Low Gluten in Beer

Another test of Australian craft beer from Adam.

…another local beer. This time from a brewery that came from nowhere (although the two brewers had worked previously together in Western Australia at Little Creatures Brewery). They began here in Adelaide in 2014 or 2015 and have just got amazingly bigger and bigger and bigger. Their brews are not cheap as they really specialise in very good quality product. They have mainly made ales and a stout. This new pilsner is their first lager style as far as I’m aware, so I finally felt confident to test one of their beers.

https://piratelife.com.au/

I tested at 20ppm (as usual) and there was definitely no red line. The beer was very nice indeed. The hops were so refreshing and flavoursome. Wow!

Have at look at the pictures I took. Around the top of the can they tell you their process and mention each barley and hops used. Pretty cool. They do the same for all of their brews and only use cans, never bottles. Not a problem as I always drink from a glass anyway (of course).

Beer: Pirate Life Pilsner
Producer: Pirate Life Brewing Adelaide
Originating country: Australia
Brewing location: Australia
Bottle size: 355 ml (can)
Alcohol by volume: 4.8%
Ingredients: no listed
Miscellaneous: only available in cans

Test Kit: GlutenTox Home Kit

Adam tested with a threshold of 20 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 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. Even though this test is negative please note it is not a medical advice – see my facts page.

After the first three Panama beer test results from Joe he provided two more. I didn’t know that Panama has such a variety of beer but hey the more we test the better we can decide for low gluten beers once we get the chance to get there. And maybe even people in Panama are also interested in the gluten levels of their beers as CD (Celiac Disease) or NCGS (Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity) wordwide grow dramatically. And this  is what Joe says about Balboa Ice and Atlas:

I brought a few beers home to test. Both Balboa Ice and Atlas Premium Lager test negative for gluten at 20ppm. Actually I put three drops in the Balboa Ice so definitely below 20ppm.

Beer: Balboa Ice
Producer: Cerveceria National, S.A.
Originating country: Panama
Alcohol by volume: 4.8%

Beer: Atlas Premium
Producer: Cerveceria National, S.A.
Originating country: Panama
Alcohol by volume: 3.8%

Test Kit: GlutenTox Home Kit

Joe tested with a threshold of 20 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 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. Even though this test is negative please note it is not a medical advice – see my facts page.

Another test provided by Adam and as usual a good story to read:

…Coopers Birell Ultra Light, commonly known as “Birell”.  It is a very very low alcohol content beer (about 0.5% – some call alcohol-free).  In fact my parents let me and my brother drink it as children on Saturday nights at home when my father had his big (longneck) bottle (or two) of Southwark Premium whilst we watched Saturday night television together as a family.  It was (and still very much is) a very flavoursome drink – very malty flavour.  So much so that I thought it may not be low enough in gluten, but it is.  Brilliant.  A good one to have when wanting to drive, or not get drunk.  And, unlike some other low/no alcohol beers, I’ve seen tested on your website, it is all natural.  Yum yum!

Beer: Coopers Birell Ultra Light
Producer: Coopers Brewery
Originating country: Australia
Brewing location: Australia
Bottle size: 375 ml
Alcohol by volume: less than 0.5% (according to label)
Ingredients: water, malted barley, hops and yeast
Miscellaneous: commonly just called Birell

Test Kit: GlutenTox Home Kit

Adam tested with a threshold of 20 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 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. Even though this test is negative please note it is not a medical advice – see my facts page.

Here come three test results from Panama beers in one post. Joe was so kind to provide me with the results from his recent Panama trip.

Panama Lager. Slight red line, barely visible at 20ppm.

Cerveza Soberana, similar result at 20ppm. Ever so slight red line.

Balboa Premium Classic Lager. Absolutely no sign of redline whatsoever at 20ppm. Will test this one again at 5ppm on next trip.

Beer: Panama Lager
Beer: Cerveza Soberana
Beer: Balboa Premium Classic Lager

Test Kit: GlutenTox Home Kit

Joe tested with a threshold of 20 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 are three different test results. Panama is clearly positive, Soberano is positive but the test line is weaker than in the Panama test. Balboa is negative on 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. As always please don’t take any of the test results as a medical advice – see my facts page.

Back in 2015 I started a poll about Dutch beer you want me to test and the winner was Heineken. On 2nd place was Grolsch – another famous Dutch beer and in my eyes the better tasting one. Adam was so kind to test Grolsch now. And here is the result.

Beer: Grolsch
Producer: Koninklijke Grolsch N.V.
Originating country: Netherlands
Brewing location: Netherlands
Bottle size: 450 ml
Alcohol by volume: 5.0%
Ingredients: water, malted barley, hops
Miscellaneous: –

Test Kit: GlutenTox Home Kit

Adam tested with a threshold of 20 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 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. Even though this test is negative please note it is not a medical advice – see my facts page.

Radeberger is not the best selling but probably the most popular beer in Germany. I found this survey which is almost 5 years old but things haven’t changed since then a lot I guess. Only mainstream beers were considered but Germany has so much beer and so many breweries. Look at this fantastic map which shows all German breweries (be patient it takes a while to load all pins).

Anyway, I like Radeberger and it is available almost everywhere in Germany.

Beer: Radeberger
Producer: Radeberger Exportbierbrauerei
Originating country: Germany
Brewing location: Germany
Bottle size: 0.5 l
Alcohol by volume: 4.8%
Ingredients: water, barley malt, hops
Miscellaneous: –

Test Kit: Imutest Gluten-in-Food Kit

Test result: The test result is negative. According to the instructions there should appear a clearly visible pink test spot on the left of the test area ( T ) to indicate the presence of gluten. The pink spot on the right test area ( C ) is a control spot and indicates that the extract/sample is suitable, the test has been performed correctly and all reagents are active. Even though the detection limit in this kit is very low (1-2 ppm) and the test is negative please note this is not a medical advice – please see also my facts page.

Another test provide by Adam and great story to read. Please scroll down to the read the whole story.

Beer: Bohemian Philsner
Producer: Lobethal Bierhaus
Originating country: Australia
Brewing location: Australia
Bottle size: 330 ml
Alcohol by volume: 4.8%
Ingredients: malt, yeast, hops & water
Miscellaneous: –

Test Kit: GlutenTox Home Kit

Adam tested with a threshold of 20 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 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. Even though this test is negative please note it is not a medical advice – see my facts page.

And here the story from Adam about his new favourite place:

I had been in phone contact with a brewer/owner (Alistair Turnbull) in the Adelaide Hills at Lobethal Bierhaus – https://www.bierhaus.com.au/

He had been very interested in what I had said about low gluten beers and the GlutenTox Home Kit. He also was telling me about a gluten free beer he had been working on with help from the University Of Adelaide, made from sorghum and lentils.

Read More

During my last trip to Detroit I wanted to try some local beer – Michigan beer. The most famous local beer seems to be Badass – the beer launched by Kid Rock. It is available in many locations. I have only seen this from tap and found it quite OK. Next time I will try to get a bottle to test it on gluten.

I was surprised how far Michigan is with gluten free options. In Clarkston in the outskirts of Detroit I was able to get gluten free food without problems. E.g. at the  Clarkston Union restaurant I was able to get my burger with gluten free buns. The Woodshop next door even offers gf Mac & Cheese – both of course serve Badass beer.

I had not much time to look for Badass in shops so the only local beer I found was Petoskey Sparkle American Lager and Rochester Mills Pine Knob Pilsner. I decided for Petoskey as I didn’t want a Pilsner but only found out later that it contains wheat which is according to my experience always a bad sign for the gluten concentration.

Beer: Petoskey Sparkle
Producer: Petoskey Brewing Company
Originating country: USA
Brewing location: USA
Bottle size: 1 Pint can
Alcohol by volume: 4.1%
Ingredients: not stated, back side lists wheat and 4 malts and 3 different types of hops
Miscellaneous: –

Test Kit: Imutest Gluten-in-Food Kit

Test result: There is a clearly visible pink test spot on the left of the test area ( T ) which indicates the presence of gluten. According to the instructions a “very low gluten” level of 20 to 100 ppm should give a test spot which is weaker or similar in intensity to that of the control spot ( C ). Please find some more information here.

On a scale from 1 to 20 I would rate the test spot intensity 4. As Imutest uses the R5 antibody since a while it is difficult to estimate the gluten level in ppm in comparison to Skerritt antibody they used earlier, hence I will mark the test just positive. Even though this test is positive please note it is not a medical advice – see my facts page.

Test provided by Joe from California:

I think it’s more of a quality Mexican beer with a crisp taste. It’s not my favorite but it’s definitely on of my top 5.

Beer: Bohemia Pilsner
Producer: Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma
Originating country: Mexico
Brewing location: Mexico
Bottle size: 12 Oz. = approx. 330 ml
Alcohol by volume: 4.75%
Ingredients: –
Miscellaneous: Thanks for test, Joe!

Test Kit: GlutenTox Home Kit

Joe tested with a threshold of 20 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 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. Even though this test is negative please note it is not a medical advice – see my facts page.