Gluten, barley and wheat free beer

Most gluten free beer is made with barley. Some includes wheat.

The safety to coeliacs of these beers — which are typically made by the addition of an enzyme to break down the gluten fragments — remains hotly debated.

In the UK / EU, such beers can be labelled gluten-free.

In the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, they cannot. They are often described instead as ‘gluten removed’ or ‘gluten reduced’, and can be labelled ‘processed to remove gluten’.

Some celiacs, very understandably, avoid all such wheat- or barley-based beers.

So for them, here is a list of beers made only from alternative and GF grain sources — for example, quinoa, rice, millet, sorghum, buckwheat, corn — available in UK, the US / Canada, Australia, and Europe.

United Kingdom

AltGrain Co.
One of the few strictly NGCI breweries in the UK.
Currently producing three NGCI craft ales, based on their own malted UK-grown millet, with quinoa, rice and buckwheat — Random Pale Ale, Bird Brain Session IPA and Blonde Ale.
Available solely direct through AltGrain.

Green’s
Some barley beers, plus five beers made using alternative grains such as sorghum, brown rice, buckwheat, millet.
These are Discovery (an amber ale), Dry Hopped Lager, IPA, plus the stronger Tripel (8.5%) and Dubbel (7%) ales.
Distinguishable from their barley-based beers as they carry ‘naturally gluten free’ labelling.

Jimbrew
“The first NGCI Taproom in the UK”.

Riedenberger Glutenfrei
A German millet-based beer, available from Beers of Europe in the UK.

Suspect Brewing
Circuit Breaker — made with malted millet and buckwheat. 4.2% ABV.

Unites States / Canada

Alt Brew
Large variety of naturally GF beers — from grains such as rice, millet, sorghum and Ethiopian teff. NB. Some use GF oats.

Aurochs Brews
Large selection — uses millet, buckwheat, quinoa.

Bard’s
‘The Original Sorghum Malt Beer’.

Beliveau Farm Brewery
“Our beers are made from malted rice, millet, oatmeal, and buckwheat in a variety of styles that are both classic and unique”

Bierly Brewing
Available in Washington and Oregon. “We use naturally gluten free grains like millet, rice, buckwheat, and sorghum, and we also work carefully to make sure that our other ingredients, things like yeast, honey, hops, and spices, are also gluten free.”

Brewery Nyx
Michigan’s first GF brewery.

Buck Wild Brewing
A selection of five beers — “buckwheat, millet, and rice make up the majority of our malts, but we also use oats, maize, and other ingredients that do not contain any gluten”.

Burning Brothers Brewing
Large selection, including Irish Red Ale, Chocolate Milk Stout and more.

Departed Soles
Offer both GF and non-GF beers, so check carefully before buying.

Dogfish Head
Tweason’ale — sorghum-based fruit ale.

Epic Brewing
Glutenator — made with millet, sweet potatoes, and brown rice.

Evasion Brewing
Use oats in most products, as well as millet, rice and buckwheat.

Ghostfish Brewing
Uses rice, millet and buckwheat.

Glutenberg (Canada) / Glutenberg (US)
Use quinoa, corn, millet, amaranth and other naturally GF grains, plus coffee, chocolate, chestnut, orange and other botanicals.
Ten beers, including an APA, IPA and a Stout.

Grey Fox Brewing (Canada)
Brewed using millet and rice. “0ppm”

Ground Breaker Brewing
Use ingredients such as chestnuts, lentils, tapioca, brown rice and sorghum.
Includes a Dark Ale, Light Ale and an IPA.

Holidaily Brewing
Colorado-based wholly GF brewery.

Lakefront Brewery
New Grist, made with rice and sorghum.

Moonshrimp Brewing
Vegan millet beers from Oregon.

New Planet Brewery
Some gluten-reduced beers made from a barley base, but also three (blonde ale, pale ale, raspberry ale), using no gluten-containing ingredients (sorghum, brown rice, corn).