After a decade of evolution and invention, Bud Light NEXT, beer with no carbohydrates, is now available.
Anheuser-Busch After ten years of study and development, InBev has created a zero-carb beer. Just in time for Super Bowl LVI, the newest member of the Bud Light family, Bud Light NEXT, has hit the market.
In a statement, Bud Light Vice President of Marketing Andy Goeler stated, “This Super Bowl, we celebrate a momentous occasion in Bud Light and Anheuser-history: Busch’s the debut of Bud Light NEXT, our first-ever zero carb beer.”
“Bud Light NEXT, which has taken ten years to develop, is a representation of our ongoing dedication to innovation. Now, on the greatest platform in advertising, we’ll honor those that constantly push the envelope and redefine the world in which we live.”
“Zero in the Way of Possibility” is the title of the Bud Light NEXT Super Bowl commercial, which will air during the big game on February 13 and be shown on FOX Business. It depicts people leaving various settings—such as a party, a workplace cubicle, or a date—and changing their surroundings.
But although beer aficionados who are carb-concerned cheer, the true question on everyone’s mind is: How did Anheuser-Busch create a zero-carb beverage that contains malt and rice?
Given the elements, Goeler told USA Today, “I’m certainly not going to tell you how we do it, since it took us 10 years, but it is a major issue.” Goeler called it “very, very, very tough.”
Goeler did admit, “Really, certain brewing technologies only very lately allowed us to achieve this,”
The latest brew from the world’s largest beverage corporation has 80 calories and 4% ALC/VOL, and it is currently marketed everywhere Bud Light is sold in the United States.
How does it taste, though? Bud Light NEXT is a “lager with the stats and sessionability of a seltzer, boasting aromas of citrus,” a spokeswoman for the brand told FOX Business. According to Goeler, it’s intended for those who like beer but are watchful about their carb consumption. With the low-carb hard seltzers that have grown in popularity over the past several years, Bud Light NEXT offers the same beer flavor.
The major breweries have been embracing change recently as a result of Americans’ shifting drinking habits. The big guys responded by creating their own competing brews and by purchasing smaller breweries as they became more and more popular as alternatives to big beer. Hard seltzers caught on with craft brewers in the middle of 2021 thanks in large part to White Claw’s hard seltzer frenzy. In response, Big Beer introduced their own hard seltzers.
With a return to the classic flavor of beer and a move toward the low-carb, fitness-conscious lifestyles of Gens Y and Z, Bud Light NEXT may represent the next step in the evolution of alcohol consumption.