A Question About Alcohol

[hannahp57]

My husband was looking up safe alcohol for me to drink. He prefers beer which is made with wheat if i understand correctly. Anyway, he read that any distilled liquor is safe, even if made with a gluten containing grain. Does anyone know if this is true. What do you drink without any ill effects? Also how do you find out if a drink is distilled or not? I am thinking beer is still unsafe but i dont mind that. yuck

[Youdah]

My husband was looking up safe alcohol for me to drink. He prefers beer which is made with wheat if i understand correctly. Anyway, he read that any distilled liquor is safe, even if made with a gluten containing grain. Does anyone know if this is true. What do you drink without any ill effects? Also how do you find out if a drink is distilled or not? I am thinking beer is still unsafe but i dont mind that. yuck

I would check the ingredients. I've also heard that the gluten molecules are too large to "get through" the distillation process. But, I don't buy it (no pun intended). I've had gluten reactions with grain made alcohols, esp. vodkas. So, I stick to those vodkas made with potato instead of wheat which are usually high-end Polish vodkas. Wines are usually OK for me, and some wine coolers. I've never heard of a beer that isn't made with gluten, otherwise it wouldn't be beer? If I were you, I'd check the websites and ingredients and don't depend on something made with gluten to NOT give you a reaction. Of course, if you are one of those, like me, who knows within an hour when I've had anything with gluten in it, because I get sick, then you can always "taste test" it, and find out the "hard way" which ones you can tolerate. My experiences with gluten demand that I stay as far away from the stuff as I possibly can...don't even like to walk down aisles in the grocery store with lots of gluten products...but that may be going overboard a little? I think you get my point, though. Good luck!

[psawyer]

Beverage alcohol made from wheat is relatively uncommon.

Most beer is fermented from barley. There are some gluten-free beers available which are made from other grains.

Distilled spirits are made through fermentation, and then the resulting mash is distilled. Most celiacs are able to consume distilled alcohol (and distilled vinegar) without issue, regardless of the original source. A minority have difficulty when the source is a gluten grain. This may be because gluten molecules in minute quantities can pass into the distillate, or it may be because their bodies recognize fragments of the amino acid chain which remain from broken-down gluten. We don't really know.

For a gluten-free, widely available, reasonably priced vodka, consider Smirnoff. It is 100% corn based.

Rum is gluten-free as well, with the possible exception of flavored/spiced versions.

[Lisa]

Here is some information that might be helpful:

https://www.celiac.com/articles/222/1/Glute...ages/Page1.html

[hannahp57]

thanks for the help! its so hard to find a list of ingredients for some things...