Beer Mystery - What's In It?

[munchkinette]

Here's a little mystery. Beer was the first thing with gluten to ever make me sick, back in high school, so I know NOTHING about it.

My boyfriend is allergic to beer, especially Guinness. He can drink Miller Light, and that's about it, but he gets crazy itchy with most other beer. He doesn't have a gluten issue as far as he knows. What else might be the culprit? We've been brainstorming, but I don't know enough about varieties of beer to figure it out.

[Jestgar]

Most beers are made with malted barley, hops, and yeast. There can be a few other things thrown in for flavor, but those are the basics. Some of the "light" beers substitute corn syrup, or rice syrup, for the more flavorful barley malt syrup.

Miller light appears to use corn

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I believe Budweiser uses rice.

[munchkinette]

Hmm, I checked out some things related to that link. Apparently there are two types of yeasts used in beers - top fermenting (ales, Guiness) and bottom fermenting (lagers). I don't know anything about the yeast allergies people on this forum have, since it's never been an issue for me.

[Jestgar]

It seems weird that he would have an allergy to only one strain of yeast, but then again, who knows. I sorta think it would be the increased proteins in the darker beer. While I was looking I also saw that Miller uses a weird mix of clarifying agents, so maybe it's "cleaner".

He could try a wheat beer, and see what happens.