Gluten Free Beer
Saag's gluten free brats
Even in pre coeliac days I wasn’t the biggest fan of beer and would almost always have chosen a glass of wine first so not being able to drink beer was the last of my worries when I was diagnosed. Despite this, I have always been curious about gluten free beers and how they might taste. I wonder if they taste differently from normal, gluten filled beers but I figure that it would be better for someone that actually drinks and enjoys beer to take the taste test since I would have nothing to compare it to.
The evening we moved into our new apartment in Berkeley we took a trip to the fantastic, coeliac friendly Berkeley Bowl to find something that we could prepare for dinner. We came across Mango and Jalepeno sausages and John’s first comment was ‘You like mango and I like Jalepeno so we should definitely get these!’ This was logical and so we decided to cook these with black beans, rice and guacamole. In the alcohol section we found a variety of gluten free beers made with Rice and Sorgham. A friend who was with us brews his own beer and he was intrigued to discover how gluten free beer tasted in the hopes of trying to perhaps brew some gluten free varieties himself. They had 3 gluten free brands so we decide to try them all. We were all curious. Sausages and beer. Not a meal I find myself eating too often as a coeliac.
As expected, the brats with rice, beans and guacamole were delicious! A little more unexpectedly for a non beer lover, the gluten free beer was far more enjoyable than I was anticipating….
