Gluten Free Beers - Part 1 - Thoughts (Industry Class)

Disclaimer: In this article you may bump into, be nudged by, and potentially trip over a substantial amount of sarcasm. It doesn't happen that often but do be mindful while reading. After all, I take health and safety VERY seriously. 

You've been warned. 

     I was traipsing (that's right, traipsing...it's kind of like surfing with intent) across the internet the other day found this article. It's titled "How we all went crazy for gluten-free beer."  

     After reading the title I thought, "People went crazy?" I can understand excited but apparently in the UK, Gluten-Free beers are all the rage. I did read some points in this article that really need to be addressed. 

"But with two of the main ingredients of beer - barley and hops - containing gluten, is there really any point in making gluten-free beer?"

"Great Horny Toads! Them thar hops have that pesky gluten. Get 'em!"

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down there. I get that barley has gluten and we use barley to make bread...but hops? Really? Obviously the author doesn't drink beer because even the average light lager drinker knows that hops doesn't have gluten. 

But wait, maybe I shouldn't be so closed minded. Maybe there is a special strain of hop that has gluten and it's been sneaking its way into every beer out there. It's those SNEAKY hops that are causing all the celiacs to have problems...not just the grains.

Ok, maybe I'm wrong though. Maybe there IS gluten in hops as part of some eerie "gluten-is-hidden-behind-the-lupulin-gland-of-the-hop" science-y thing that I'm missing. So being the curious guy I am, I looked it up. Last time I checked, hops are essentially a flower & flowers don't have gluten...or do they?  I decided to look it up further in The Oxford Companion of Beer (page 459 to 460 if you're really interested) and it mentions the following:

• hops are perennial herbaceous plants (psst, that means plants like trees, shrubs, and vines, oh my! Yeah, you're trying to tell me a freaking TREE has gluten? I knew those bark sandwiches were bad for me!)

• they are called the "little wolf PLANT", named for the plant's tactile qualities

• hops belong to the family of Cannabinaceae (yep that includes Cannabis) (So technically wouldn't that mean that celiacs shouldn't smoke "the marijuana" as well?) 

I get it now! The gluten sensitive Orcs of Eisengard were only protecting themselves by cutting down all the trees that were full of gluten. Why would the Ents be upset by that? Can't we all just get along?

But don't just take my word for it. Here are a couple links for you to check out:

Are hops Gluten Free?

New Planet Gluten Free Beer

"Forget Craft Beers: 2015 will be the year that gluten-free grog made the mainstream"

(shaking head). Forget Craft beers? Craft Beer is undergoing another wave (kind of like surfing...yes, surfing...not traipsing). How can 18.72% (from the earlier math remember?) be construed as mainstream? Wouldn't that have to be a majority? So is this person saying that craft beer is mainstream? So does that mean that gluten-free beer is NOT craft beer? I'm getting sort of lost here. 

     I decided to ask a source so I promptly called up one of my favorite boutique liquor stores, Firefly Fine Wines and Ales in Maple Ridge, and asked them how many different beers they had in stock. I was informed that the store around 1200. That's really impressive! How many gluten free beers do they have? Twenty. 

(Here we go with the math again) So that means that 1.67% of their total beer stock consists of gluten-free brews. Now 20 different gluten-free beers isn't anything to sneeze at. Firefly has experienced such solid growth in the past 2 years that they have had to change from a small single shelf to 2 larger shelves. I also hear that this particular liquor store currently has the best selection of Gluten-Free beer in their area. That's awesome and great news for celiacs.

"You can't argue with the stats and 12 million Britons are now choosing gluten-free products, whether they need to or not."

     Ok, but when you mean "Briton", I'm sure you mean the UK. So that means out of an entire population of 64.1 million people (as per 2013) that means that 12 million are choosing gluten-free products? Unless my math is wrong, (No, I'm not using new math) that means that such is 18.72% which is a fair amount of people. Just because they are choosing gluten-free products doesn't mean they're choosing gluten-free beer. 

No, I didn't use new math to come up with my percentages. 

These people could simply be becoming vegetarians, vegans, valedictorians, whatever. Again, that does not mean they are going to reach for a gluten-free beer because they could be reaching for wine and / or cider. I'd be interested to see how many people on gluten-free diets reach for gluten-free beer, that way this can better tell the story. 

"Gluten-free beers tend to use alternative grains and grasses such as millet, rice, corn, buckwheat or sorghum in place of these during the brewing process. This can give the drink a slightly different taste, as the dominant flavour of a traditional beer is the hops (CELIA is one gluten-free option that is made with hops that are de-glutenized)."

     Well, the "slightly different taste"  is very subjective. Since when do you have to de-glutenize hops? When I visited Hop Union in the Yakima Valley this past September, I don't recall seeing a "deglutinizer" when it comes to hop processing in their facility. 

Again I decided to contact a source so I called up a buddy of mine who works at a hop-farm in BC. I asked him if there was a way to de-glutenize hops and the first thing he said was
 "(Insert Long pause)...........what? De-who-what?" 

I think this drives my point home. 

"Traditional beer is made with hops, but gluten-free beers often use other grains."

Hops are a grain? Then how come I NEVER see hop bread, hop muffins, hop croissants, hop crackers, or hop croutons?  Am I not looking hard enough? 

Hops: Apparently they have gluten. Who new?

     My additional counter-point to this comes from a video I saw on the Spinnakers Facebook page that had a panel during Victoria Beer Week in 2014. If you check out the vid, zip ahead to 23:00 because that's when they talk about gluten free beers. Keep in mind the panel consists of successful BC brewers. According to host and writer Joe Weibe (aka the Thirsty Writer (Super-talented guy btw)), he says that "17% of British Columbians claim a gluten-free lifestyle".

Hmm, that lines up with what is happening in the UK. Maybe the numbers are true, but I stand behind my point that those people may not be reaching for gluten-free beer. 

Keep in mind, Matt Phillips (Owner and head brewer of Phillips Brewing in Victoria BC), states there are 2 ways to make gluten-free beer:

1. To use non-gluten type ingredients (i.e. sorghum, rice, I've seen chestnuts). 
2. To use an enzyme that clarifies and removes proteins (mainly gluten). 

"My water is contaminated...it has gluten in it."

Both of these are problematic. This gets into the area of materials handling and proper storage protocols but more importantly: cross-contamination

That means you pretty much need to have an entirely separate brewhouse in order to keep from having any residual gluten from floating around...or wouldn't you? 

It seems that the enzymatic removal would be the way to go. But this leads into another point:

Are we going for gluten-free or gluten-reduced?

When my Mom was alive, she was a diabetic. When we were out grocery shopping together one day I had picked up some sugar-free product for her and she told me to put it back. After some discussion from my natural confusion she said this brilliant epiphany to me. 

"Just because something says 'sugar free' doesn't mean it's diabetic friendly."

With that being said, I say this to all you celiacs out there:

"Just because something is gluten-free doesn't mean it's celiac friendly."

But wait, the large majority of celiacs monitor their diet really well so you celiacs already know that. (No seriously! I'm not being sarcastic here)

     Now I personally know 7 people who are celiac and have varying degrees of sensitivity from "gluten makes me uncomfortable" to "OMG, I FEEL LIKE I'M GOING TO DIE!" For something to be considered gluten free, that means it has to have less than 20 ppm of gluten in it. My friends that are celiac have a hard time with beers that use enzymes to try and remove gluten below 20 ppm.

In fact, over this past summer I hung out with my pal Lisa and brought a bunch of gluten-free beers for her to try (all from my favorite liquor store). She stated that she couldn't have gluten-free beers that used enzymatic removal. My heart sunk. I thought I had hit the jackpot with being able to hang out on her decorated deck of awesome in the summer sun, catch up, and crush a few cold ones. Nope. 

I think there needs to be more research in order to completely get a beer to be gluten-free AND to be enjoyable for the conventional palate. Now, I've tried my fair share of gluten-free beer (which I'll do a follow-up post on), mainly because I want to find beers that my celiac pals and I can enjoy. 

If people want to have a gluten-free lifestyle (meaning they are NOT celiac) then power to them because healthy is good. But didn't we see the same sort of thing years ago and what happened to that? (**cough** Atkins **cough, cough**) 

Now I'm going to have a gluten-free beer, oh wait, I don't have any. Hmmm, cider is looking pretty good about now.

See ya!

BL

PS: I'm thinking of doing a follow-up post to this with a list of Gluten Free Beers that I've tried and can suggest to those celiac individuals. If you think it's a good idea, then please say so in the comments. Thanks.