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And, if you were watching the commercials, Bud Light raised an interesting query: Wait, there's corn syrup in my beer?
The advertisement, which continued the thematic element of Monty-Python-except-not-funny from years prior, featured a large barrel of corn syrup, rejected by the Bud Light brewing castle (?), making its rounds to the Miller Lite and Coors Light castles, where apparently it is used.
To be clear, Bud Light is not brewed with corn syrup, and Miller Lite and Coors Light are. pic.twitter.com/x6tWqdSRXN - Bud Light (@budlight) February 3, 2019
Miller Lite is mad. Coors Light is mad. The corn farmers of America are also mad. The National Corn Growers Association tweeted:
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"@BudLight Americas corn farmers are disappointed in you. Our office is right down the road! We would love to discuss with you the many benefits of corn! Thanks @MillerLight and @CoorsLite for supporting our industry."
. @BudLight Americas corn farmers are disappointed in you. Our office is right down the road! We would love to discuss with you the many benefits of corn! Thanks @MillerLight and @CoorsLite for supporting our industry. https://t.co/6fIWtRdeeM - National Corn (NCGA) (@NationalCorn) February 4, 2019
But should you be mad about corn syrup in your beer? Should you put on a gruff Bill Bellichik-like pre-game interview face and be a grump, blaming your hangover on all that corn-based refined sugar you over-consumed on a Sunday night in order to make up for the snooze-fest of a first half?
Is Corn Syrup in Beer Bad for You?
First, a refresher on what corn syrup actually is: Corn syrup is a refined sugar. It differs from high fructose corn syrup - which Miller and Coors report that they don't use, in defense of the macrobrews - in that corn syrup is 100-percent glucose, and HFCS contains glucose and fructose.
We asked Chris Mohr, Ph.D., R.D., one of Men's Health's nutrition advisors, whether corn syrup in beer is bad for you. The answer? It doesn't matter whether your beer contains corn syrup, because those refined sugars are eliminated in the fermentation process anyway.
"Sugar is used in the brewing process to feed the yeast as part of the fermentation, so the sweetener used for brewing beer is a moot point since the finished product does not have sugar," Mohr says.
In short, it's no big deal if the sweetener is coming from corn syrup or milk sugars or Gisele's tears of joy if no residual sugars are left after fermentation.
"Rather than being concerned are arguing about the type of sweetener used to brew beer, worry about how much beer you're drinking," says Mohr.