Low-carbohydrate beers are gaining in popularity among weight-conscious drinkers and now make up about 2.5% of beer sales in New Zealand.
Speight's Traverse, launched last November, is the biggest-selling label.
The other main New Zealand low-carb brew is Export 33, which has been on the market for about 18 months.
They are now joined by Stella Artois Legere, which claims to contain half of the carbohydrates of regular beer.
Low-carb beers can be relatively bland.
Traverse is; 33 has a fruity malt flavour with a hint of bitterness; Legere is richer, with good malt-hop balance.
Legere (pronounced with a soft g, as in mirage) means casual in German.
It was first introduced in Canada two years ago as a 4% low-carb beer.
New Zealand is the second country to produce Legere.
Our 4.65% version is slightly weaker than the real 5% (after being reduced from 5.1% a year ago) Stella and has less richness and bitterness.
Both versions of Stella sold here are brewed by Lion Breweries.
Legere ($30) is about $1 dollar dearer a dozen than full-strength Stella and about $5 a dozen dearer than Traverse and Export 33.
Most beer has about 3gm of carbohydrates per 100ml.
Legere has 1gm compared with Traverse's .9gm and Export 33's 1.3gm.
But carbohydrates are not the only energy in beer: they combine with alcohol and proteins to produce about 35 calories per 100ml in 4% beer and more than 40 in 5%.
Traverse (4.2%) has 25; Export 33 (4.6%) and Legere have 30. (Wine has about 70 calories per 100ml and cider about 180.)
New look
Shortly after Lion Breweries put Speight's into a taller, slimmer 330ml bottle, it is doing the same to Lion Red.
The label will be square, instead of round, from now on with a larger lion.
The lion has been around since 1861 in Auckland and a merger of Auckland breweries in 1907 produced Lion Breweries.
The new look will reach all outlets by the end of next month.
Lion Red (Auckland), Lion Brown (Wellington), Canterbury Draught and Speight's (Otago-Southland) were once locally-made brews, but are now sold nationally.
Wild recipe
Alongside the Monteith's Wild Food Challenge in cafes and restaurants around the country is its wild food recipe competition.
Just as the professionals are producing dishes which include meat not usually raised on a farm and matching them to a beer style, amateurs are invited to do the same.
Entries must be in by July 18 and the winning combination will be created at the finals cook-off for the wild food challenge towards the end of August.
Details of the competition are on www.monteiths.co.nz.
Monteith's has just released a cookbook (Taste of Monteith's: Winter Edition) with meal and beer combination ideas.
It can be found at Foodtown, Countdown and Woolworths supermarkets free with two 12-packs of Monteith's or for $14.99.
Email: lojo.rico@xtra.co.nz
