Clarity Ferm

I listened to an episode of Basic Brewing Radio where a scientist used Clarity Ferm to remove gluten from beer. The experiment results stated that legally these resulting beers could be considered Gluten Free.
Thoughts?

They were wrong if they said gluten free when using CF. CF reduces the gluten to very low ppm that in foods can be considered GF. In beer it can't be called GF in the US if it was made with barley, wheat or rye. If you're a celiac then the real unknown is how many ppm does it take for your body to react. That is unknown and everyone is different. Can you drink 1, or 2, or how many. Know way to know.

Legally a craft brewer has to state that is was crafted to reduce gluten below the legal threshold, which is 20 ppm. So they can't exactly say gluten free but pretty close. In fact most treated beers have well below 5 ppm or undetectable amounts of gluten.

Most Celiac sufferers I know have no issues with these beers (craft and homebrew), but I know a few who are really sensitive and don't want to risk it.

max42 said:

CF reduces the gluten to very low ppm that in foods can be considered GF. In beer it can't be called GF in the US if it was made with barley, wheat or rye. If you're a celiac then the real unknown is how many ppm does it take for your body to react.

Click to expand...

Yes. He did clearly state basically this same thing. The scientist was just saying that per the PPM required by the government to be called gluten free, the final product was lower than that magic number and could theoretically be called GF.

This is a great episode. Take a listen. I've added a direct link below. Or if you'd like to navigate to the podcast episode yourself, http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page=basic-brewing-radio-2014

Episode titled:
"September 4, 2014 - Clarity Ferm Gluten Reduction Experiment"
Dr. Chris Hamilton of Hillsdale College talks about his experiment attempting to make practically gluten free beers using Clarity Ferm from White labs.



http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/6/7/6/676...87599611&hwt=c4e70761ba415b8d4a9374166afb6fb1

I saw a special on tv about gluten free products and it also stated that is its below 20ppm it can legally be advertised as gluten free. My girlfriend like the majority of "Gluten free" people does not actually have Celiacs but she does have a natural intolerance to gluten which gives her bad cramps and digestive issues ... In her case as long as we steer her clear of the wheat beers shes ok but I know of one nano brewery thats treats all thier beers with clarity ferm and advertises them as "gluten free" so... The reality is gluten contamination in these tiny levels is common in the food industry which is why they test for 20ppm or less.. cheerios just recently went gluten free but I believe they just refined their process to remove more stray gluten to meet legal limits.

I used to work at a local craft brewery that did a contract beer for a different brewer. It was labeled at Gluten Free.
But new regulations, regarding beer, were put in place so now, legally, beer cannot be labeled at Gluten Free under any circumstances.

**Unless
1. The ingredients are Gluten Free.
2. The gluten free ingredients are housed in a separate facility as the regular ingredients.
3. The beer is brewed on separate brewing equipment with no cross contamination.
4. There are regular inspection by the federal gluten police. Just like the inspector that comes in monthly to certify Organic ingredients.


Needless to say, they canceled that contract because all of these requirements were completely impossible.