Sorgham to Cider: 5 Gluten-Free Beers and Beer Alternatives Beer Sessions

Since gluten-forming proteins are found in wheat, barley, and rye, that pretty much takes beer off the menu for people with gluten intolerance. We can’t let that happen! Here’s a round-up of gluten-free beers to check out. Any others to recommend?

• Green’s Gluten Free Beers - Green’s specializes in Belgian-style ales, most often brewed with de-glutenized barley malt. Look for their Discovery (strong ale), Endeavor (dubbel), and Quest (strong pale ale).

• St. Peter’s Sorgham Beer - This sorghum beer is very similar to a German-style pilsner. It’s clean and crisp with some nice citrus hops flavors.

• Dragon’s Gold from Bard’s Tale Beer Company - Of all of these, this might be the most basic “beer” beer. Meaning, it’s a basic amber beer, decent malts and lightly hopped. Made from sorghum.

• Crispin Cider - Not technically a beer, of course, but these are fermented with yeast and quite delicious! Crispin makes a few different kinds: Honey Crisp, The Saint (brewed with maple) and Landsdowne (brewed with molasses).

• Aspall Cyder - If dry and crisp is more your style, try this cider. We served this at Thanksgiving and it was a big hit!

Honestly, there’s just not much out there for beer lovers who can no longer have gluten. The top three on this list are the best that we could find. Some microbreweries and brew pubs are starting to serve gluten-free beers on tap in their restaurants, but they haven’t made it to bottles yet. (Check out Deschutes in Oregon and Alchemist in Vermont if you’re in the area.)

A lot of beer forums on this subject advise looking into the new wave of artisan ciders like those we mentioned or turning to homebrewing.

Have you found any good gluten-free beers?

(Images: Green's, St. Peter's, and Bard's)

Comments (11)

New Grist is the best one I've found, if you miss beers like Sierra Nevada. It's from Lakefront Brewery in Wisconsin. Redbridge is the most widely available, as it's distributed by Budweiser. Its the most ordinary of all the gf beers I've tried, but sometimes that's just fine. There were also a few African style sorghum beers put out by Sprecher brewery, also in Wisconsin. I didn't care for them, but my friend did.

I've tried Redbridge, New Grist, Bard's, and another I can't remember the name of - but Redbridge is my favorite. Luckily for me, it's also the most widely available and the cheapest!

I'd try any of these other beers in a second if I ever came across them, though. I miss having more of a selection to choose from.

I was a little surprised to read this posting. Do folks with gluten allergies have trouble with most beers? I brew, and thought pretty well all the high molecular weight proteins precipitated during hot and cold break, leaving just oligiopeptides in the final beer.

Don't know anyone with that particular allergy, but would like to know just in case.

@jazminecat, Yes! New Grist!! Milwaukee pride!
And we must be kindred spirits because I've never really been that impressed with Sprecher's beers, either.

dwhitman: Yes, there is gluten in beer. Theoretically there is no gluten in distilled alcohol, but beer is brewed. Gluten intolerance isn't a technically an allergy, but I use that word because waiters are more likely to take it seriously. It's a different type of immune reaction. There are plenty of people who have an actual wheat (or other) allergy, as I do, so I tend to stay away from distilled alcohols that are made from grain. Those make me stuffy/sneezy/pukey.

@dwhitman: ditto what amckee said. Beer does have gluten, but not very much. Someone who is mildly intolerant (like me) can get away with it once and a while. But, someone with true Celiac disease can't -- they can be /so/ sensitive that even a single crumb from wheat bread can set off a huge GI reaction. I know one who will react to the flour in the air of a bakery. Serious stuff.

I would like to add Ace Perry Cider (made from pears). Yum!

If you're in Michigan, check out the gluten-free beer at the Jolly Pumpkin in Traverse City, Ann Arbor and Dexter (http://www.jollypumpkin.com/). They have two GF beers (although one of them they regularly don't keep around, for good reason because it's extremely bitter and difficult to drink), but the Golden Manatee Belipago is not only one of the best GF beers I've ever had, but one of the best beers period.

Woodchuck! I love this stuff and I dont even have a gluten issue! Its available in quite a few flavors and this fall they released one that tasted just like apple cider, it was great around a campfire!

Has anyone had, or heard of, gf stout, porter, or brown ale?

There is a great article on a new barley (but gluten-free) beer out of Spain, called Daura from Estrella Damm posted on Celiac-Disease.com today. http://celiac-disease.com/review-gluten-free-beer-from-spain/
I also reviewed this beer, along with Green's Beers, Redbridge, Bard's Tale and New Grist in my New Year's Eve article for Living Without Magazine's 2010 Holiday Guide. It's nice to finally have really good beer choices for those of us who must eat gluten free.
Blog.JulesGlutenFree.com

I second the Estrella Daura plug -- it tastes like Budweiser! Good stuff.