Not Bud Light Or Michelob Ultra: This Is The Best Popular Light Beer To Add To Your Homemade Chili

Depending on your chili-making prowess, beer may not be the first ingredient on your list of recipe enhancers. However, the right bottle of brew can bring extra layers of complexity to the bubbling pot, from added maltiness to sweetness, bitterness, or any other number of nuanced nods. While dark beer gets much more kudos as a viable cooking ingredient, you don't actually need a stout or porter to make the chili magic happen. 

When Tasting Table rounded up the 19 absolute best beers for making homemade chili, Yuengling Light Lager was one of the few, familiar mainstream light beers to make the list. The brews weren't ranked against one another, but the Yuengling Light stood out as the most popular light option because it's able to contribute toasted malt flavor without overpowering the chili. That's a valuable distinction to make, compared to using very neutral or popular light beers such as Bud Light or Michelob Ultra.

Yuengling Light Lager has more malt-driven flavor than many beers in the light category, which the company attributes to its amber-lager style and subtle roasted notes. It still finishes clean and crisp, keeping it relatively refreshing instead of heavy. That combination gives it enough flavor to make a noticeable impact on chili in a way that standard light beer is unlikely to do.

It's true that dark beer still holds a favored place in making chili, especially for those who like it rich and deeply flavorful. Tasting Table has previously explored what kind of beer gives chili the best flavor, ultimately recommending darker styles because of their pronounced malty character that complements the earthy, smoky, and meaty flavors in a bowl of chili. It's worth noting, however, that dark beers are far from the same, and even the slightest differences could bring totally unique variations to chili. Brown ales, porters, and stouts, for example, can potentially contribute nutty, toasted, caramel, or even chocolate-like notes.

Yuengling Light takes a gentler approach, while still bringing a malty, toasty depth and added character. Some home chefs on Reddit feel that Yuengling is especially appealing for turkey chili, where an assertive stout could overwhelm the lean, mild-tasting meat. In another Reddit thread discussing "chili time," a user recommended Yuengling for a tomato-and-beef recipe, adding roughly half a beer to deglaze the pot before the chili simmered. It should also work nicely in moderately spicy chili as a way to round out the heat instead of drastically changing the overall flavor profile.  

While those Redditors were generally referring to regular Yuengling Lager, the crisper Yuengling Light Lager is specifically brewed to retain a similar roasted malt profile that's inspired by the original. For chili lovers seeking that amber-lager character without digging deeply into a dark-beer persona, it's a good lager to pour into the pot.