Most people don’t believe it when we tell them ALL of our beers are gluten reduced. Believe it, Buddy. It’s true.

 Do you ever have a beer (or three) and end up feeling bloated right away or the next day? You’re not alone. It’s one of the reasons we started playing around with a gluten-reducing enzyme a few years ago. Since then, we haven’t looked back. Not only do we feel it makes a great beer, but it’s been awesome to hear from customers who feel great drinking it!

We began by adding an enzyme called Clarity Ferm (produced by White Labs) to our Alibi West Coast IPA in late fall 2018. As promised, the enzyme nearly eliminated gluten in our finished beers with no impact on flavor, aroma or mouthfeel. So we began adding it to all of our beers in spring 2019. Since then, every beer coming out of our brewery is not only delicious, but also gluten-reduced!

How does it work?

We add Clarity Ferm enzyme in liquid form along with yeast at the beginning of fermentation. The enzyme is a prolyl endopeptidase and it is able to hydrolyze (i.e. break down) the proteins gliadin and hordein (gluten), which are implicated as the cause of Celiac’s disease. It also helps break down the haze-active polypeptides that create chill haze. Its reaction is very specific, so no other beer parameters (i.e. flavor, aroma) are affected. It also gives our beer improved shelf stability and reliably reduces gluten content to below 20 ppm.

Is your beer “gluten-free”?

20 ppm is the international threshold for beer to be considered gluten-free. We do periodic testing of gluten content at an off-site lab but do not test every batch so while we cannot declare that our beer is gluten-free, we can proudly say that every one of our beers are gluten-reduced. If you have Celiac’s Disease we do not recommend consuming our beer. However, many people who are gluten sensitive regularly enjoy our beer with no negative side effects.

Is Clarity Ferm a GMO (genetically-modified organism)?

No. It is indeed enhanced, but since it is enhanced with its own DNA (rather than the DNA of another organism), it does not meet the definition of GMOs.

Thanks for going down Beer Nerd Road with us. We love to dive deep into the science and beauty of beer. We’ve started an occasional Ask The Brewer column in our weekly newsletter, Brews & News, and we have been loving it! Sign up over there where you can ask all your thoughtful, kind, inquisitive, and funny beer questions to us and we’ll get them answered every few weeks in this newsletter.

Cheers to good beer and great digestion!