Best Gluten-Free Beers and Where to Buy Them

Gluten-free beers can be risky. In the UK, any beverage with less than 20 ppm of gluten can be sold as 'gluten-free'. The 20 ppm level was chosen so that on a diverse diet, a person consuming a mixture of completely gluten-free food (such as meat, vegetables and dairy) and food containing gluten at less than 20 ppm will consume less than 10 mg of gluten a day - an amount considered safe for most people. However, it is possible to consume hazardous amounts of gluten by drinking 'gluten-free' beer. 1 UK pint of beer at 19 ppm contains 11 mg of gluten, which is above the daily limit. Most 'gluten-free' beer contains lower amounts than this but is still potentially hazardous if consumed in large quantities.

Excellent point, Russ H! Most people don't understand that the 20ppm was not intended be an end in itself but a means to an end. What really counts is the total amount of gluten consumed over 24 hr.

Be careful that its 'Certified' gluten-free Vs "Brewed to remove gluten-free"  I know the Omission beers became an issue for me.

On 12/1/2022 at 6:48 PM, Guest FireFlee said:

Be careful that its 'Certified' gluten-free Vs "Brewed to remove gluten-free"  I know the Omission beers became an issue for me.

Yes, the US system of gluten-free and gluten-reduced seems better than the European one. I am avoiding beer for the moment as I have read research suggesting that some people might still react to fragments of degraded gluten proteins in supposedly safe beer.

In this study, the blood sera of 31 people with coeliac disease and 30 matched controls without coeliac disease was tested for binding against barley flour, beer and gluten-removed beer. Cultivated barely is less immunogenic than wheat or wild barley, which may be why the sera of just 11 test subjects with coeliac disease reacted to barley flour. 4 of these also reacted to ordinary beer, and 3 also reacted to gluten-removed beer. This research was done in a test tube and may not reflect the actual bodily response to consuming gluten-removed beer, but it suggests that it is possible for some people to react to it.

https://gfco.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Beer-Study-JAOAC-Vol.-100-No.-2-Allred-et-al.pdf

Sorry, that should read 'Cultivated barley'.

We did summarize this study years ago, which indicates that a majority of the blood of those with celiac disease show no reaction at all to barley or even regular beer, and only 6.4% of blood from celiacs reacted to the gluten-removed beer. Of course, testing the blood of people for various reactions in a test tube is quite different than what actually happens when something is eaten and goes into your stomach, which is demonstrated by IgG allergy testing on blood samples, which usually shows positive reactions for dozens of "food allergies" in people, even if 90% or more of those foods produce ZERO symptoms in those people when they are eaten.

Our summary:

This article is also interesting:

There seems to be uncertainty in whether peptide sequences from hydrolysed or fermented products can elicit an immune reaction. There is an FDA review of testing in the link below.

Quote

Currently, FDA knows of no scientifically valid analytical method effective in detecting and quantifying with precision the gluten protein content in fermented or hydrolyzed foods in terms of equivalent amounts of intact gluten proteins

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/08/13/2020-17088/food-labeling-gluten-free-labeling-of-fermented-or-hydrolyzed-foods

Yes, and they are allowed to be labelled gluten-free now, including foods made from Codex quality wheat-starch which has gluten removed to below 20ppm, as the scientific evidence shows that they are not harmful to a vast majority of celiacs. In Europe Codex wheat starch has been used in gluten-free foods for decades, as the quality of the products have been generally superior to those that don't use it. Gluten removed been would contain far less than Codex wheat starch.

@Jefferson Adamsthank you for this helpful article. My favorite, among the many that I have tried, is Daura Damm and I have been drinking it (never in excess of one bottle a day) without any issues.