July 6, 2012
I asked Terry Michaelson, CEO of the Craft Brewers Alliance,
what it’s like for him to ingest gluten, a protein found in many grains.
“Predominantly, it impacts the stomach, that’s the first
reaction … very bad indigestion,” he said. “People have other reactions —
rashes, headaches, feeling bad like they have the flu — that can be associated
with it. The initial reaction is a negative, but it also has a long-term impact
on your intestines.”
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| Widmer's new Omission line of beers contains less than 20 parts per million of gluten per bottle. This means it's low-gluten but not completely gluten-free. Stay tuned for another blog post about the difference between the two and why it matters. |
Doesn’t quite sound like a walk in the park. Now imagine
that any or all of those not-so-fun symptoms hit you every time you have a
beer. That’s the harsh reality for Michaelson and the many other card-carrying
members of Team Gluten-Free who have been diagnosed with celiac disease, an
autoimmune disorder that impacts the intestines.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
the prevalence of celiac disease is unknown, but one article in the journal
Gastroenterology estimated that between 1 in 105 and 1 in 1,750 individuals in
the U.S. might be affected. That’s a lot of people who are forbidden from
enjoying a foamy, fresh pint, simply because they were unlucky enough to be
born with faulty genes.
Brewers around the country have taken notice of the
increasing number of people diagnosed with celiac disease each year, and they
have come up with some pretty inventive ways to circumvent the gluten-carrying
culprit in beer: barley. Most of these solutions throw out the barley
altogether and replace it with other grains that don’t contain that protein.
But the Craft Brewers Alliance has chosen a different route.
Rather than find a new grain to malt to make beer,
brewmaster Joe Casey and the team at Widmer Bros. have employed a process that
removes the gluten protein from the barley, creating a series of beers under a
new label called Omission.
“We have what we call a program because it’s not one
particular thing,” Casey said. “It starts with regular barley that contains
gluten. We use barley with less protein, and any time there’s a place where
there’s a typical reduction in protein, we make sure we’re doing what we can to
reduce that protein.”
The process involves an enzyme called Brewers Clarex, which
was originally developed as a clarifying agent but is used in the brewing
process of Omission to break down the proteins in the beer. Each finished batch
of Omission is then tested for gluten levels. Casey said that in order for
something to be declared gluten-free, the global standard holds that product at
a level of 20 parts per million or less of the protein.
“It was important to us to test,” Michaelson said. “There
are two outside groups that we have test it. And we post that on the website,
so people can see the batch number and go online and see what the test level is
for that beer. … We wanted something that assured people what the levels are.”
The website, www.omissiontest.com,
has the drinker select either the pale ale or the lager and enter the date
found in the corner of the bottle’s label. The site pulls up the corresponding
batch and the test report for that specific beer, allowing celiacs to put their
minds and stomachs at ease and enjoy the brew in front of them. To ensure that
all of the results are accurate, Omission is only sold in bottles, thus
eliminating possible cross-contamination from other beers that could occur if
the beer was distributed in kegs and run through less-than-pristine tap lines.
“Once it leaves the brewery and goes to a bar, someone could
order a pint of gluten-free beer and be served something different,” Casey
said. “By keeping it in a bottle, we have the highest degree of integrity for
the product.”
From the Fridge: Omission Lager and Pale Ale
I’ll admit I was a little skeptical of the Omission beers
when I first popped the tops. I have tried a few gluten-free beers: Some of
them tasted like varying shades of cardboard or chalk, and some, though tasty,
resembled beer about as much as whisky resembles water.
The Omission series is different. Because the beers are
still made with traditional beer ingredients — including barley — the result is
beer that actually tastes like beer. The lager has the golden color and clean
flavor of a traditional American lager.
“There’s a lot of people who are celiacs who haven’t had
beer in a while,” Casey said. “We wanted a lighter offering on the spectrum, so
people’s mouths didn’t explode when they took a drink. It’s got a little bit of
hop character but not a lot; it’s an easy-drinking, smooth, crisp beer.”
The pale ale is a light amber hue with a good balance of
hoppy bitterness and a clean aftertaste. I used it to wash down a snack of
Gouda cheese chunks and slices of fresh cucumber. The beer had the spiciness to
stand up to the cheese with those palate-cleansing bubbles to cut through the
fat, but I also found that it wasn’t overpowering to the more delicate
cucumber.
“With the pale ale, we did want to have an offering on the
craft side of things,” Casey said. “It’s got a little bit of malt character and
color, as well as a lot of hop flavor, mostly Cascade.”
My particular bottles of pale ale and lager both ranked at
less than 10 parts per million on the Omission website. Casey said the brewers
are looking at future offerings for the series but haven’t made any decisions
at this point. I will definitely be getting my hands on any new tasty,
gluten-free marvels as they come off the line.
Krista Driscoll
Hophead
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