13 Worst Tasting Light Beers in America, Definitively Ranked

By Urbanmatter Chicago @UMatterChicago

While craft beers, hard seltzer, and local ciders duke it out for space at the liquor store, there’s one product destined to remain an unstoppable juggernaut. Light beer. Every one of us has those moments when we shrug at the bartender and say, “Just give me a light beer.” Maybe it’s when you overate at dinner, or only when you day drink, or something specific you crave on beach days, but we all have a light beer of choice.

Your preferred light beer may even be on this list. That’s okay! All light beer is terrible. It’s not supposed to taste good. It’s supposed to be something to drink that is slightly more interesting than water. We have compiled a list of the 13 worst tasting beers in the country.

Photo Credit: The Kentucky Gent on Facebook

13. Bud Light Lime

We’re starting with a subcategory of citrus-flavored light beers. If you’re interested in a beer with flavor, why not reach for something that’s not Bud Light? It’s not just nasty, but lime-flavored nasty.

Photo Credit: La Taqueria on Facebook

12. Michelob ULTRA Lime Cactus

Michelob ULTRA has the nerve to call lime and prickly pear flavoring “exotic taste.” If you’re looking for the worst beers in America, this beer is inferior to Bud Light Lime. Consider these bottom two tied for worst.

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11. Corona Light

We’re lumping this in with the offerings from Budweiser and Michelob ULTRA. Have you ever had a Corona without lime in it? No one has. It’s a lime-flavored beer, but they’ve tricked everyone into buying the flavor separately.

Photo Credit: Bud Select on Facebook

10. Bud Select 55

The next worst beer to drink on our list is Bud Select 55. The front of the beer can features the number of calories in a large font. Their entire identity is calories. This is only appealing to those who can recite a banana’s caloric content off the top of their head. Also, it tastes like a bad hangover.

Photo Credit: Miller64 on Facebook

9. Miller64

Before Select 55, Miller64 was the lowest calorie beer around. It wins by about 30 calories, the same as half a cucumber. Or two stalks of celery. You might as well treat yourself to a Miller Lite, which has 96 calories and does not taste terrible.

Photo Credit: High Grade Beverage on Facebook

8. Natural Light

If anyone is passionate about the difference between these next two beers, please @ us. They’re both trying hard to make their image more appealing to Gen Z, and that’s sort of admirable. Both of them taste the way the bunks smell at summer camp.

Photo Credit: Keystone Light on Facebook

7. Keystone Light

Again, tastes like old skunk air, but they’re a respectable social media presence with some interesting meme attempts. You could water down a good beer to the same number of calories, and it’d still taste better.

Photo Credit: Howdy Doody on Facebook

6. Milwaukee’s Best Light

Wisconsin is a weird purgatory between the United States and Canada. The good–cheese curds and pretzels; the bad–winters and Milwaukee’s Best Light. But the vintage packaging is weirdly great.

Photo Credit: Michelob ULTRA on Facebook

5. Michelob ULTRA

Michelob didn’t trust the power of the word ultra enough in their label. So they had to make it all caps. If you’re searching for the worst beers in the country, this beer tastes like nothing–the opposite of ultra. Or like weird water. It’s not overtly terrible, but also, why would you bother?

Photo Credit: Cork and Keg on Facebook

4. Busch Light

This beer was much lower on the list, but it turns out they make a beer for dogs called Dog Brew that isn’t even beer. It’s just bone broth in a can. That genius product shot Busch Light up about four rankings. This list is arbitrary. All these beers are the worst tasting.

Photo Credit: Beck’s on Facebook

3. Beck’s Premier Light

While it’s not a widely available beer, it’s not unpleasant to drink—just a plain, average, almost-water kind of lite beer.


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Photo Credit: Amstel Light on Facebook

2. Amstel Light

There’s genuinely no shame in ordering an Amstel Light. It taste’s about as good as you can hope for a light beer, and it doesn’t put its calories right on the label. It’s the perfect beer in America to order when you can’t decide what you want at the bar.

Photo Credit: New Country 92.3 on Facebook
  • 1. Dog Brew by Busch

Not technically a beer. Or light. But definitely the best-tasting beer on this list.

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