Gluten-Free Beers
Gluten is a substance found in barley, wheat, rye, spelt, oats, kamut, and triticale. Gluten allergies are somewhat common, and can range from mild intolerance to Celiac’s Disease, where gluten ingestion damages the villi in the small intestine, preventing absorption of nutrients and cause gastrointestinal distress.
Not fun, in other words. And even less fun if it means you can’t have beer.
Luckily, various kind souls in the brewing industry have you covered if gluten isn’t your thing (or if it’s indeed your archenemy). Just as wines are traditionally made with grapes but can be made with myriad fruits because they are defined by the process of venting and fermenting, a beer is a beer even if it uses different grains (well, everywhere except Germany). Some alternatives to gluten-containing grains include rice, maize/corn, sunflower, amaranth, flax, millet, quinoa, teff, soybean, ragi, rape, and the two most popular gluten-free grains for brewing beer, buckwheat and sorghum.
Sorghum is a grain native to Northeast Africa, and is used in many African beers (though in the US, it is usually used only in beers specifically targeted towards consumers whose diets mandate a gluten-free brew). Buckwheat is a grain produced by milling beechnuts, separating the groats from the hulls, and roasting them. It’s a whole grain, and makes some delicious pancakes.
But pancakes aside, how does beer made without barley or wheat really taste? How does its flavor, body, profile, and aroma compare to beers made with traditional grains? Total Wine made this question easy to answer, with their small but varied section of exclusively gluten-free brews. I sampled six of them to get my answer (disclaimer: these are just my impressions of these beers. Palates differ, and I’m just as inclined as anyone towards experiencing phantom tastes or shortages in accurate vocabulary.)
Redbridge (sorghum): An amber, light-bodied, honey-colored beer. Not completely different-tasting, vis-à-vis the spectrum of non-gluten-free beers, but has a bit of an aftertaste that’s unusual…some sort of malty taste, maybe, that’s not normally there…but slightly acidic. An interesting first dip-of-the-toes into gluten-free beers.
Bard’s Tale (sorghum): Tastes almost like a lambic, with a wild yeast taste. Tart, funky, almost sour. Same “different”-tasting aftertaste, but with a lingering aftertaste of pizza crust.
New Grist (sorghum & rice): Straw yellow, almost clear, thin. In terms of aroma, has a tart, ripe, sour smell. Has the silkiness of sake (from the rice, most likely), and the sour undertones are more mild in taste than in aroma. Nice with the hunk of white chocolate I munched while sipping this.
Greens (millet, buckwheat, rice, sorghum): I sampled two beers from Greens, which, in addition to not containing gluten, does not contain crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soy beans, milk/lactose, nuts, celery, mustard, sesame seeds, sulphur dioxide, or sulphites, making it a vegan brew as well.
The first one I sampled was the “Discovery” Amber Ale, which was very dark for an amber, smooth, with thick/yeasty consistency. Almost Dubbel-like, but a little less sweet. No sour taste or aroma, but had same interesting malt taste as Redbridge. A little more tartness comes through as it warms up; I think this one would be good on cask. Yeasty residue at the bottom. Greens beers use natural tannins, which apparently contribute to hazy body.
Next one I tried was the “Pathfinder” Dubbel, which was definitely the least “gluten-free” tasting of the beers. It tasted like a Dubbel, pure and simple. It did have a tiny hint of that slightly acidic grain note I’ve noticed in some of the others…maybe this is the taste of sorghum?
Finally, we have Estrella Damm Daura (no speciality grains). Estrella Damm Daura is an interesting case: it’s essentially the same as its gluten-filled sister Pilsner, Estrella Damm, that is put through a specialized brewing process that removes the gluten after-the-fact to less than 6 PPM, less than 1/3 the international standard for gluten-free certification. Interestingly, it’s not advertised as gluten-free on the label (unless “Daura” means something to indicate a lack of gluten…I couldn’t find a translation). The only way I knew about its gluten-free-ness was its position on the gluten-free shelf of Total Wine. So how does it taste? Essentially, like a lighter Dos Equis. For some reason, I thought that gluten-free taste was pretty prominent, but then I started thinking that it’s kind of how Dos Equis tastes too…so maybe it wasn’t the essence of “gluten-free-ness.” Especially since there were no uncommon grains added. I’d be interested to compare this and the standard Estrella Damm side-by-side.
