How Much Sugar Is in Beer? Real Figures by Brand and Style

Regular beer contains almost no sugar. The USDA nutrient database lists 0 g of sugars per 100 g for regular beer, and the labels of the big lagers say the same: 0 g per 100 ml for Heineken, 0.02 g for Kronenbourg, 0.25 g for Guinness Draught. A pint of lager (568 ml) holds less than 2 g of sugar. What beer does contain is carbohydrates, 2 to 4 g per 100 ml in a standard lager, mostly starch fragments the yeast could not ferment.

Sugar goes up in four cases: alcohol-free beers, flavoured beers, radlers (beer mixed with lemonade) and fruit beers. Among the labels checked for this page, the highest is Lindemans Kriek 0.0, with 8.7 g per 100 ml, close to Coca-Cola (10.6 g).

Sugar in beer by brand and type

The values per 100 ml are the ones printed on each label, read on Open Food Facts on 7 October 2026 (one product page per beer, linked in the tables). Per-serving figures are calculated: 330 ml for a can or bottle, 568 ml for a UK pint.

Regular, flavoured and radler beers

Alcohol-free beers

USDA values are given per 100 g, which is very close to 100 ml for beer. The same beer can carry different values from one country or year to the next when the recipe changes, so the label on your can has the final word.

Why regular beer has almost no sugar

Brewing starts by turning the starch of malted barley into sugars, mostly maltose, in hot water. That sweet liquid, the wort, then goes to the yeast. The yeast eats the simple sugars (glucose, maltose, maltotriose) and turns them into alcohol and carbon dioxide. At the end of a normal fermentation those sugars are close to gone, which is why the label of a 5% lager can show 0 g.

What the yeast leaves behind are dextrins, longer chains of glucose it cannot break down. They count as carbohydrates but not as sugars. They give the beer body, and they explain why a beer can taste malty and round without being sweet in the nutritional sense.

A stronger beer does not automatically contain more sugar. Leffe Blonde (6.6%) shows 0.5 g per 100 ml: its extra alcohol comes from extra sugar that was fermented away.

Non-alcoholic beer: from 0 g to almost 9 g of sugar

Alcohol-free beers are where the figures spread out. Some are brewed as normal beer and then have the alcohol removed, so most of the sugar was fermented before the alcohol left. Others ferment only briefly, or get juice, syrup or flavourings after brewing, and keep more sugar.

The labels show the whole range: 0 g of sugar per 100 ml for 1664 0.0%, 0.7 g for Guinness 0.0, 1.3 g for Heineken 0.0, 3.7 g for Hoegaarden 0.0 and 4.8 g for Desperados Virgin 0.0%. A pint of Heineken 0.0 holds about 7.4 g of sugar, against 0 g for a pint of regular Heineken.

An alcohol-free beer usually has more sugar than its regular version, but most still have far less than a soft drink. Fruit versions are the exception: Lindemans Kriek 0.0 shows 8.7 g per 100 ml.

Flavoured beers, radlers, fruit beers and milk stouts

In a beer with alcohol, sugar almost always comes from something added after fermentation: lemonade in a radler, syrup or flavouring in a flavoured lager, fruit juice or sweetener in some fruit beers. Desperados (5.9%, tequila-flavoured) shows 2.2 g per 100 ml, about 12.5 g per pint. Amstel Radler (2%) shows 4.7 g, about 26.7 g per pint.

Milk stouts are a case apart. They are brewed with lactose, a milk sugar that brewing yeast does not ferment, so it stays in the beer. Recipes vary and few brewers publish a sugar figure: read the label.

Mixing at the bar works the same way. In a beer and cola, nearly all the sugar comes from the cola, as our guide to mixing beer and cola shows, and a measure of bitter liqueur adds its own sugar to a Picon beer.

Carbs vs sugar: reading a beer label

On a nutrition label, carbohydrates include the sugars plus everything else (starch, dextrins). For beer the gap is wide: Heineken lists 3.2 g of carbohydrates and 0 g of sugars per 100 ml, and the USDA average for regular beer is 3.55 g of carbohydrates and 0 g of sugars per 100 g.

Most of the calories in beer come from alcohol, not from carbohydrates. Heineken has 42 kcal per 100 ml. Its 5% alcohol is about 3.9 g of ethanol, roughly 28 kcal at 7 kcal per gram; the 3.2 g of carbohydrates add about 13 kcal. Figures by serving and by style are in our guide to the calories in 50 cl of beer.

If you count carbohydrates, a low sugar figure is not enough: read the carbohydrate line. If you only count sugar, regular lagers are close to zero, and the drinks to watch are radlers, flavoured beers and some alcohol-free ones.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much sugar is in a pint of lager?

Almost none. A UK pint (568 ml) of Heineken contains 0 g of sugar according to its label, Kronenbourg about 0.1 g and Stella Artois about 1.7 g. Lager does contain carbohydrates, around 18 g per pint for Heineken, but they are not sugars.

How much sugar is in a can of beer?

A 330 ml can of regular lager contains 0 to 1 g of sugar (0 g for Heineken, about 1 g for Stella Artois). A can of Amstel Radler contains about 15.5 g, and a can of Coca-Cola about 35 g.

Does non-alcoholic beer have more sugar than regular beer?

Usually yes, but it depends on the brand: 0 g per 100 ml for 1664 0.0%, 1.3 g for Heineken 0.0, 3.7 g for Hoegaarden 0.0 and 8.7 g for Lindemans Kriek 0.0. Regular Heineken shows 0 g.

Which beers have the most sugar?

Beers with something sweet added after brewing: radlers, flavoured beers and fruit beers, especially the alcohol-free ones. In the tables on this page, the highest are Lindemans Kriek 0.0 (8.7 g per 100 ml), Desperados Virgin 0.0% (4.8 g) and Amstel Radler (4.7 g).

How many sugar cubes are in a bottle of beer?

For a regular lager, not even one: a 330 ml bottle holds less than 1 g of sugar. A 330 ml Amstel Radler holds about 15.5 g, which is several cubes.

Why does the label show carbohydrates but no sugar?

Yeast turns the simple sugars of the wort into alcohol and carbon dioxide. What it cannot digest are dextrins, longer chains of glucose. They count as carbohydrates on the label, not as sugars.

Sources: label values from the Open Food Facts product pages linked in the tables (read on 7 October 2026); USDA FoodData Central, entries 168746 (beer, regular, all) and 168749 (beer, light).

Sources

• Coca-Cola – Real Magic | Coca-Cola en France — The Coca-Cola Company (Coca-Cola France)