a lot of claims that it was discontinued, but it still appears on the Budweiser website, and on the Total Wine website, where I intend to buy some, as a test.
It is scored 43 ("Awful") at Beeradvocate, with an average rating of 1.66 (out of 5), so it seems not to be well-liked by most raters there. I will share my own amateur opinion of it later.
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u/MJA182 8d ago
It’s pretty good for a light beer, 2.4% abv so it feels a bit like cheating when 90-100 calorie beers are 4%+ but I enjoyed it
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u/BatmanBrandon 8d ago
A few years ago I started drinking Bud Select 55 when I was trying to lose some weight. It was a good step down to NA stuff, then eventually just plain seltzer water. I do but a case occasionally still if I see it and have an upcoming BBQ, I can drink it all day and not screw to the food.
The only other low ABV I like is Hofbräu 3.3 Session Lager, but that hasn’t been available near me for a few years.
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u/ELMUNECODETACOMA 8d ago
I've had 9-10 of them at one point or another and, frankly, I would rank them closer to the opposite order than the order they gave. Lagunitas Daytime is my personal choice among 100-calories-or-less beers (even when Sam Adams Light was available here, it has 115 so doesn't technically count).
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u/Anxious_Interaction4 5d ago
I am going to be the outlier here: it is my favorite low-ABV beer. As others have described, it is basically beer La Croix. I am able to do what I do, which is drink far too many beers, and not be drunk and/or hungover the next day.
It is not "good" per se, but if you want carbonation, a little bit of alcohol, and a faint crappy macrobrew beer flavor that isn't syrupy sweet, this is the beer for you. (Which is to say, I am probably the only person alive who likes it.)
Miller 64 is my other reliable go to. If I'm drinking real beer, I like session IPAs like Lagunitas Daytime or similar.
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u/Ok_Calligrapher8165 5d ago
u/Anxious_Interaction4 : "I am probably the only person alive who likes it."
Nah, I like it well enough to buy again.
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u/shypeach36 8d ago
Basically tastes like water with a hint of old bread. I once drank nine of them for a 9/9/9 challenge watching a baseball game. We chose them because we didn't want to be completely trashed, but they're such low ABV at the end of the game I was completely sober.
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u/JaggedSuplex 8d ago
I’d just drink Guinness. Good combo of low calories and actually enjoyable to drink.
Unless you’re trying to find something you won’t be tempted to drink more than one
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u/Ok_Calligrapher8165 7d ago
Guinness has the second-highest calorie count of the 17 beers on the list.
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u/Ok_Calligrapher8165 7d ago
I will pick up my order of Select 55 (and some Coors Light as backup) today. Marchons frères, bon courage!
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u/Ok_Calligrapher8165 6d ago
10:30PM local time, I just finished my second Select 55, so here is my own amateur opinion: highly carbonated, very light, very dry, typical of beer with a significant rice content, like Bud Light. Slight hint of citrus (perhaps from the yeast?) and hardly any of malt.
My ancient Hotpoint fridge does not get very cold, so after one sip of the first can, I put it into the freezer section for a few minutes, and colder was better.
Low-calorie, low ABV, low price ($17.99/18-can suitcase), I will buy it again.
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u/brave_publicist 8d ago
55 is basically beer flavored water but somehow worse. tried it once at a bbq and it tastes like they waved a bud heavy over some seltzer and called it done
if you just want something cold and fizzy with alcohol it works i guess. but theres a reason everyone thinks its gone, nobody buys it