Beer for Skiers: WeldWerks Brewing Fit Bits

It’s no secret that the hottest trend for craft breweries in mountain regions are low calorie, low ABV beers that, surprisingly, taste amazing. Skiers in search of easy-drinking beers that provide minimal additions to calorie counts, alcohol buzzes, and hangovers are no longer constrained to mass-produced beers with “Light,” “Lite,” or “Ultra” on the label.

Fit Bits, a lo-cal, lo-ABV brew from Colorado’s WeldWerks Brewing, certainly isn’t the first brew in this category to be featured on Beer for Skiers. I was impressed by Deschutes Brewing’s Wowza! lo-cal hazy pale ale, Dogfish Head’s Slightly Mighty lo-cal IPA, and continue to be impressed by everything Sufferfest is producing, all without gluten and while being extremely sessionable.

But Fit Bits has a little something special compared to these other brews. When poured in a glass, it’s super hazy, like the need-a-headlamp-to-see-the-bubbles level of cloudy. The aroma, while not quite as strong as sticking your head in a bucket full of fresh-picked hops, is still pretty full-on IPA. And the taste of Fit Bits, while just a touch lighter than expected, still fully expresses the Citra, El Dorado, and Sabro hops without leaving any of that oily hop residue on the tongue that many extra-cloudy hazy IPAs are notorious for.

I have no idea how WeldWerks can make such a hopped-up, delicious beer that doesn’t leave flavors sticking to the tongue like heavy snow on an old pair of wet skins. They mastered this sensation with the Extra Extra Juicy Bits brew, which won gold at the 2019 Great American Beer Festival in the Hazy Imperial IPA category.

Fit Bits, while not quite as flavorful as Extra Extra, accomplishes the same task with flying colors: awesome hazy IPA flavor with no left-over residue.

But what’s most perplexing is how WeldWerks is able to pack in all of this hoppy flavor into 16-ounce cans that have a mere 130 calories total. You could drink two cans of Fit Bits before you arrive at an equal calorie count of some 12-ounce craft Double IPAs. And, seeing how each can weighs in at a meager 4.2% ABV, you might as well have another.

The brewery has already rolled out Fit Bits into nine Colorado Whole Foods stores, and they also have plans to open a new taproom in Colorado Springs.

WeldWerks Brewing Fit Bits Notes

• Beer type: Lo-Cal Hazy IPA
• Flavor Profile: Papaya, over-ripe mango, and peach skins
• ABV: 4.2%, IBUs: NA
• Pairs well with: Quarantine, calorie-counters, nights that “smell like Greeley.”
• Hops: Citra, El Dorado, Sabro
• More Info: Fit Bits Untappd Profile, WeldWerks Brewing Homepage

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