There are not a lot of beer options out there for people who suffer from Celiac Disease. Basically it's an intolerance to gluten, a protein found in various grains. Many have known the pleasures of beer, but have had to give it up due to their condition.
There are a few options available locally, they include Redbridge, Green's: Discovery Amber Ale, Endeavor Dubble Quest Triple & Bard's Tale Dragon Gold Beer.
It's tough to make a good gluten free beer. Beer is Grain, so finding substitutes for the traditional grains can be difficult. No one locally has made a gluten free beer yet, but that may change.
The guys at Epic have began test brewing a gluten free beer. Made with some of the more uncommon gluten free malts grains and a lot of Brown Rice. This is just in the testing stages, so nothing has been developed yet. We'll keep our gluten free friends of the blog updated on it's progress.
Also, you may have noticed there's a new poll up. As far as I know the beer styles listed in the poll have not been made in Utah. Of those styles which would you like to see pop-up next at your favorite brewery? Note: The poll was published before today's article on Epic's gluten free endeavor and does not represent a bias on my part.
And while I'm on the subject of polls. Some of you that represent breweries have tried to influence some of these polls by soliciting for votes in your favor. It was my hope that these polls would be a helpful tool for you guys to get an informal idea of what the local craft beer market is looking for. I not saying, don't participate just let your non-bias customers voices be the prominent ones. Daddy, still loves you....
Cheers!
5 comments:
Hey Mike,
I don't know who is your inside guy. Looks like a Gluten free beer project is not a popular idea. I can understand and appreciate that. But I hope Epic succeeds in making something special for someone.
The project is near to my heart. I have kids with food allergies, the kind that are life threatening. It can be rough watching your kids miss out on the pizza or ice cream at the party because that food has milk protein in it which means an anaphylactic reaction, an epi-pen injection and a quick trip to the hospital for survival. Some people have that same kind of reaction to gluten too, not just an intolerance.
So my plot to keep GFB at zero votes is working.
Many, many people write me in regards to gluten free beers. I know for a fact it would go over well.
This forum probably isn't a good gauge for gluten free beers. Beer drinkers will always prefer barley based beers. but that doesn't mean there isnt a market for the other.
I can tell you that we get calls and requests on a regular basis for gluten free beers. While our special ordered GFB's don't sell great compared to our other beers they are definitely loved by those who can't have the rest.
I've seen a lot of interesting chatter on the homebrew forums about White Lab's Clarity Ferm and/or Brewer's Clarex producing very low gluten beers. Normally used for clearing, it apparently does a great job of breaking down Gluten. Here's a good post about it:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/has-anyone-tried-clarity-ferm-brewers-clarex-white-labs-175574/#post2615443
I won't dump a bunch of links in here, but looking around you'll find posts about Clarity Ferm/Clarex bringing the gluten content down to 5-6ppm, which is below most people's sensitivity threshold.
I would love to see a GF beer in the local market. My wife was recently diagnosed with Celiac and she's been relegated to Redbridge and Bard's as her only options.
Deschutes makes an excellent GF beer so it's not impossible to do. I'll keep checking Epic for updates and thanks for the info!
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