This post is long overdue.
I mean really, really long overdue.
When my husband first found out he had celiac disease and could no longer drink conventional beer he went through the usual grieving process, which included the desperate attempt to find a beer that could somehow emulate the taste of his beloved stouts.
A very sage person gave us one piece of advice prior to my husband’s decision to tilt at windmills; “Just get Glutenberg“.
Of course my hubby was never one to learn the easy way so he tilted away trying anything and everything with the gluten free proviso.
There were many, many, (too many) misses and just the tiniest few smatterings of hits and what exactly did he learn from all this independent surveying? “Just get Glutenberg”.
Now before anyone starts championing their favorite one-off, needle in the mash tun, gluten-reduced brew I want to repeat “Just get Glutenberg”.
Being the ever dutiful wife that I am, I did try my fair share of sips his (sorta) beers and while there were some contenders in the light beer styles like pils or lagers when it came to a beer with some kind of flavor resembling a traditional craft beer Glutenberg honestly and truly gets the job done.
As you can probably tell from the photo my hubby enjoys the Red and the Belgian Double but he pretty much has at least one style of Glutenberg in the regular rotation since his diagnosis.
The thing I appreciate, as a “regular” beer drinker, is that Glutenberg has translated the craft beer ethos to gluten free beer. While many other gluten free beers on the market seem to be content to proffer an offering or maybe two, Glutenberg does seasonal limited releases, they do big high ABV beers, they take a crack at complex styles and complex flavours, or in other words they make the effort and it shows.
Happily the gluten free market seems to be growing (not happy that more people have celiac disease) and that means demand for gluten free beer is growing. Like the monumental rise of craft beer for the wheat-able folks there is a vast army of wheat-unable drinkers just waiting to be tapped.
So if you or a loved one has had to say adieu to their beloved craft beer I have the following piece of advice to offer, which you can take or leave as you like…
“Just get Glutenberg” or drink single malt!
