Beer is such a simple beverage. At its core, beer has four ingredients; malt, hops, water, and yeast. The different proportions, sources, and processes brewers employ create a dizzying array of beer types and styles. And just as there is no single way to make a beer, there is no one way to categorize them. Take, for instance, Corona Light. It is, in fact, a lager by the type of yeast, but it’s also a light lager and, by some estimates, a close representation of a German-style pilsner too!
Let’s peel back the layers on Corona Light (which you can buy here), and you can decide what type of beer you believe it is.
What Makes Corona Light a Lager?
Corona Light is a lager because the brewers at Grupo Modelo use a specific type of yeast known as lager yeast. Before the discovery of lager yeast, all beers were fermented primarily with saccharomyces cerevisiae. This yeast ferments at ambient temperature and lends fruity esters to the beer.
Lager yeast was a different strain of bottom-fermenting yeast; it preferred cooler temperatures and took much longer than its ale-making counterpart to reach terminal gravity. The result, however, was a new style of beer that highlighted the beer’s other ingredients (malt, hops, and water) and developed a uniquely refreshing taste. The clean fermentation caught on, and today, lagers are the most popular beer styles in the world.
Lagers come in all colors and alcohol content, but the main difference between lagers and ales is that lagers generally have a refreshing taste. You can have perfectly balanced examples of beers that are ales and lagers, but a smooth, flavorful light beer, similar to a pilsner style lager or Mexican lager, is something to appreciate, drink responsibly, and is sure to be a crowd pleaser at a backyard barbecue with or without a lime wedge.
What Kind Of Lager is Corona Light?
Within the larger category, there are many variations. Of course, you can place this Corona Beer in the light lager category. Light lagers are beers with fewer calories than other beers. Light beers have fewer carbs and calories due to a reduction in alcohol or by utilizing enzymes during the fermentation process to help brewers yeast consume more of the sugars present in beer wort.
Corona Light has 99 calories, less than other Corona beers like Corona Extra and Corona Familiar, which have 148 and 157 calories, respectively. For those seeking flavorful light beer options, Corona Premier is the brand’s ultra-light beer offering with only 90 calories.
Corona Light Flavor
Light beers have a bad rap. To many, light beers are thin, watery, flavorless, and fizzy. If there is one thing I’ve learned is that this is not true, there are plenty of flavorful light beers, and Corona Light is a great example.
While the flavor of light beer should always be restrained, Corona Light has a crisp, pilsner-like taste with a pleasantly dry finish. Of all of the Coronas brewed Corona Light has the most noticeable hop-forward bitterness, which reminds me of one of the most popular beers in the world, the pilsner. The hops bitterness combines with a clean finish to be the ultimate refresher after a long day. While Corona Extra gets most of the attention as a top-selling imported beer, I encourage you to give this light beer a try, especially if these types of alcoholic beverages aren’t normally your favorite beers.
- Low on calories
- Surprisingly good taste
- Taste of summer
Corona Light Brewing Process and Ingredients?
Corona Light is made with water, barley malt, non malted cereals (maze), and hops. Like any beer, brewing starts with mixing crushed grains with hot water. This step, known as the mash, initiates enzymes within the grains to convert long-chain starches into fermentable sugars. These sugars will be the food source later on during fermentation.
Once the mash is complete, the sugary liquid, known as wort, is transferred to a kettle, where it is boiled with hops. Boiling concentrates the wort, developing barley malt character and extracting flavor and bitterness from the hops.
At the end of the boil, the wort is cooled and transferred to large fermentation vessels where lager yeast is introduced. The yeast consumes the sugar and creates alcohol and carbon dioxide. Once fermentation subsides, Corona Light beer is packaged and ready for sale.
How Many Calories in Corona Light?
Corona Light has 90 calories per 12-ounce serving. Only Corona Premier has fewer calories than the core Corona beers. Ninety calories are typical for a light beer.
Best Way To Drink Corona Light?
Since Corona Light has a bit more character than a typical, nondescript light beer; you don’t need to drink it near freezing or gussy it up with a fruit wedge. Instead, chill it in your refrigerator and enjoy it out of the bottle or in your favorite fluted beer glass. You can enjoy this beer anywhere – you don’t need to be in Mexico to live la vida mas fina.
What To Eat With Corona Light
Corona Light would work well with various foods, but I immediately think of fish tacos, grilled clams with garlic butter, or ceviche. Pilsner-style lager also handles fried foods very well; think pork schnitzel, sausages, or fried fish.
What Do Other People Think of Corona Light?
Expect anything owned by Anheuser Busch InBev to score low on beer sites. Influenster is always much more favorable for these types of beers. In any case, beer geeks don’t love Corona Light.
| Reviewer | Corona Light |
|---|---|
| Untappd | 3 out of 5 |
| Rate Beer | 1.56 out of 5 |
| Influenster | 4.5 out of 5 |
| Beer Advocate | 2.5 out of 5 (Awful) |
| Average | 2.89 |
Beers that are like Corona Light
- Pacifico (buy here and get $5 off your first order)
- Prost Pilsner (buy here and get $5 off your first order)
- Miller Lite (buy here and get $5 off your first order)
- Lone Tree Mexican Lager (buy here and get $5 off your first order)
Final Thoughts on Corona Light
Corona Light is an under-the-radar pilsner that is much more interesting than Corona Extra. The name makes it easy for beer lovers to overlook it, even as they pine for a flavorful lager with a uniquely refreshing taste. In the Corona portfolio, it’s up there with Corona Familiar as far as what I’m ordering and drinking. So don’t let the light suffix keep you from trying it.
