Made some gluten-free beer...
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2014 3:23 pm
I was talking about this to some of the folks at the February meetup, but now that it's done I figured I'd post here with my results.
Background: my fiancee is a Celiac so she's unable to have any of my beer, plus there's not many brands of gluten-free beer available in Nova Scotia that don't taste like crap. I had heard of some brands that (rathan making beer out of non-gluten containing grains like rice and millet) were making regular beer from barley and then putting it through some form of process that removed/reduced the gluten levels (ex: Omission and Estrella Damm Daura (both of which she's had before and loves and has had no ill effects), so I did some research.
I picked up a vial of White Labs Clarity Ferm (aka Brewer's Clarax) online. The process was simple: add a 5mL vial (per 5 gal batch) into the wort when you pitch your yeast. I made an IPA, added the vial when I pitched yeast (although the Clarity Ferm directions state to use a liquid White Labs yeast, I used Safale US-05), and let it do its thing. However since I wasn't sure how well it was going to work, and didn't feel like asking my fiancee to be my guinea pig and just blindly try and and see if she got sick, I ordered a gluten test kit online so I could see if it was lower than 20 ppm (FDA standard for "gluten free").
After fermenting for about 2 weeks, I transferred it to a keg and pulled a small sample to test - I tested it twice, first at 20ppm (and it passed) and then again at 5ppm (which it also passed!) At this point, Kim drank a small glass (even though it was warm and uncarbonated) she pronounced it good and did not get sick! Test successful!
Negative (for gluten) test result!
I'm aware that currently the FDA/TTB does not allow brewers to label beer made using this technique as "gluten free" until the science is completely validated and it's proven that the enzyme's effect causes no long-term damage for people who have Celiac; instead they must state that it's been "crafted to remove gluten" and "was made from a grain that contains gluten and there is currently no valid test to verify the gluten content of fermented products", but it seems to be working well for Omission and this experiment was successful for us - we'll be continuing to use this to make the occasional gluten-free batch.
Background: my fiancee is a Celiac so she's unable to have any of my beer, plus there's not many brands of gluten-free beer available in Nova Scotia that don't taste like crap. I had heard of some brands that (rathan making beer out of non-gluten containing grains like rice and millet) were making regular beer from barley and then putting it through some form of process that removed/reduced the gluten levels (ex: Omission and Estrella Damm Daura (both of which she's had before and loves and has had no ill effects), so I did some research.
I picked up a vial of White Labs Clarity Ferm (aka Brewer's Clarax) online. The process was simple: add a 5mL vial (per 5 gal batch) into the wort when you pitch your yeast. I made an IPA, added the vial when I pitched yeast (although the Clarity Ferm directions state to use a liquid White Labs yeast, I used Safale US-05), and let it do its thing. However since I wasn't sure how well it was going to work, and didn't feel like asking my fiancee to be my guinea pig and just blindly try and and see if she got sick, I ordered a gluten test kit online so I could see if it was lower than 20 ppm (FDA standard for "gluten free").
After fermenting for about 2 weeks, I transferred it to a keg and pulled a small sample to test - I tested it twice, first at 20ppm (and it passed) and then again at 5ppm (which it also passed!) At this point, Kim drank a small glass (even though it was warm and uncarbonated) she pronounced it good and did not get sick! Test successful!
Negative (for gluten) test result!
I'm aware that currently the FDA/TTB does not allow brewers to label beer made using this technique as "gluten free" until the science is completely validated and it's proven that the enzyme's effect causes no long-term damage for people who have Celiac; instead they must state that it's been "crafted to remove gluten" and "was made from a grain that contains gluten and there is currently no valid test to verify the gluten content of fermented products", but it seems to be working well for Omission and this experiment was successful for us - we'll be continuing to use this to make the occasional gluten-free batch.
