Craft Beer has long since looked at ‘Big Beer’ with disdain. I think there was (or maybe, there is) a strong misconception about what exactly some of us were silently judging, though. It’s easy to be misled into thinking that ‘Big’ is wrong or that light beer is wrong. That’s not really it. I don’t think it’s the consumer, either. I don’t know very many folks who would judge a person for drinking what they want to drink. It’s way bigger of a thing than that.

It’s about two things if you’re asking me. It’s obviously about the companies and how they run their business in relation to the world around them. That’s a huge part. It’s also about the actual beer. Over the last few generations, there has been a push to keep making beer that gets lighter, less flavorful, with fewer “real ingredients.” Less “Craft” if we’re still using those terms, specifically.

As craft beer keeps evolving, changing, and ‘growing up,’ it’s getting harder and harder for craft breweries to ignore or look away from the preferences and desires of their customers. They can’t ignore the overall industry trends that, maybe in the early days of craft beer, they were able to.

We’re talking about light, lager beer.

How Did We Get Here?

Light beer was insanely popular from the get-go, but it might not be what you think it was. I’m talking about the boom of clear lagers in the mid-1800s that changed the beer world as soon as they were created. People started drinking their beer out of clear glasses to actually see and admire what they were consuming. Brewers across the globe rushed to recreate the new style. It turned the world upside down in a perfect way.

The styles that we know today… Pabst, Budweiser, and Coors were all introduced relatively soon after that. With them, a new wave started. Prohibition, World War II, the new rise of marketing, and canned beer, there are a lot of reasons that you can point at to show why light beer took the foothold that it did. You can’t deny, though, that it did. People wanted something light, and though they weren’t calling it that yet, crushable.

Big beer met that demand and flourished.

Local, Light Lager

Fretboard is not the first or the last brewery in town to introduce a light lager. I think it’s important to explore why they are doing it to understand where beer is, though.

We all love craft beer. I should clarify that statement. I can only assume you’re a craft beer fan if you’re hanging out on this website. The joke behind all of this is that most folks aren’t. They want light, less flavor, easy drinking… things. I’d go as far as to say that most of the trends we’ve seen in the last few years are just the same folks trying to figure out something that gives them the fulfillment that craft beer, whiskey, or any of the other trendy beverages give their diehards.

Craft breweries are realizing excellent growth potential in meeting these consumers where they already are. You can brew products that are light, easy to drink, and crushable… beers that make existing light beer drinkers happy while pulling them into the craft beer ecosystem.

Fretboard’s Contribution

Fretboard Light will be debuting this summer after a two-year-long process to figure out what they wanted it to be like. It’s a premium light lager designed to fill the low/cal, low/abv piece of their portfolio that has been lacking. It’ll be available in both 15 and 24 packs and will be priced to stay competitive with other premium light lagers on the market.

The brewery thinks that the beer will be the perfect addition to folks looking for a beer on the golf course, at the lake, by the pool, or in any situation that craft beer drinkers find themselves in, looking for something a little lighter.

The beer comes in at 4% ABV and a low 99 calories. You can start looking for it around town starting in June.

For the latest news and information about Fretboard Brewing Company, stay tuned right here on the website. If you’re looking for more, though, you can always hit them up on their website or by following them on Facebook, or Instagram.

2 thoughts on “Fretboard Introduces ‘Light’ – Crushable Light Lager”

  1. So do you know, are these local light beers like Fretboard, Garage, etc. brewing without adjuncts like rice and corn?

Leave a Comment.