Gluten Free Beers

coffee to go

I don't want to trawl up any old threads, but I've seen people interested in GF beer on here over the years. Folks might be interested to read this blog which has just put up a review of 20 (!) gluten free beers that can now be had here in Ireland. Seems that the Daas beers come out on top.

http://glutenfreephotos.blogspot.ie/2014/03/the-gluten-free-beer-blog.html



Beers tested:

Crabbies Original Alcoholic Ginger Beer
Crabbies Spiced Orange Alcoholic Ginger Beer
Crabbies Raspberry Alcoholic Ginger Beer
Crabbies Strawberry & Lime Alcoholic Ginger Beer
Hollows & Fentimans All Natural, Alcoholic Ginger Beer
Mongozo Premium Pilsner
Celia Gluten Free Lager
Estrella Damm Daura
Mikkeller I Wish Gluten Free IPA
Daas Blond
Daas Ambre
Against The Grain
Nick Stafford’s Hambleton Ales GFA
Nick Stafford’s Hambleton Ales GFL
Green’s Premium Pilsner
Green’s Discovery
Green’s Supreme Golden Ale
Green’s  Blond Ale
Green’s Amber Ale
Green’s Dark Ale

Personally, I was very surprised at how many there were. Hope this comes in handy for some people!

rubadub

It has come up in the beer forum. What I found interesting was that some guy on a site bought gluten testing kits and tested lots of commercial brands and many while not stating they were gluten free, could have legally called themselves gluten free as they were below the threshold.

Now recipes change around the world but if you are a regular drinker of a certain beer it would probably pay to get a test kit, as the GF beers are usually very expensive and not as nice.

Transform

rubadub wrote: »

It has come up in the beer forum. What I found interesting was that some guy on a site bought gluten testing kits and tested lots of commercial brands and many while not stating they were gluten free, could have legally called themselves gluten free as they were below the threshold.

Now recipes change around the world but if you are a regular drinker of a certain beer it would probably pay to get a test kit, as the GF beers are usually very expensive and not as nice.

saw that link also and really interesting

big win for me was corona - love it

think coors light tested really low in gluten also

rubadub

I also wondered if there could be a beer technically high in gluten which may not be problematic. e.g. guinness and other dark beers are made with roasted grains, I was wondering if this roasting could render it less "active", just like I imagine someone who has a yeast allergy might be affected by 10g of live vigorously fermenting yeast, than 10g of sterile old yeast which could not actively ferment again.

coffee to go

rubadub wrote: »

It has come up in the beer forum. What I found interesting was that some guy on a site bought gluten testing kits and tested lots of commercial brands and many while not stating they were gluten free, could have legally called themselves gluten free as they were below the threshold.

Now recipes change around the world but if you are a regular drinker of a certain beer it would probably pay to get a test kit, as the GF beers are usually very expensive and not as nice.

Interesting, went off and had a look at the home-test approach on gluteninbeer.blogspot.com.

I dunno, as a coeliac myself, I would be more trusting of a certified GF beer coming out of a regulated production environment than testing a 'regular' beer myself. You'll notice that the review panel in the above blog are mostly non-coeliacs and the beers were reviewed on their standalone qualities.

I've had a couple of the Green's beers, and for me they tasted better than a lot of the big commercial non GF beers, so I'm happy to pay a little extra. I agree with the blog that Estrella is pure muck too, and has given GF beers a bad name.

Transform

agreed with the estrella and although not a coeliac i always feel far better after drinking a few low gluten or gluten free beers versus the german or belgian beers i used to love.

Corona and a nice whiskey or burbon for me

colman1212

They are big on the low carb beers here in Oz.
One i'm loving is a zero carb beer by burleigh brewing company

http://burleighbrewing.com.au/beers/bighead/

Transform

colman1212 wrote: »

They are big on the low carb beers here in Oz.
One i'm loving is a zero carb beer by burleigh brewing company

http://burleighbrewing.com.au/beers/bighead/

what!!

The fu$k is that witchery

colman1212

Transform wrote: »

what!!

The fu$k is that witchery

Huh?

I don't really get how it can be zero carbs when it has malted barley & hops... Are they not carbs?!

rubadub

colman1212 wrote: »

Huh?

I don't really get how it can be zero carbs when it has malted barley & hops... Are they not carbs?!

The yeast feed on the sugar/carbs and turn it into alcohol. In many beers this fermentation is not complete so you have residual sugars, some sugars are unfermentable. Pilsner beers are usually brewed right down, so little sugar remains, you can get a higher % from the same amount of original grains too. Most pilsners are higher % and so can be higher calories than other beers, but per unit alcohol they are typically less.

"light beers" can have enzymes added to turn the unfermentable sugars into fermentable ones, so lower carbs and lower calories per unit alcohol. That big head beer " age-old craft brewing techniques" is probably invovling adding newly developed enzymes...

It probably does still have carbs but can be called zero legally, just like non alcoholic beers have limits.

Miller released a "light beer" here which was only abouut 4%, they called it a pilsner, probably so men would not be put off drinking it, just like they came out with pepsi max etc.

Mellor

colman1212 wrote: »

Huh?

I don't really get how it can be zero carbs when it has malted barley & hops... Are they not carbs?!

When it comes to alcohol, having a carbs source in the in raw ingredients doesn't mean carbs in the end product. The goal is to convert starch & sugar (ie carbs) to alcohol. Certain styles of beer are naturally low carb. Is assume the beer above is brewed to convert as much as possible, the remove the remainder.