Clarity-Ferm, Gluten Testing, and Gluten Sensitivity

[JMath]

I agree, it's best to stay away from it completely, even if you can't feel a small amount. That includes gluten reduced beer. You don't know what internal damage you're doing.

 

[brewGF]

I would definitely be curious to see your results after the extended time.

I don't get GI symptoms, so I can't tell when I get glutened and can only go by bloodwork or endoscopy (which ive had). Thus, I've been too nervous to experiment with clarity ferm.

How did you determine you have celiac? Just curious

 

[skleice]

How did you determine you have celiac? Just curious

My annual physical revealed that I was severely anemic. I felt fine, but apparently had no iron in my blood. Hematologist discovered the antibodies. Confirmed with endoscopy.

I don't think this was going on very long. Endoscopy showed I still had some villi intact and my blood levels/antibodies returned to normal within 5 months of GF diet. Life has a sense of humor...

 

[LittleRiver]

How did you determine you have celiac? ...

First step is a blood test. If that is positive then endoscopic inspection to verify.

 

[brewGF]

My annual physical revealed that I was severely anemic. I felt fine, but apparently had no iron in my blood. Hematologist discovered the antibodies. Confirmed with endoscopy.

I don't think this was going on very long. Endoscopy showed I still had some villi intact and my blood levels/antibodies returned to normal within 5 months of GF diet. Life has a sense of humor...

Thanks for sharing, very interesting. I had a skin rash that you can only get if you have celiac. I figured it out myself and confirmed through bloodwork, skin biopsy, and endoscopy. My lousy docs kept prescribing ointment. They have been fired.

 

[The World Without]

First, thanks for going to all the trouble of making such a substantive post....
I note that you updated this post in 2013 - are you, or anybody else similarly qualified, aware of any recent developments which might be informative for the community at large?

 

[beekgeek]

I'm new to CD (diagnosed a few weeks ago) and the world of GF brewing. I've been reading as much as I can find on the topic, including the debate regarding gluten free vs gluten reduced brewing. My take-away on PEP enzymes (Clarity Ferm) to break down gluten, is that the peptide chains are a lot smaller (small enough to avoid ELISHA detection) but potentially still large enough to trigger the antibody reaction in some of the population with CD and related conditions. From what I can see, there's been pretty limited investigation of residual gluten fragments in GR beers. One study used liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to demonstrate that the gluten remnants varied widely between GR beers.

This 2017 academic article looked at the reaction to gluten reduced beer in a control (non-CD) group and a group with active CD. Using blood serum from the study participants they looked at antibody reactions to rice (a negative control), barley flour, barley-based beer, a GF (sorghum, non-barley) beer, and a gluten reduced barley beer.

In the study, 35% of the CD group (11 of 31) had an antibody reaction to barley. Of those, four had an antibody reaction to "regular" (barley) beer, and two still had a reaction to the gluten reduced beer. None of the subjects (their serum) reacted to the GF beer. This is a lab study with a relatively small sample size. Is 2 out of 31 (6% of the CD group) representative of the population at large? Is the blood serum antibody test a good indicator of the potential remaining gluten protein that could have negative impact on people with CD and related issues? (Does no antibody reaction mean no harm?)

Without accurate and personalized antibody testing, I get the sense it would be pretty difficult to determine which group you fall into.

It would be great to see some more research on this (with or without support from companies like White Labs or DSM -- who I think manufactures Clarex). I would personally like to know if GR reduced beers are OK for me rather than just going closing the barley brewing door forever because of a better-safe-than-sorry approach.

 

[brews2gf]

I'm new to CD (diagnosed a few weeks ago) and the world of GF brewing. I've been reading as much as I can find on the topic, including the debate regarding gluten free vs gluten reduced brewing. My take-away on PEP enzymes (Clarity Ferm) to break down gluten, is that the peptide chains are a lot smaller (small enough to avoid ELISHA detection) but potentially still large enough to trigger the antibody reaction in some of the population with CD and related conditions. From what I can see, there's been pretty limited investigation of residual gluten fragments in GR beers. One study used liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to demonstrate that the gluten remnants varied widely between GR beers.

This 2017 academic article looked at the reaction to gluten reduced beer in a control (non-CD) group and a group with active CD. Using blood serum from the study participants they looked at antibody reactions to rice (a negative control), barley flour, barley-based beer, a GF (sorghum, non-barley) beer, and a gluten reduced barley beer.

In the study, 35% of the CD group (11 of 31) had an antibody reaction to barley. Of those, four had an antibody reaction to "regular" (barley) beer, and two still had a reaction to the gluten reduced beer. None of the subjects (their serum) reacted to the GF beer. This is a lab study with a relatively small sample size. Is 2 out of 31 (6% of the CD group) representative of the population at large? Is the blood serum antibody test a good indicator of the potential remaining gluten protein that could have negative impact on people with CD and related issues? (Does no antibody reaction mean no harm?)

Without accurate and personalized antibody testing, I get the sense it would be pretty difficult to determine which group you fall into.

It would be great to see some more research on this (with or without support from companies like White Labs or DSM -- who I think manufactures Clarex). I would personally like to know if GR reduced beers are OK for me rather than just going closing the barley brewing door forever because of a better-safe-than-sorry approach.

Resurrecting due to referring a friend to this thread and seeing this post.

To answer your question ^, I was fine drinking most gluten-reduced beers for a couple years (reacted sometimes to Omission and Stone's, but not Brunehaut or Glutiny, e.g.). I got into home brewing because of this barley+clarity-ferm-induced hope. However, after months of having 1 or 2 CF home-brews a day with no symptoms, I suddenly developed pharolaryngeal reflux and had a horribly sore throat (like I thought I had cancer or something). I took meds, eliminating any clarex/clarity ferm beer, and a few months to heal. Now I react if I have even commercial gluten-reduced beers with any consistency.

My point is that I thought I was one of the lucky Celiacs who would be ok because I was asymptomatic for so long. I'd caution against your mission to determine if you're one of these Celiacs because the only way to find out is through damage that takes a while to reverse. For the long term, you should probably go ahead and plunge into the zero-tolerance GF world. It's pretty great and only getting better.

FWIW, on a long enough time scale, you will probably have a reaction. That study didn't take into account repeated dosage over time, which would be a more informative approach.

Whatever you do, please post here so we can benefit from the knowledge of your experience.

 

[aussie brewer]

Has anyone sent their clarity ferm beers off for testing?

 

[noiz2]

People have tested GR and found greatly reduced to undetectable levels. BUT as brews2gf points out that may not be the whole story. I have not tried brewing a zero gluten beer because I haven't had to, yet, but the reports I have heard is that while generally a bit more expensive of ingredients the gf beers people are brewing now are great. Not long ago the gluten free beers were pretty awful usually, but a lot of experimentation has led to a vast improvement. I do use clarity ferm when I am brewing for an event because it's inexpensive and enough people were really happy to have RG beer available. I don't use it in wheat beers because from what I have read it doesn't have that much affect, or maybe you just need to dump a lot in? I don't generally use it for beers I keep at home.

 

[xflibble]

Has anyone sent their clarity ferm beers off for testing?

Again, this:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fo...st-to-make-sure-your-beer-is-gluten-free/amp/

Please don't give Clarity Ferm beers to Coeliacs.

 

[Godot]

Sorry, your link is broken. Could you repost, please?

Again, this:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fo...st-to-make-sure-your-beer-is-gluten-free/amp/

Please don't give Clarity Ferm beers to Coeliacs.

 

[BrentinArkansas]

First beer made with clarity firm. My son had zero reaction. We started off with 2 ounces. Went to six. …..12 oz bottle. We waited 5 days between tests. Last test was 48 ounces. zero problems. Not scientific prob, but we are very hopeful.

 

[skleice]

First beer made with clarity firm. My son had zero reaction. We started off with 2 ounces. Went to six. …..12 oz bottle. We waited 5 days between tests. Last test was 48 ounces. zero problems. Not scientific prob, but we are very hopeful.

Only way to tell is with a colonosopy after an extended period of time.