Where to find Gluten-Free Beer - written by Dennis Visionaire

Where to find Gluten-Free Beer

Many people suffer allergies to gluten or have diseases, such as Celiac, where they must eat gluten-free products. Gluten is one of the hardest food ingredients in the world to avoid. It is in everything from bread to pasta to cereal. Gluten is also in beer.

That's because most beer is made with water, barley, hops and yeast. Those are the four absolutely primary ingredients in just about any beer.. They are so important to brewing quality beer that the Germany's purity law, which existed for five hundred years or more, ending in 1989, specifically indicated that nothing else could added to the recipe if it was to be called beer.

So gluten-free beers have not been exactly jumping into the marketplace. Until recently it has been hard to locate beers that did not have some form of grain containing gluten. If you were gluten intolerant, the only choice was to stop drinking beer or settle for one made from sorghum, which were not readily available. Sorghum is a grass often used in African beers. Buckwheat was another option but not a good one, especially for beer lovers in the United States. Buckwheat originated in China.

With the advent of hundreds of small craft brewers across the country, the options for finding gluten-free beer are now much better. Smaller brewers are more apt than larger ones to come out with a product with non-mainstream ingredients that serves a specific population. Let's take a look at a few beers that are gluten-free and don't taste too shabby either.

Bard's Tale Beer has two major gluten-free beers and a distribution that covers more than twenty states, mostly in the eastern part of the United States. Dragon's Gold is made with water, hops, yeast, and sorghum, combined with a mix of buckwheat, rice, corn and honey. They may use more ingredients in their formula for gluten-free beer than anyone else. While Dragon's Gold is their premiere non-gluten brew, they also produce a second gluten-free brand is called Tavern Ale.

If you are looking for a Kosher gluten-free beer, try Honey Passover Beer, brewed by Ramapo Valley Brewery in New York State. This beer is made with water, Kosher yeast hops, molasses and honey. They are the only Kosher brewery in the United States.

Anheuser-Busch's Merrimack, New Hampshire brewery, which makes its organic ales, is also now producing a gluten-free beer. It is named Redbridge and it is available throughout the United States. This gluten-free Anheuser-Busch lager beer is made without barley or wheat. They use sorghum instead.

In Milwaukee, you can find two gluten-free beers, made by the Sprecher Brewery. Originally made for an African festival, they use millet and sorghum like most African beers. The are names Mbege Ale and Shakparo Ale.

If you want to find non-U.S.-brewed gluten-free beers, just look to the United Kingdom, Canada and the Netherlands. There are probably another dozen gluten-free beers created by brewers in these countries. They all import beer into the United States but are best found in major cities.

and#8232;�