Light beer is shedding its reputation as a watered-down compromise thanks to advances in brewing science. Brewers are leveraging improvements in ingredient quality, yeast selection, water chemistry, carbonation, and fermentation to create lower-calorie beers with better flavor and mouthfeel. The result is a new generation of sessionable beers that balance drinkability with sensory appeal, demonstrating how science and process innovation continue to reshape the category.

Some barley beers labeled as “gluten-free” contain small amounts of gluten residues that may trigger celiac disease, which are not detected by the standard antibody-based tests currently in use. This is the conclusion of a study by the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich. In the study, researchers compared two antibody-based testing methods with a mass spectrometric detection method newly developed at the Institute. The study results show that modern food analytical methods could help further improve the safety of gluten-free products in the future.

It is the country that drinks more beer per capita than any other but in the last few years Czechia has been hit by droughts and heatwaves, which make it harder to grow the Saaz hops, one of the key ingredients that goes into the country’s world famous beer. At the Hop Research Institute, however, scientists are working to create new, climate-resilient hop varieties that have shown promise in overcoming Czechia’s heat and its strict traditionalism.

When most people crack open a cold beer, climate change isn’t something that’s on their minds. But the 200-plus craft breweries in Minnesota are beginning to feel the pressure of climate change as extreme weather makes the grains needed for brewing harder to grow.