When avoiding gluten for health-related reasons, it can be a serious struggle to know if something is completely safe to consume. And as a wheat-based product, beer appears on many lists as a hard no for drinkers avoiding gluten. But similar to the advancements companies have made with other gluten-free products — including bread itself — brewers have made great strides in perfecting the process of producing good suds sans gluten. Still, it can still be tricky to spot when a beer is totally gluten-free, as there are several different processes to reduce gluten in the final product. That’s why VinePair tapped Kelly McKnight, the satellite lead brewer at New Belgium brewery — which crafts both normal and gluten-free beers — to help decipher the different types of gluten-free brews and clarify if any beer can be truly gluten-free.
McKnight says that it’s important to distinguish between two main styles of gluten-conscious brew: gluten-free beer and gluten-reduced beer. “Gluten-free beers are brewed with gluten-free ingredients from the beginning,” McKnight explains. “Gluten-reduced beers are brewed with things such as malted barley that do have gluten in them. Then, brewers use certain enzymes added to the mash or at other points in the process that cleave gluten proteins below 20 ppm and make them easier for people with gluten sensitivity to process.” So while beers totally devoid of gluten are made from atypical ingredients not including wheat, gluten-reduced beers are made normally then chemically modified. Making 100 percent gluten-free beers is quite rigorous,
