Beer of the Week – New Grist Gluten-Free

As most beer drinkers are aware, their favourite beverage is generally made using just four ingredients: malted barley, hops, yeast and water. There are exceptions, of course: from finely crafted Belgian ales brewed with the addition of unique spices or fruit, to industrial lagers that are adulterated with adjuncts like corn or rice. But for most of the world's beer styles, that quartet of ingredients is all that's needed whether you're making a light and delicate pilsner, a big and robust Imperial stout, or anything in between. It's just a question of selecting the correct types of malt, hops, yeast and water to create the final product.

One of the problems with that traditional beer recipe, though, is that barley, like wheat and other related grains, contains gluten, which puts beer made with barley off-limits for anyone who suffers from coeliac disease. Also known as gluten intolerance, coeliac disease is becoming more common and better diagnosed every year, and in turn, a relatively large segment of the specialty food industry has been spawned to cater to those who have the condition. Gluten-free bread, cookies and many other baked products can be found in pretty much every health food store and even some larger groceries. And in recent years, breweries - mainly in the US and Europe - have entered the gluten-free market by crafting beers using alternative fermentable grains in place of barley.

Here in Canada, the only brewery that currently makes gluten-free beer is Quebec's Les Bières de la Nouvelle-France, who offer a light ale made with buckwheat and rice called La Messagère. Unfortunately, it's pretty dreadful, tasting more like a wine spritzer or light cider than a proper beer. (Their second gluten-free beer, the darker and more flavourful La Messagère Rousse, is moderately better, but not available in Ontario).

South of the border, however, coeliacs who want to enjoy a couple of cold ones have a few more options to choose from. A number of local and regional breweries have versions brewed using an assortment of different ingredients, and even Anheuser-Busch InBev, the multinational brewing behemoth that owns Budweiser, Labatt and hundreds of other brands, has gotten in on the action with Redbridge, a lager brewed using sorghum.

The first American company to bring a gluten-free beer to market was Lakefront Brewery, a microbrewery in Milwaukee that was already known for their pioneering work in the area of organic beer. They test marketed their gluten-free product, New Grist, in late 2005, but they weren't allowed to call it a "beer" until the following year when they convinced the government to change legislation that said beer had to be made with a minimum of 25% malted barley.

The primary ingredient in New Grist is sorghum, the same grain used in Redbridge and several other gluten-free brews. The use of sorghum in beer is common in southern Africa, where it's even used in a version of Guinness brewed in Nigeria, but it's only been with the development of the gluten-free market that it's come into more common use in beer in other countries. A small amount of rice is also used in the recipe, along with a special strain of yeast grown on molasses, ensuring that it is also completely free of gluten. And as of a couple of months ago, it's available at the LCBO (LCBO 119370 - $13.95/6x355 mL).

So it's obviously suitable for coeliacs, but what about people simply looking for a decent beer? Well, it certainly looks like one in the glass - bright golden with a small white head - but the aroma is another story. On first whiff, it's oddly reminiscent of pizza crust, i.e. doughy with Italian herbs, then it develops a vague fruit character. The lack of barley becomes very apparent in the body, which is thin to the point of being almost non-existent, and also in the flavour, which has none of the elements that would come from the use of malted barley. Instead, there's a nondescript sweetness that is neither sugary nor caramelly, followed by a mildly sour graininess and hints of overripe apple. Hops are supposedly present, but are pretty much undetectable in the flavour.

By the end of the glass, I decide that New Grist isn't a bad beverage, but it's not a particularly great one either. I'll give it credit for being interesting, though, and if I had to choose between it and La Messagère, then New Grist would get the nod. But as long as I remain lucky enough to be able to properly process gluten, I can't see any reason or need for me to drink either of them again, and I'm more than okay with that.