Craft beers have come to mean big business. In the last year alone, 200 new craft-brewing facilities were established and sales increased more than 11 percent, according to a new study released by market-research firm Technomic. That’s great news for those who enjoy the limited-run or seasonal libations like Oktoberfest or pumpkin ales that many micro- and regional brewers release. But hoping to leave room for autumn’s bratwursts and chilis, The Daily Beast took a look at the calorie count of some leading fall favorites.
To compile the list of the season’s best and worst brews for your beer belly, The Daily Beast first created a master list of all the pumpkin, Oktoberfest, and seasonal ales released by the largest mass-market and craft breweries in the U.S. From a list of nearly 75 beers, we then compared them based on the estimated calories in a 12-ounce serving, according to leading beer site RateBeer. We also factored in the alcohol by volume (ABV) statistic for each beer, according to the breweries’ websites, to account for the potentcy (or buzz for calorie ratio) of each. Total estimated calories were weighted at 75 percent of the final ranking and ABV was weighted 25 percent.
