Month: May 2015

Pilsner beer style is the most common in Germany. Around 50% of the beer lovers prefer Pilsner rather than the many other styles like Weissbier (wheat beer), Lager, Helles etc.

Krombacher is the second best selling beer in Germany. It is actually quite good, nothing special but not bad at all. Due to smart marketing e.g. in football, handball, hockey and basketball it is one of the few brands which grow.

Beer: Krombacher Pils
Producer: Krombacher Brauerei
Originating country: Germany
Brewing location: Germany
Bottle size: 0.5 l = approx. 16 Oz.
Alcohol by volume: 4.8%
Ingredients: water, barley malt, hops, hops extract
Miscellaneous: –

Test Kit: GlutenTox Home Kit

I tested with a threshold of 5 ppm. The limit of detection depends on the number of drops taken from the extraction solution, please find some more information here.

Test result: There is no indication of the presence of gluten above 5 ppm. According to the instructions there should appear a clearly visible red test line on the right of the test area ( T ) to indicate the presence of gluten. The blue line on the left test area ( C ) is a control line and indicates that the extract/sample is suitable, the test has been performed correctly and all reagents are active. Again please don’t take any of my test results as a medical advice – please see my facts page.

You have voted for Heineken in the recent poll. After I tested Heineken already on a 40 ppm threshold a while ago here is the test result with a more useful 5 ppm threshold. And because of the result I tested Heineken a third time – on 20 ppm. Please see below what happened and my conclusion.

Beer: Heineken
Producer: Heineken Brouwerijen
Originating country: Netherlands
Brewing location: Netherlands
Bottle size: 0.4 l
Alcohol by volume: 5.0%
Ingredients: water, barley malt, hops extract (translated from German)
Miscellaneous:  –

Test Kit: GlutenTox Home Kit

I tested with a threshold of 5 ppm. The limit of detection depends on the number of drops taken from the extraction solution, please find some more information here.

Test result: A barely visible red line appears on the right of the test stick ( T ). The red line is quite weak however, it indicates the presence of gluten equal to or above 5 ppm. The blue line on the left test area ( C ) is a control line and indicates that the extract/sample is suitable, the test has been performed correctly and all reagents are active. Even though this test is positive please note it is not a medical advice – see my facts page.

From my first Heineken test in 2013 we already know that the level is below 40 ppm. The second test now shows that the 5 ppm threshold has just breached. So we are getting closer to a result but we are still not there. Hence I tested again and this time on the 20 ppm threshold.

Test result: There is no indication of the presence of gluten above 20 ppm. According to the instructions there should appear a clearly visible red test line on the right of the test area ( T ) to indicate the presence of gluten. The blue line on the left test area ( C ) is a control line and indicates that the extract/sample is suitable, the test has been performed correctly and all reagents are active. Again please don’t take any of my test results as a medical advice – please see my facts page.

Conclusion: The gluten level in Heineken is somewhere between 5 and 20 ppm. Because of the very weak red test line after the 5 ppm test I would say that Heineken is closer to 5 than to 20 ppm.

Test on 40 ppm = negative
Test on 20 ppm = negative
Test on 5 ppm = positive

Please note the different picture colours are due to the fact I wanted to visualize the test results better and used image editing software. As explained the red line on the 5 ppm test was barely visible but it was there. But on the original picture (taken with my smartphone camera) it was not really visible, hence I used the software to enhance the picture quality.