Sunday, January 14, 2007

Gluten-free Beer? Guzzle Away!

It's been awhile since I've devoted space to the celiac dining experience (though I have been busy compiling new favorites for my gluten-friendly restaurant list!) Luckily, though, it seems others are taking care of that for me--today's Sunday Globe ran a great article on gluten-free beer.

Now, I know GF beer has been around for awhile--I've even tried a few brands, despite being more of a cider girl myself--but what is important about this is that the beer, Redbridge, is prodcued by Anheuser-Busch. In other words, we're mainstream! Gluten-free options for the millions of Americans living with celiac disease have come a long way since the dark days of even a decade ago, when no one had heard of the disease and grocery store shelves were lined only with forbidden foods. We've seen gluten-free pretzels and breads, gluten-free baking mixes and soy sauces, etc--it makes sense that to open up the gluten-free market to include alcohol. Cheers!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

As a beer-lover living with celiac disease, I applaud companies like Anheuser-Busch for finally coming up with a gluten-free beer! I suspect that they will be rewarded for their efforts as there is quite a market for the product, certainly here in Ireland, where a high percentage of the population have the disease.
Cheers,
Bernard

Anonymous said...

I spent so much energy grumbling about Anheuser-Busch seemingly taking credit for inventing gluten free beer that I hadn't considered it from this perspective. You make a very good point that now A-B is brewing it, it is more mainstream.

There are a lot of gluten free beers out there. I haven't covered them much on my site but Carolyn Smagalski's excellent beer page at BellaOnline.com has quite a lot of information about it. If you haven't already you should read her Celiac's Guide to Gluten Free Beer.

Mike Eberhart said...

I finally just got hold of my first Redbridge (just found it at super-Walmart of all places). I wrote a gluten-free beer comparison blog entry last September, comparing New Grist and Bard's Tale, and at the time, Bard's (to me) was the best. After just trying the Redbridge, I must say, it is quite good.

I may lean slightly towards prefering Redbridge over even Bard's now - I think the A-B product may be a bit less bitter or a bit more sweet or something. Amazing! And, GF! Anoter step towards normalcy for all us gluten-free persons.

Anonymous said...

I really love your columns on gluten-free food and dining. I have always considered myself something of a foodie, and when I was diagnosed with celiacs last year I became quite despondent, thinking of all the foods that I would no longer be able to enjoy. Fortunately, things aren't at all as bleak as I had imagined! I really appreciate your entries on living a full but gluten-free life! Now, when are you going to post that gluten-friendly restaurant list!?!?!?

 
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