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Gluten-Free Beer
For beer lovers with celiac disease, also called gluten intolerance, the gluten that appears in most common brewing grains, including barley, wheat, and rye, can make a glass of beer a dangerous proposition. Luckily, there are grains that don't contain gluten, and they can be used to make beer as well. Some celiac sufferers have started homebrewing simply so that they could have beer again, and some commercial breweries have also started creating low-gluten beer or gluten-free beer for this growing market.
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Types of Gluten-Free Beer
There are two approaches to brewing gluten-free beer; true gluten-free brewing, in which no barley or wheat protein is introduced into the brewing process in the first place, and low-gluten brewing, in which enough adjuncts are used to ensure that most of the problem proteins have been converted in the mash.
For example, ordinary Budweiser, with a light body and a high proportion of non-gluten-bearing rice adjuncts, has a relatively low gluten level. Whether this is acceptable, or whether a true no-gluten beer is needed, depends on the individual's tolerance.
Brewing Gluten-Free Beer
In making a true gluten-free beer, the first challenge is gluten-free malt. The most common grains used in gluten-free recipes are buckwheat and sorghum, which are not easily available in malted form. Home brewers generally have to malt their own. Unless the home maltster is especially skilled, this also limits the malt types available, with the result that most homebrewed gluten-free beers tend to rely very heavily on pale base malts.
Competition Styles
The BJCP does not define a style for low-gluten or gluten-free beers; they should be entered either in the base style category to which they belong, if the gluten level does not detract from the flavor and mouthfeel of the beer, or in the Specialty Beer category.
The GABF defines a single style encompassing only true zero-gluten beers, which can otherwise be in any style.
GABF Style Listings
Gluten Free Beer
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| A beer (lager, ale or other) that is made from fermentable sugars, grains and converted carbohydrates. Ingredients do not contain gluten, in other words zero gluten (No barley, wheat, spelt, oats, rye, etc). May or may not contain malted grains that do not contain gluten. Brewers design and identify these beers along other style guidelines with regard to flavor, aroma and appearance profile. In competitions, brewers identify ingredients and fermentation type. NOTE: If a beer uses ingredients, which contain gluten, but the finished beer, because of special processing, contains zero gluten then the beer can be classified as gluten-free beer for the purposes of these guidelines. These guidelines do not supercede any government regulations. The brewer may identify the ingredients used to make the beer, and also the classic beer style most closely being approximated (if there is one) with regard to flavor, aroma and appearance, to allow for accurate judging. |
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