What's the deal with Michelob Ultra?

Despite the fact that I’ve been a 15 year resident of St. Louis (sadly, no longer), I’ve never believed that AB products were supported by anthing other than marketing, and the American public’s gullibility. But they’ve outdone themselves with this “low carb” idea.

I came across these ads in running magazines (I’m a 3 time marathoner), and at one running event I’ve been in, they’ve tried giving the stuff away (I say tried - but at 10am on Sunday in the heart of the Bible belt, after running a marathon, there weren’t many takers).

Now, this beer tastes like crap, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about. It’s the marketing. They’re advertising this stuff heavily in places where athletic people are likely to pay attention. If there’s a publication for devoted couch potatoes, well, I don’t know if they’re going there.

I can tell you from my experience that, with regards to beer, runners fall into two categories:

A. Beer has alcohol. Alcohol is not good for your body. No matter what anybody says, it doesn’t belong in a serious athlete’s diet. Hope that the other guy drinks beer, so you can beat him in the next race.

B. Beer has water - I need hydration. Beer has chromium, I don’t really know what that means, but I need it. And most of all, beer has carbohydrates. I can’t get enough carbohydrates. Alcohol is bad for me - what, are you kidding? I just finished a marathon! Bring on the Beer!

Now, under A above, anything called “beer” is not going to get noticed by the athlete. Under B above, nothing that’s “low carbohydrates” is going to get noticed, either. So, what the hell are they trying to do with this product?

(if you couldn’t tell, I’d be in the “B” column)

It has to be the most hypocritical and transparent advertising scheme ever devised. Some folks out there are trying to loose weight with a “low carb” scheme. Fine, I dunno anything about that - maybe it works, maybe it don’t. I do know that if you want to run farther than you ever did before you better get your carbs, or you’ll be laying on the side of the road someday.

So, the geniuses at AB are marketing this thing in runner’s publications, and things like sponsoring the Michelob Ultra Women’s Marathon Championship (just last weekend, in St. Louis). This way, it looks like a “healthy” product, an important part of any athlete’s diet, just like Gatorade and Gu. That way, the couch potatoes are thinking “Hey, if it’s good for them, that’s good enough for me! Forget about running 30 miles a week, I’ll just drink the beer!”

Sheesh.

<geekiness> I love your user name. ^^ </geekiness>

I don’t know why they sell that stuff.

And another thing…If you compare plain old Miller Lite to Mich. Ultra – carbs/calories – it is only something like 1 (or 2?) more carbs and ~ 15 more calories.

And, as far as shitty bear goes, Miller Lite tastes WORLDS better than that Ultra water crap. The lady bough a 6 pack a couple weeks ago and I tried it…just awful.

Nuttin’ Honey …

By my user name, I assume you can figure the brand of beer I drink. the difference of Lite and Ultra is LESS than 1 gram, it’s actually three tenths of a gram. Go for beer beer made in Milwaukee every time. toast

  • Cite?

Just kidding but I have seen some info that what you say is beleived to be true but have been proven wrong to the extent that some long distance (mainly bikers) are carrying whipped cream. ANd no I’m not finding a cite either. Basically your body will manyfacture any carbs it needs for brain opperation and the body will run on fat products, which I’m sure you know contain much more energy then carbs per oz.

IIRC
Ultra is 2.7, Lite is 3.4 (rounded to 3) so a difference of 0.8
again IIRC

Back to the OP, I’m sure you have noticed the increase of low carb diets, I’ve been on one for about 9 yrs and have noticed a slow but steady increase in food choices but beer was hard to come by. This last year there has been an explosion in food choices and many more people are shunning carbs and especially ones made with refined sugar and flour AND getting health benefits in doing so.

It seem from your post that you don’t know much about low carb lifestile but have no problem critizising it.

Michelob Ultra?

MU is reasonably cheap here, so I’ve been picking it up every now and then. It’s mostly tasteless, so I’ve been squeezing a small wedge of lime into each one and pretending that it’s inexpensive Mexican beer. It’s not bad with the lime, but now I can’t drink one without it.

Of course, during times when MU isn’t on sale, there’s absolutely no reason to buy it at all.

I shudder at this thread’s existence.

Personally, I’ll take my running ass and go drink some beer with TASTE!

You can’t even get the local Hashers to drink Michelob or Miller. They prefer microbrews.

I drink Miller Lite, and I think that Michelob Ultra is gross. A friend of mine saw a commercial for it, and bought it. It smelled skunky, and it tasted just as bad!

MU = Crap

Miller Lite is by far the best tasting (to me anyway) of the low carb beers. I think Sam Adams Light is the best tasting light beer, but it still has a lot of carbs, about 15 grams, IIRC.

This link has some info about local beer, as well as the marketing concept behind MU.

re MU:
<QUOTE>It comes in at just 2.9 grams of carbohydrates per 12-ounce serving. This is, according to Anheuser-Busch, the lowest carbohydrate count of any light beer, and it appears they are right. Corona Light and Amstel Light each have 5 grams of carbohydrate, and Miller Lite, its closest rival, comes in at 3.2 grams of carbohydrates. Coors Light has 4.4 grams. Milwaukee’s Best Light beer has 3.5 grams of carbohydrates per 12-ounce serving. </QUOTE>
If you read carefully, you will read that God, in His infinit love and wisdom, has made Guinness local as it is.

Since I am on a local diet, this is how I know He loves me and wants me to be happy…

I’m not criticizing low-carb diets. If you’ve been on one for 9 years, I presume you know what you’re talking about, and if Ultra fits in your diet, that’s great.

I am criticizing the advertising, that displays photos of people running, cycling, playing basketball, etc. and indicates that Ultra is the “ultimate reward for an active lifestyle” (to quote from my latest Runner’s World . Purportedly this is because it has low carbohydrates. As I said, none of the runners I know or have met at dozens of races has ever embraced a low-carbohydrate diet. I know 3 or 4 people who have tried low-carb diets, some of them quite successful for losing weight, but none of them are regular exercizers - on the contrary, the guy I know that lost the most weight on a low carb diet did so because he told me he hates exercize!

These ads are so out-of place in this magazine it’s ridiculous. There are plenty of other ads for energy bars, sports drinks, gels and whatnot that this “lose the carbs” talk looks like a ham sandwitch at a kosher deli.

I routinely grab 20 oz. or so of Gatorade when going out for a run. At 35gm of carbohydrate, I spill more carbs than you’d get from a bottle of this stuff.

There is a very good reason for that. The reasons for which low-carb diets supposedly (beats me if they do) work are precisely the reasons that endurance athletes carbo load. Competitive runners are trying to maximize the glycogen which requires the very same insulin response, etc that low-carb diets avoid.

People do not produce all the carbs they need. Bonking (not boinking!) occurs when you run so low of glycogen that you can no longer effectively metabolize fat.

I know a lot of good to elite endurance athletes. I know of none that use whipped cream. If they did, it would be something easily consumed, like from a spray can. That stuff is loaded with sugar. During an event, athletes take sugar in whatever form they can handle - hence the plethora of powergel type stuff.

Me, I enjoy a beer. It is not good for performance, but hell, I don’t make a living that way anyway, I can use the calories. I pay no attention to “low carb” beers.

Miller Lite doesn’t taste “worlds better” than anything. However, I will readily accept your proposition that it tastes better than Ultra.