Last night I went to a new cafe with a friend of mine who recently went on a gluten free diet as prescribed by his doctor. I was pretty excited when we walked in and saw a fairly good sized craft beer selection (probably over 40 different beers). While I was looking over the list deciding what I was going to drink, he was telling me about eating gluten free.

As I sat looking over the list of beers, he was excited that they carried 1 gluten free beer (Redbridge). Basically if he wanted to drink beer, he had 1 choice. That sucks. Apparently finding gluten free beers at most restaurants is pretty difficult.

To make it worse, I tried the Redbridge he had (which is brewed by Anheuser-Busch), and it wasn’t very good. At that point I was pretty thankful I can have gluten, but felt for those out there that are bound by very few beverage choices.

I did a little research and found a few interesting things about gluten free beer. It seemed that the UK had a lot bigger selection of gluten free beers. However their laws are a bit different as beers can be labeled gluten free as long as the beer has less than 20 parts per million gluten.

Most gluten free beers are brewed with sorghum or rice instead of grains which gives gluten free beer a fairly sweet taste.

Promote Gluten Free Beer

There are a few things you can do to promote gluten free beers and to make them more accessible. The main way is to request it at your local restaurants. Talk to owners and write letters asking them to carry a variety of gluten free beers. Also speak with your wallet.  Most bottle shops have a few gluten free beers so go try them. The higher the demand, the more that will be produced.

Gluten Free Beer List

Here are a few gluten free beers to check out. I haven’t tried any of them other than Redbridge, so let me know what you think.

• Redbridge
  Produced by Anheuser-Busch.  A lager made for sorghum.
• Bard’s
  An American lager that contains no wheat, oats, rye, or barley made with sorghum.
• Messagère Red Ale and Messagère
  Two gluten free beers from Les bières de la Nouvelle-France out of Quebec.
• New Grist
  Brewed by Lakefront Brewery in Wisconsin with sorghum and rice.
• Ramapo Valley Brewery Honey Beer
  A gluten free beer made with honey.
• O’Brien Natural Light
  A light lager from Australia.  2.7% ABV .
• Green”s Gluten Free Beers
  Brewed in Belgium, they offer a lineup of gluten free beers.
• Hambleton Ales
  They brew 2 gluten free beers in the UK.
• St. Peter’s G-Free
  Brewed since 2007 in the UK.

What’s your favorite gluten free beer?

As any long-time BlogAboutBeer readers know, I am very big on putting craft beer in cans. So I was excited to see this little tidbit come through my inbox the other day — it’s good news for MassHoles and good news for those of us in Maine (because good beer in cans is one step closer to reaching our borders).

It appears that San Fransisco’s 21st Amendment Brewing Co. has begun distributing their two canned beers — Hell or High Watermellon and Brew Free or Die IPA — in the Bay State. From the company’s official press release,

Boston-area native Nico Freccia is returning to his home state, and he’s bringing beer. Craft beer in a can, that is. The co-founder of San Francisco’s 21st Amendment Brewery tells Massachusetts craft beer fans today, “We drink what we can; we can what we drink.”

Freccia and Shaun O’Sullivan, the iconic personalities behind one of California’s few canning craft breweries, opened the bustling 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood after meeting in a home-brew class. The release of the Brewery’s two canned brews, Hell or High Watermelon Wheat Beer (recently rated “#1 Beer to Drink from a Can” and “Top Fruit Beer” by Draft magazine) and Brew Free! Or Die IPA (winner of multiple medals internationally) marks the brewery’s first foray into beer sales on the east coast. Both beers will be available in cans and on draft throughout the state of Massachusetts.

“Massachusetts, and in particular, Boston, is a craft beer drinkers’ paradise,” says Chief Watermelon Officer Freccia. “People in Massachusetts just get the CAN-cept of great craft beer, and we are really excited to be a part of the local beer landscape.”

Why craft beer in a can? “Quite CAN-didly,” says Chief Hop Head O’Sullivan, “Cans are simply better for the beer. They keep it fresher by protecting it from light, they fit the craft beer drinker’s lifestyle by going places where glass just doesn’t dare, and cans are better for the environment. They use less energy to produce and transport, and they get recycled more often than glass.”

Hell or High Watermelon Wheat is a classic American wheat beer that undergoes a traditional secondary fermentation using fresh watermelon and yielding a straw-colored, refreshing beer with a kiss of watermelon aroma and flavor. Brew Free! Or Die IPA is brewed with some serious west coast attitude. This aromatic golden IPA starts with a sucker punch of six different hops to the nose, quickly balanced by a solid malt backbone. Both beers are now available in cans and on draft at better bars and stores throughout Massachusetts. For up to date availability, events and promotions, visit 21A’s website at 21st-Amendment.com.

Welcome to New England, 21st Amendment; hope to get my hands on you soon!

New Belgium Brewing Co. — the third largest craft brewer in the country — has officially released their 2007-2008 “Sustainability Report” outlining the results of New Belgium’s “Triple Bottom Line” approach to business using metrics and data gathered over a five-year period. The “Triple Bottom Line” measurement looks at the environmental, economic and social effects of the brewery.

The report also highlights a number of the brewer’s environmental and sustainable initiatives, which include a decade-long commitment to using wind energy, and tracking the greenhouse gas life-cycle of a six-pack of the brewery’s famous Fat Tire beer. According to MSNBC,

“Environmental sustainability has always been a core value at New Belgium, so we felt it was time to take a measure of our progress,” said Jenn Orgolini, New Belgium’s Sustainability Director. “While it is gratifying to know that we have made great strides in our environmental performance, this report will help us set goals and make plans to help us close the gap in areas where we could stand to improve.”

What is fantastic, however, was the fact that I learned about New Belgium’s report through an article on MSNBC. It is always great to see initiatives from within the Craft Brewing industry (especially when those initiatives are environmentally-related) making into the mainstream media. It’s great attention for all the things that matter!

To read the original MSNBC article (which includes a list of some of the New Belgium report’s highlights), click here. And visit newbelgium.com/sustainability to read the full report and learn about all of the on-going sustainability efforts happening at New Belgium. Keep up the great work, guys!

Portland Maine’s own Peak Organic Brewing announced today that they’ve released their new fall seasonal brew: Espresso Amber Ale. The Espresso Amber Ale is brewed with Maine-roasted, organic fair trade espresso in collaboration with Coffee By Design. The beer is in partnership with Transfair, a non-profit that works to ensure that farmers and farm workers behind Fair Trade Certified goods are paid fair, above-market prices, helping to support a better life for farming families, community development and environmental stewardship. Peak Organic Espresso Amber Ale is the first Fair Trade Certified™ beer brewed in the United States. According to the official company press release,

“Our Espresso Amber Ale is a celebration of tasty, local ingredients and organic, fair trade
practices,” said Jon Cadoux from Peak, a passionate craft beer brewer. “As foodies, we’ve
always appreciated hand-crafted coffee roasters, so we jumped at the opportunity to work with
our friends down the street at Coffee By Design, who craft amazing coffee. We feel like this is
more than just a delicious craft beer, but also a positive experience from start to finish, farm to
glass” said Geoff Masland from Peak.

According to Cadoux, The Espresso Amber Ale is a flavorful, robust ale with toasty notes from the espresso in the front palate that delicately compliment the sweeter notes from the malts in the back palate.

Be sure and check back here for a review of Peak’s Espresso Amber Ale as soon as I get my hands on it. In the meantime, be sure and check out (and pick up a bottle of) my previous review of the Peak Organic Maple Oat Ale and my September ’07 interview with Peak founder Jon Cadoux.

Very big & exciting news for fans of Portsmouth’s own Smuttynose Brewing Co.: A new brewery has been a discussion for Smuttynose for quite awhile (I first wrote about it back in December of ’07) as they’ve long since outgrown their relatively small Establishment on the outskirts of Portsmouth. Well, according to SeacoastOnline.com, the brewery and its owner, Peter Egelston, gained approval from all the right Planning Boards last night to move its brewery to Hampton, NH. From SeacoastOnline,

Smuttynose Brewery is moving to Hampton. The Planning Board on Wednesday night approved Smuttynose president Peter Egelston’s plans to build a bigger and better brewery in Hampton.

Smuttynose is currently located at 225 Heritage Ave. in Portsmouth in a 25,000-square-foot facility. The lot soon to be the new home of the brewery is a 14-acre property owned by Gregory and Jennifer Sancoff at 105 Towle Farm Road in Hampton.

The new brewing facility will be 42,000 square feet. On the same property, Smuttynose will convert a barn into a restaurant.

And Peter seems to be true to his word. As he told me in December, he would like the new brewery to be as “green” as possible. And sure enough, according to the article, he’s:

planning for the new brewery to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification qualification. Some “green” technology that Egelston is considering includes the use of rainwater in plumbing and a co-generation power source, which is the use of a heat engine or a power station to simultaneously generate both electricity and heat.

No word yet on when the new brewery and restaurant will be open or if there will be any sort of grand opening celebration (but you can bet, if there is, I sure as shootin’ will be there) but I’ll keep you posted when I hear of anything. In the meantime, congrats Pete & crew; a bigger brewery can only mean more Smuttynose and that’s alright with me!

source: Smuttynose gains approval in Hampton for brewery, restaurant [SeacoastOnline.com]

Tom Quinn and ethanol scientist Floyd Butterfield founded the E-Fuel Corporation in March 2007 to create efficient ethanol micro-refinery products for people who want to break their dependency on oil. And it looks like they’ve done it. And done it using beer.

The company recently rolled out a portable machine called the MicroFueleris, which is about the size of a stackable washer-dryer and could easily fit in a standard driveway. The MicroFueler produces ethanol that can be used in any car converted for flex fuels.

The ethanol is created when sugar or beer is poured into the MicroFueleris’ fermentation tank through a grate-covered opening on the machine. The sugar or alcohol from the beer then mixes with a measured amount of water already in the tank and the conversion process begins.

However, if you want to get your hands on such a machine, it’s going to cost you. The MicroFueler sells for just under $10,000. It weighs 200 pounds and can produce up to 35 gallons of ethanol per week.

my only question is – why would anyone have left over beer?!

Source: “Entrepreneur Converts Leftover Alcohol To Gas” [WCSH]

photo by: Sergio Moraes/Reuters

Ma Yanjun, a Chinese peasant and carpenter, of Qiqiao village, Shaanxi Province has made a solar water heater – using only beers bottles and hoses. How does it work? Well, The beer bottles lie on a board in rows and are all connected by hoses, which allow cold water to flow through them. As the bottles and board lie outside, the heat from the sun warms the water in the bottles. The warm water can then be used for showers, or meals, or most anything we use hot water for.

“I invented this for my mother. I wanted her to shower at any time more comfortably,” says Yanjun.

According to Pakistan’s Daily Times, since his invention, Ma has helped more than 20 families in the village to make and install their own beer bottle solar water-heaters. He told the paper he will build a public bathroom for the village using his invention when he has the money to buy enough beers.

Great to see some creative and “green” uses for all the beer bottles we tend to empty. Well done, Yanjun!

Source: “Beer bottle solar heater” [Daily Times]

Vermont’s Long-Trail Brewing Co. made one heck of an Earth Day announcement – it appears they have signed a contract to become the largest commercial customer of Cow Power, a program from Central Vermont Public Service Corp. that produces electricity from cow manure. Long Trail’s Brian Walsh told the Burlington Free Press,

“We actively seek ways to reduce the impact Long Trail has on its local surroundings… We believe CVPS Cow Power provides great environmental benefits while creating much needed opportunities for Vermont farm owners.”

Although the program will raise Long Trail’s electric bill by about $10,000 a year, the company says the juice is well worth the squeeze. The Cow Power purchase will have an environmental impact that is the equivalent to taking 106 cars off the road. According to Central Vermont Public Service Corp. President Bob Young,

“Their commitment will be the equivalent to capturing the CO2 emissions from burning 65,834 gallons of gasoline annually.”

For more on Long Trail’s Cow Power Purchase, as well as the other strides the brewery has taken to offset their environmental impact, read this article from the Burlington Free Press or visit the Long Trail website.

[tags]beer, Central Vermont Public Service Corp., Cow Power, Long Trail Brewing, Earth Day[/tags]

They’re portable – perfect for tailgating, camping, golf (ball, or Frisbee), the beach or the kid’s lunch box (I kid, I kid); they’re 100% recyclable; and they block sunlight and oxygen better than bottles. I’m talking about cans, of course.

But canned beer carries a very negative stigma with it – when canning beer became a popular option in the 1960s, the cans were poor in quality and the canning technology was certainly not where it is today. The result was beer that tasted more like aluminum than barley & hops.

Ever since, even though the technology has changed for the better, and canned beer no longer tastes like cans, the only beer commonly found in cans has been 30-racks from the “big 3″. So it’s not hard to see why cans have gotten such a bad wrap. But all of that is beginning to change.

A number of well-known American craft breweries have begun to can their beers – Colorado-based New Belgium Brewing Co. announced last week that they would release their flagship Fat Tire Amber Ale — one of the most popular craft beers in the country — in cans by summer. The 21st Amendment Brewery in San Fransisco will also soon be canning their beers; test marketing cans of their “Brew Free or Die IPA” and “Hell or High Watermelon” watermelon wheat by the 4th of July. And Uncommon Brewers, a Santa Cruz-based brewery which will open its doors this summer, will open having canned all of its beers. According to The Mercury News, the certified organic brewery had planned “to do Belgian-inspired beers and put them out Belgian-style, in corked bottles” but opted for less expensive, 100% recyclable cans after receiving their organic certification.

The craft beer canning revolution was started by Oskar Blues Brewing Co, who began canning their beers in the fall of 2002 as a joke – but that soon changed. Dale Katechis, founder of Oskar Blues Brewing in Colorado, told realbeer.com in 2003 that,

Right now, our goal is to change the perception in the industry about what you can sell in cans, and with drinkers about what kind of beer is sold in cans.

We went to the Great Arizona Beer Festival and did side-by-side tastes tests — out of bottles and out of cans. A lot of beer geeks went “What is this?” and they were blown away. The first thing they said is, “This is real beer, this isn’t something that was made just to sell in cans.”

All of the breweries listed above get their cans from the same place – Cask Brewing Systems Inc., based in Calgary, Alberta. Cask Brewing offers craft brewers like Oskar Blues small-scale packaging systems, using cans from aluminum can producer Ball Corp. which have a water-based coating, so the beer doesn’t touch aluminum. Today Cask has nearly four dozen customers canning beer in North America, up from one — Oskar Blues — in 2002.

It may be awhile before craft beer drinkers fully embrace craft beer cans around the country, but I can tell you from personal experience that one can from Oskar Blues and they’ll be signing a different tune. Here’s to the canning revolution!

[tags]beer, canned beer, Cask Brewing Systems, Oskar Blues, Fat Tire Amber Ale, New Belgium Brewing[/tags]

By now many of you know that Peak Organic Brewing — a local Portland, Maine brewing company which contract brews certified organic beer at the Shipyard facilities — has released a new spring beer: Maple Oat Ale. The three other year-round beers from Peak don’t do too much for me (they’re not bad by any stretch, just not overly exciting) but I really enjoyed this one.

Available in either 12oz 4-packs or 22oz bombers, Peak’s Maple Oat Ale is a light copper-colored ale brewed with Maine-grown organic oats from granola company GrandyOats and Vermont-produced organic maple syrup from Butternut Mountain Farms in Morrisville, Vermont.

This beer pours a dark golden/light copper color with very little head retention (probably due to the high amounts of maple syrup in the boil). The Maple Oat Ale has a sweet malt taste and a smoother-than-normal mouthfeel — thanks largely to the oats — while it finishes with a distinct (but not overpowering) maple syrup sweetness.

I would definitely consider this my favorite of the Peak family and I hope they choose to keep it around for awhile (right now it’s only slated for the spring season). It is one of the easier drinking beers I’ve had in a long time; my 22oz bomber was gone not long after I realized I had even opened it. but, at a modest 5.2% ABV, that wasn’t a problem and there was certainly room left for more. But I think that Geoff Masland, Peak Organic Partnership Maestro, summed up the best part of this beer quite nicely in the company’s official press release which accompanied the beer’s release:

“We’ve collaborated with great folks to produce more than just a delicious craft beer, but also a positive experience from start to finish, farm to glass.”

For more on Peak Organic Brewing, read my interview with its founder Jon Cadoux from September ’07.

[tags]beer, organic, Peak Organic, Maine, Vermont[/tags]