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CHOW.com staffers went into our gluten-free beer tasting with open minds. Rather than using barley or rye, gluten-free beer is made with nonwheat grains such as sorghum, rice, corn, and buckwheat. And hey, we like alternative grains! (Just check out our four exotic granolas that don't use oats!) Unfortunately, of the 12 beers we tasted, most were disappointing. Almost none of them had any hop flavor or maltiness to speak of, and most resembled fizzy, light, tasteless American macrobrews like Budweiser.
Why is this category—which has emerged in earnest over the past year to accommodate the growing number of people with gluten intolerance—so unrewarding for beer geeks?
Try making a microbrew-style beer without wheat, and it's a little like trying to play the polka without a tuba. According to Pedro Gonzalez, founder of the exclusively gluten-free brewery New Planet, it's hard to replicate the malty taste of beer if you're not using barley. And without the backbone of malted barley, it's hard to balance out the bitter flavor of hops. New Planet is the only brewery we're aware of that is actually making a gluten-free pale ale, which Gonzalez was able to pull off by using molasses to add depth and heft.
But in the words of megablogger Shauna James Ahern, a.k.a. Gluten-Free Girl, "we're still in the very early days of gluten intolerance being understood. Give it another 10 years and gluten-free beer will be even better." We hope so.
Of the dozen beers we tried, which included ales, lagers, and a handful of fruit beers, these are the four that most closely approached drinkability.
New Planet Off Grid Pale Ale
Made from sorghum and brown rice extract, this had a nice rich color and actual hop flavor (not a hop bomb by any means, just enough to remind us we were drinking beer). "Actually passes for beer! Hurray!" wrote one taster.
St. Peter's Sorgham Beer
Slight floral aroma and tasting of honey, lightly toasted grain, and a little hops, this beer would have benefited from a bit more body. "Not half bad," said one commenter.
Estrella Damm Daura Lager
This Spanish beer is actually made from malted barley that's had the gluten removed through high-tech processing. (It does contain minute quantities of gluten, but so little that it still qualifies as gluten-free.) It recalled a familiar American macro like Rolling Rock: pale golden in color, a good frothy head, extremely mild hops, and a slightly stale aftertaste. "Would drink at a boring party," wrote one taster.
Redbridge
It really says something when one of your top picks is a light lager from Anheuser-Busch. Balanced, with no off flavors or weird sweetness (faint praise, we know), this had a dark honey color, a slight toastiness, and almost zero hop flavor. "Generic tasting," wrote one taster.
As others have said, ciders are better than beer for gluten free individuals. My MIL likes the Redbridge though.
Have you tried Fox Barrel or Crispin hard ciders? They are amazing. They have over 12 varities. Never sweet, never fermented from concentrate or high fructose corn syrup, and you can tell. Delish!
As a person who recently went gluten free, I personally think that the gf beers out there aren't very good. I stick with cider.
Green's makes the best of the gluten free beers, their dark ale is actually quite tasty, and I am not gluten intolerant. New GF beers pop up all the time, Portland Oregon now has a dedicated GF brewery, Harvester, and their first offering was a great pale ale with Chestnuts balancing out the sorghum twang. They just brewed a dark ale and I look forward to trying that one.
blackpointyboots: Outside the world of American light lagers and witbier/hefeweizen/other wheat-specific beers, there's not a lot of wheat in beer in general. Most German beers and the vast majority of American micros (especially ales) are 100% barley (I can't speak for beers from other countries since I don't know as much about them). So you should be able to handle a huge range of beers. Prost!
Greens is a pretty good option. I do think much more could be done with GF beers if brewers toyed around more. I do see them as more of a separate animal than wheat/barley beers but I brew mead so maybe I am just used to more odd variety.
Redbridge is something I use if I have to add beer to a recipe. I wouldn't willingly drink it as a beer.
If you have a wheat intolerance not celiac or a...+READ
Greens is a pretty good option. I do think much more could be done with GF beers if brewers toyed around more. I do see them as more of a separate animal than wheat/barley beers but I brew mead so maybe I am just used to more odd variety.
Redbridge is something I use if I have to add beer to a recipe. I wouldn't willingly drink it as a beer.
If you have a wheat intolerance not celiac or a true gluten intolerance I found that Guinness and Smithwicks have barley only, no wheat and I can drink those without issue.-COLLAPSE
I really like the St. Peter's beer. I am not on any kind of restricted diet -- just bought it because it was something different -- and I found it to be very nice and refreshing. I would definitely buy it again.
Before having to go gluten free, I preferred dark beer. The darker, the better. Of course, my tastes have changed with age, and being on the east coast, you just can't find those amazing dark, rich microbrews I enjoyed while living out west. I don't mind Redbridge or New Grist, when I want a beer, it does the trick. I loved Green's, but way too pricy for anything more than a special treat. Hope...+READ
Before having to go gluten free, I preferred dark beer. The darker, the better. Of course, my tastes have changed with age, and being on the east coast, you just can't find those amazing dark, rich microbrews I enjoyed while living out west. I don't mind Redbridge or New Grist, when I want a beer, it does the trick. I loved Green's, but way too pricy for anything more than a special treat. Hope GF beer innovations continue! For now, I will just continue to smell and drool over my husband's beer!-COLLAPSE
I second the Green's for an actually-enoyable gluten-free beer. I also like the Tripel Blonde, but the dark one is a passable dark stout.
The only one I've tried of the reviewed selection is Redbridge, which to me tastes like I remember Budweiser tasting. And obviously there are people out there who like Budweiser, so . . . yeah. There's that.
You are so right that most gluten-free beers are not worth drinking. The exception for me is Green's, a delicious Belgian beer. I especially love their Tripel Blonde Ale. Those Belgians really know how to make a good beer, even gluten-free!
-Ein
nice sentiment, gfg, but there really are things that are lost in translation--my gluten-free buds vastly prefer drinking a good dry cider.
st. peter's glutenicious beers are quite good but i wouldn't spring for the "sorgham" type. had no idea bud made a gf beer, though.