Crafted from Chestnuts New Zealand's Cheslic Lager is a Gluten-Free Beer Winner

Celiac.com 02/23/2018 - A quest to brew gluten-free beer from chestnuts that started as a lark and developed into an obsession has resulted in a proper, award-winning lager.

Christchurch brewer Hamish Jones will tell you that his quest to brew gluten-free beer from chestnuts began about six years ago, in an effort to please beer-loving cousin with celiac disease. A few years later, in 2016, Jones started The Nuts Brewing Co., and Jones' Cheslic Lager was born.

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Cheslic is a naturally crafted chestnut lager. Recently this unique brew won the Morton Coutts Trophy, presented by the Brewers Guild for outstanding innovation or achievement in the NZ brewing industry.

Judges commended Jones' innovation in creating a beer that "appeals to a growing section of society who have been deprived of beer and forced to drink only wine and cider".

"Although chestnuts have been used as an adjunct in beer for some time, the use of them without any barley, to produce a gluten-free beer on a commercial scale, is a worldwide first and furthermore the nuts are locally grown," the trophy citation said.

Jones said that, even though brewing with chestnuts was a fickle business, the resulting product is "not as bitter, it's slightly closer tasting to cider than it is to beer." Jones has other plans to produce other gluten-free beers, including a five per cent pale ale.

Currently, Cheslic is stocked in a range of local New Zealand retailers in Christchurch, including Fresh Choice in Parklands and Merivale, New World South City, The Beer Library, The Bottle-O Elmwood and various others.

Stay tuned for more great stories about gluten-free beer breakthroughs worldwide.

Source:

• stuff.co.nz