WayneB

Wayne I have brewed 2 beers this way. The first recipe we used 7 lbs Briess.

This time we used 9 1/2 lbs.

Check out byo.com for a gluten free recipe, that is where I got mine. We made the first recipe listed as is. Kinda weak. That is why the second recipe we used more syrup. We mixed up the hops.

I am on my laptop and it takes me too long to type so I will respond to this when I can sit at my regular keyboard and a mouse.

Barb, thank you very much for the info. That is helpful. Regard, Wayne

Hello,

Surfing the web I found that Briess sells a malted extract syrup made from sorghum. Supposedly it can be used as a 1:1 replacement for barley malt extract in beer recipes. Has anyone tried this material and if so can you recommend a recipe?

Regards,

Wayne

Hi,

Just bought a six-pack of Redbridge from Wild Oats in Portland, ME. At $8.29 per pack, it is still expensive beer, not much cheaper than Bard's. It taste better than Bard's IMO. Bard's has too much of a "syrup" taste for me. I hope all the gluten-free beer suppliers will start to force the prices down.

Wayne

I recently read on the web that Anheuser Busch is coming out with a gluten-free beer called "Red Bridge Sorghum" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Does anyone know if this beer is available in Maine or New Hampshire? :

-Finnish Brewery Makes World's First Gluten-Free Malt Beer Finnish brewery Laitilan said it had made the world's first malt beer that does not contain gluten, a substance found in wheat and other grains that provokes a serious allergic reaction in millions of people around the world. "Until recently, real beers have been prohibited from celiac (gluten-intolerant) patients' diet ... Today they are allowed to enjoy the full-malt Kukko Pils beer from Laitilan brewery," the company said in a statement. "Laitilan Kukko Pils is the world's first ever full-malt beer brand to receive the international gluten-free product trademark," it added. Gluten intolerance, or celiac disease, is a chronic nutritional disturbance caused by the inability to metabolize gluten, which is found in all wheat, rye, barley and oat products. The disorder, which can only be controlled by completely eliminating gluten from one's diet, can result in malnutrition, a distended abdomen and heightens the risk of cancer. Obtaining the gluten-free product trademark "opens up new sales channels abroad," Laitilan managing director Rami Aarikka said in the statement, pointing out that as many as one percent of Europeans and Americans suffer from celiac disease. "We intend to commence exports as soon as we've gathered the right partners," he added

If a daily pill could be developed to counter celiac disease, that would be a major breakthrough. I would pay $50/month easy. That wouldn't be much to live a normal life.

I am really surprised by some of the earlier replies. A pill would make my life easier as well as my spouse's. Travel would be easier on business trips and it would be great just to have a cold Miller Lite again !!!!

Has anyone tried Amstel Light ? Any problems?

I have noticed that Heineken USA has taken their "gluten-free" claim in the FAQ section off their website.

Wayne

Does anyone know if 8th Continent soy milk is gluten-free ??

Tnx, Wayne (Mainer living in exile)

I have written three letters to Heineken asking to clarify their testing methods and have not received a response.

My gut tells me that they tested for wheat gluten protein and not barley gluten protein. They don't use wheat in their beer and they tested for contamination of the wheat gluten protein and found only 5 ppm and thus concluded they are gluten-free (thinking that only wheat is the problem).

However, they use barley and my guess is that they never tested for barley gluten protein (hordein) and as such I would recommend that you stay away from their beer or others based on barley.

Heineken, Amstel Light, other barley beers are not gluten free until tests can prove that levels of hordein or residues are below the Codex standard of <20ppm or the WHO standard of <200ppm...... whatever standard you use.

Wayne

Mentor, OH (Mainer living in exile)

I recently read that Codex ratings for gluten-free products is gluten content of <20 ppm OR that total nitrogen content is less than .05g/100g on a dry basis. There may not be a lot of dry solids in a beer after evaporation and with filtering of cold beer to clarify perhaps a good portion of the nitrogen containing peptides are removed.

So if a beer manufacturer can test for nitrogen content (perhaps GC/Mass spec or Soxlet extraction ?) and it is less than .05/100g on a dry solids then the product can be rated as "gluten-free". It may not matter that hordein protein is broken down into soluble peptides since the peptides will be the major source of nitrogen and if less than .05/100g, then the product can be rated as gluten-free.

Perhaps with beer formulation and filtering, one can achieve nitrogen content below the standard. A question I would have is how many beers does one have to have before he/she is over the standard. If Heineken USA can provide what the nitrogen content is per beer...... well, that would be helpful.

I have asked Amstel Light if this is how they measured their product to determine that it is below the standard as they have stated and have not received a response yet. When I do I'll share with the message board.

Wayne (Mainer living in exile)

I drink Yingpu Black Rice Beer a couple times a week with no ill effects. With gluten containing foods, I normally have stomach pain, swollen nasal passages, and red eyes. After drinking Yingpu, I never have any of these symptoms. This doesn't mean it is safe for celiacs. Yingpu is available in the Cleveland area.

I don't know if Yingpu has any barley in it. No ingredients are listed on the bottles or package. The distributor claims it is low in gluten (they say so because they can't guarantee no cross-contamination).

A recent post by Bard's Beer suggests that any beer containing barley is potentially unsafe. However, as suggested in an earlier article posted to celiac.com, Codex ratings allow 20ppm of gluten and the recent research study based on biopsy analysis shows that 200pm is tolerable on average to celiacs. With that said, is it true that celiacs cannot tolerate low levels of barley in Amstel Light or perhaps Yingpu?

As I suggested before, until there is research showing hordein levels vs biopsy results, we may not really know if some level of hordein peptides are tolerable. As always, results will vary depending on individuals. This is just an opinion since I am not a molecular biologist or medical researcher etc.

All I do know is that most gluten-free foods may have as much as 20 ppm gluten so don't believe you are not getting any gluten. That is why the research was done in the first place to determine what levels of gluten can be tolerated and based on biopsy results the researchers determined that 200 ppm seemed appropriate. Hence, perhaps low levels of gluten in beer is ok but hordein proteins are structurally different than hordein peptides. So until there is research showing hordein peptides vs biopsy results we can't say that low levels in beer is good ....or bad.

Too articles posted to Celiac.com may provide some direction (or add to the confusion) concerning gluten-free beer. The first teaches about hordein polypetide residues from beer made from barley and the second teaches that low levels of gluten may be tolerated by celiacs. The truth is probably somewhere in between but until there is definitive reseach showing the link between polypetide residues in beer and the resultant effect on biopsy analysis we may never truely know. Please see the following articles both of which are posted on Celiac.com:

1. The following comments were written by Donald D. Kasarda who is a research chemist in the Crop Improvement and Utilization Research Unit of the United States Department of Agriculture. If you have any questions or comments regarding the piece, you can address them to Don at: kasarda@pw.usda.gov.

The reason that this doesn't make sense for celiac patients has to do with the digestion of the barley hordeins, the proteins that are similar to wheat gliadins in barley. During the malting and fermentation processes, the barley hordeins are broken down into smaller pieces called peptides. It is true that no intact hordein proteins can generally be found in beer. However, the smaller pieces of these proteins resulting from enzymatic digestion are often quite water soluble so that they remain in the beer throughout the complete processing to the final product. (Remember that beer is not a distilled product as are whiskey or vodka. Filtration of the beer will not remove these small water-soluble hordein polypeptides.) A barley hordein might have a polypeptide chain including 300 amino acids in its sequence, yet it is reasonably well established by experiments that polypeptides with as few as 13 amino acid residues in the chain can still retain toxicity for celiac patients. These small pieces of the original proteins can (and do) have very different properties from the original larger proteins. In the strict sense, Sapporo is correct that there are no more intact hordeins in their beer. What they cannot claim is that there are no hordein peptides in the beer that might harm celiac patients.

There is some evidence from analytical methods involving antibodies prepared to gliadins that there are peptides in beer that react with these antibodies. It is not proved beyond any doubt that the peptides in beer are actually toxic to celiac patients, but it is quite possible that the peptides remaining in any barley-based or wheat-based beer, Sapporo included, are harmful to celiac patients. The amount of harmful peptides, if they are present, is likely to be small, but there is no satisfactory analytical data, in my opinion, that defines the amount exactly. So it could be in a range that would be harmful to a celiac patient drinking beer on a regular basis. My guess is, and I emphasize that I can't back this up with scientific results, that a glass of beer once every few months would not do lasting harm to the average celiac patient. By average celiac patient, I mean those who have no obvious allergic character to their disease and do not notice any immediate reaction when they ingest gluten.

2. Trace Amounts of Gluten Acceptable in the Treatment of Celiac Disease See your ad here!

T-Shirts:

Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics, Volume 19 Issue 12 Page 1277 - June 2004

Celiac.com 06/28/2004

Is there any truth to the claims that oral papain can breakdown gluten in the digestive track as claimed in the following link?

Open Original Shared Link

Has anyone tried this and does it work? Any doctors' expert opinion please?

Wayne in Ohio

Hello,

Does anyone know if Heavenly Ham is gluten-free?

Regards,

Wayne

Hello,

I am curious if anyone knows with certainty whether or not casein can damage intestine villi in a similar manner as gluten. I have heard that casein structure chemically is similar to gluten. One should not "cheat" with gluten containing foods but can one "cheat" with casein? I have casein sensitivity as well as gluten and casein only causes nasal swelling and upper repiratory issues... nothing serious. So I am curious to know if cheating is allowed with casein.

Regards,

Wayne