I Tried And Ranked 7 Popular Light Beers. Here Are The Best (And Worst)

Sometimes you crave a hoppy IPA. Sometimes you crave a fruity sour. And sometimes you just crave a crisp light beer that goes down a little too easily. For moments like those, there are a few specific beers that immediately come to mind. Whether you're a Bud Light loyalist or you're faithful to Mountain Time, light beers are the go-to drink for anyone looking to throw a few back without feeling like you just drank your body weight in carbs.

Unlike traditional lagers, light lagers are purposefully brewed to have fewer calories, fewer carbs, and less alcohol than their non-light counterparts. This makes them easily crushable. And while most light beers aim for an enjoyable sipping experience, some light beers do it better than others. Some light beers lack flavor. Some taste a bit watered down than they should. Some are so carbonated that it's hard to even finish one. And some leave behind an aftertaste you need to rinse away. 

This begs the question: Which light beers are worth stocking your fridge with? This list ranks seven of the most popular light beers to answer that.

The first step of ranking popular light beers was to choose which beers to actually rank. I settled on a lineup of seven beers that are some of the most widely recognized and consumed light beers in the United States. This included Miller Lite, Bud Light, Coors Light, Michelob Ultra, Corona Light, Natural Light, and Busch Light. These are the light beers you'd expect to find at any backyard BBQ, beach bonfire, or golf outing on a hot summer day.

The next step was to figure out what criteria I would use to compare one beer to another. Since most light beers are brewed to be refreshingly crisp and highly crushable, I focused on flavor profile and drinkability.

For flavor profile, I looked for beers that tasted clean and balanced after the first sip and were void of any harsh aftertaste. I also looked at how strong the alcohol presence was. Light beers shouldn't taste too boozy.

When it came to drinkability, I focused on how easily it was to continue sipping the beer. If the beer was overly carbonated or had either a strong flavor or weak flavor, I ranked that beer lower than ones that stayed consistent. Temperature flexibility and palate fatigue were important criteria here, too. The best light beers should stay good until the very last sip.

Coming in at the very bottom of my list is Natural Light. While this beer is definitely easy to sip, it's easy to sip for the wrong reason.

Starting with taste, Natural Light has the least distinctive flavor of the seven beers ranked here. It's light-bodied, thin, and almost has a watery finish, making it a pretty boring beer to enjoy at the end of a long, hot day. Which brings me to drinkability. It's not that Natural Light is a bad beer to drink — it's just uninteresting. Not just because there's no flavor, but also because of the lack of carbonation. The first few sips of Natural Light have a soft carbonation, but after that, the beer comes across flat and lifeless. The lack of flavor plus the fading carbonation makes this 4.2% ABV light lager less refreshing than what I want from a crushable beer.

Ultimately, Natural Light is just a little too forgettable compared to the other beers on this list. However, if you were to add some margarita mix to it and turn it into a beergarita, the lack of flavor almost pays off.

As someone who enjoys beers like goses, wild ales, and beers with generally stronger and more distinctive flavors, I went into this tasting assuming Corona Light would come out on top. Oddly enough, though, it ended up being a beer where the flavor was its biggest downfall.

The very first sip of Corona Light is great, with a subtle citrus flavor and light sweetness that makes this beer feel more civilized than the other beers on this list. The aftertaste, however, doesn't do the beer any favors. Out of the seven light beers I tasted, Corona Light was the only one that had a noticeably sharp aftertaste. And something slightly skunky about said aftertaste. That, alone, was enough for my palate to become fatigued by the beer.

Overall, I think Corona Light would be a great beer to drink with a meal — something to counteract the aftertaste. It has better flavor than Natural Light, so it ranked higher. But the lingering aftertaste is why it's not further up.

I was disappointed to see that Miller Lite ranked lower than most because this was one of the only beers that didn't have the watered-down flavor that most light beers are accustomed to.

Miller Lite has a noticeable malt flavor that makes it feel like you're actually drinking a traditional lager. It's also a bit fuller-bodied than the other beers on this list. When it comes to drinkability, though, Miller Lite loses a few points. The strong carbonation of this beer is ultimately overpowering. Especially when enjoying a few in a row. Even as the beer warms, the heavy carbonation remains, and drinking it continuously becomes tiresome.

This 4.2% light lager gets points for actually tasting like a traditional lager, but loses more points for feeling heavy like a traditional lager. This is why Miller Lite is ranked number five on this list of popular light beers.

Honestly, I'm shocked that Busch Light is coming in fourth on this list. I didn't want to enjoy this beer as much as I did. But with its grainy flavor and subtle sweetness, sipping Busch Light made for a darn good experience.

Busch Light has the cleanest finish of the seven light beers, which makes it easy to keep sipping. And with a very subtle alcohol presence, it's a beer that's easy to drink multiple of. Plus, the carbonation isn't overpowering like Miller Lite. Where Busch Light falters is when it gets warmer. As the beer's temperature rises, the flavors become too muted to continue enjoying. So if you're going to drink one of these, I recommend doing it fast.

Overall, Busch Light is a surprisingly crushable beer that's best served straight out of the fridge. It's smoother and easier to drink than Miller Lite, which is why it ranks a bit higher. And with surprising new flavors like Apple, this is the kind of brand to keep around.

When I hear the term light beer, Bud Light immediately comes to mind. After all, Anheuser-Busch basically owns Super Bowl commercials at this point. Bud Light is so embedded in our beer culture that the brand teamed up with Tajín to create a canned chelada, ensuring there's always something new and refreshing to bring to tailgates. So it makes sense that it ranked in the top three.

This light lager has a mild sweetness, a clean profile, and a smooth, crisp finish that makes for a truly enjoyable beer. The alcohol presence is there but not overpowering, and the beer stays consistently drinkable as the temperature rises. With smooth carbonation, Bud Light is one of the more consistent beers on this list. So it's easy to have one, and then another. Bud Light is much more balanced than Busch Light, but doesn't feel as refreshing as other beers, earning it the number three spot.

Whether you're collecting all the Coors Light merch that a frat bro can get his hands on, or simply sipping a Coors Light on your back deck this summer, this beer is synonymous with mountain cold crushability.

Coors Light is clean and crisp, and it doesn't have an alcohol bite as other beers do. This 4.2% ABV light lager has a higher carbonation than most, but it somehow makes the beer even more refreshing. As the temperature warms and the carbonation fades, the flavor remains the same, making for an enjoyable brew.

Few beers are as thirst-quenching as Coors Light. The combination of the crisp flavor, the sharp carbonation, and the icy cold refreshment made the very first sip of this beer the single best sip of the entire tasting. However, as the ultra cold crispness faded, it didn't quite keep the balance as the beer ranked number one.

Michelob Ultra was, by far, the most enjoyable beer to drink on this list. So it's no surprise that it's been declared the country's best-selling beer. It's clean, subtle, and has just enough malt flavor that it tastes like a refreshing beer without being heavy and filling.

Michelob Ultra is a beer that doesn't have an aggressive alcohol taste, but it's boozy enough to feel like you've leveled up since your college days. And with a super clean carbonation, this beer is undeniably crushable. As Michelob Ultra warms, the flavor holds up, and the bubbles don't go flat. While the other seven beers on this list made me immediately call out what was wrong with them, this 4.2% ABV light lager left me with zero complaints.

The number one spot goes to Michelob Ultra, and it's well deserved. This beer is balanced and consistent, and was the smoothest, most enjoyable drinking experience of this seven beer tasting.