Gluten-Free Beer . . . (I'm so excited)
 

Okay, I know I've seen other posts about Celiac's and other gluten intolerances on here so I thought I'd share my newest find in the world of gluten-free foods. Anheuser-Busch started making a gluten-free beer that is pretty readily available compared to anything else. It's called Redbridge and it's made of sorghum. My boyfriend just bought me a six pack and I haven't had a chance to try it yet, waiting for the weekend. I was wondering if anyone else has tried this beer. It's kind of pricy, more like the price of a six pack of Sam Adams or something similiar. But I haven't had beer in about a year, so I'm kind of nervous that it's going to be really gross. So, has anyone tried it?

i wish they made malt-free beer

it sounds like a fun weekend though, good luck!

I haven't but I'm happy I have another gluten-free beer to try. My mum is a celiac and I may or may not be. Other great beers to try are from ramapo valley brewery (you can google for the website and order straight from them) and Bard's Ale.
I'll keep an eye out for Redbridge.
Also, the GF beers I've tried are really good, so I wouldn't be too nervous. Regular people can't tell the difference...I can personally vouch for Ramapo Valley and how good their beer is. They brew it from honey and it's also kosher, so added bonus for jews too.

RU OX Alum,
I'm not sure what you mean by malt-free but this doesn't have barley, rye or wheat malt in it. The malt is made from sorghum which most people can tolerate.

i am severely allergic to malt, so I was wondering if it was possible to brew something with out it. I'm probablly allergic to the yeast (fungus) too, so it probably wouldn't matter

I don't drink beer, so I don't know.. BUT.. I know someone who is celiac.. and brought her a six-pack of the RedBridge over New Years. She LOVES it! It's a stout beer.. so if you like dark beer, you'll like it.

There are a couple of other GF beers, including Bard's Tale Golden Dragon Lager... but you talk about expensive.. that goes for about 12 to 16 bucks for a six-pack. She likes that as well.

Ramapo Valley Gluten Free is one she hasn't yet tried. It's a boutique beer.. I'm told it's not as good.

BTW.. did you read about the new FDA gluten free labeling proposal? This news release came to me at work:

Patients Welcome New Proposed Federal Rules for Gluten-Free Labeling

My mom and sis are celiacs, and we just had some Redbridge over Christmas. It was a very nice beer. I preferred that one over regular beer.
It was stout and smooth.

And a slight hijack to go along with BA's news post-- I hadn't been to a restaurant in the states in quite some time, so when we went to Outback for my birthday on Christmas Eve, I was quite amazed to find out through my mom and sis that they had a GF menu. Things sure have changed for the better for celiacs in recent years. /end hijack

Outback is fantastic. We went there on my birthday (long story, I don't usually choose to eat a celebratory meal at a chain restaurant, it was short notice) and the waitress we had was fantastic. They're so good about their celiac customers.
Another place 'certified' gluten-free is PF Changs.

That's so funny that you mentioned Outback. The person I talked about in my previous post belongs to her local Celiac Support Group (they have 80 members!!!). She just asked me if I would go to their monthly dinner at Outback for a Gluten Free night.

You're right.. it has gotten a lot better. I remember when she was first diagnosed, I said, "You have WHAT?!!!" "Celiac Sprue??" "WHAT is that?!!" Noe they estimate more than 1 in every 300 people has gluten intolerance, and probably more who don't even know it.

At her meetings, they used to exchange shopping lists and call up companies to check for cross contamination. For example, one week Rice Krispies was fine, but then the next week, someone would find that there was cross contamination down the line because a wheat product had been made on the same line.

An interesting story about Whole Foods... the reason they now have a Gluten Free Bakery is because one of their bakers in North Carolina (Lee Tobin) discovered he was Celiac. He could no longer be around flour... and started experimenting with gluten-free products.

The products FLEW off the shelf! Next thing you know, Whole Foods built a dedicated bakery to gluten free products. People were literally driving three and five hours to purchase his breads, cookies, etc.. so they now offer Lee's products at most of the Whole Foods stores around the country.

Here's their gluten free webpage.
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/prod...bakehouse.html

Now I'm seriously wishing there was an Outback or a PF Changs nearby. And I'm writing Whole Foods and asking them to build one here. All these great options and none of them are near me. :(

Better start saving up now -- Whole Paycheck ain't cheap.

You make me feel bad :( Come visit me and we'll go to Whole Foods, then to Outback, and finally out for a pizza and a beer at a local restaurant that serves GF pizza and beer. What I hate about this country is that they're so behind in diagnosing celiac disease.
Go to England and visit any supermarket...they have shelves upon shelves stocked with GF food. Really good GF food. Not the hard as rocks crap over here. Did you know that every child born in Italy is tested for celiac disesae by the time they're three years old?

What about Fresh Direct? Do they deliver where you are?

And... in England.. people who have to buy Gluten Free food get subsidized from the government. GF food is VERY expensive.

Don't fret because you live far from these stores.. you can mail order.

This is a good source... yummy brownies!
http://www.foodsbygeorge.com/

She says these products are really good:
http://www.glutino.com/english/index.cfm

You can go here to find gluten-free friendly restaurants in your area:
http://www.glutenfreerestaurants.org/find.php

Read in Kansas City Paper this AM.

Pabst Brewing will be making this type of bier soon or maybe now, called I think is "Tard".

No quotes please!:D

We won't. No one can uderstand anything you say anyways.

What ever?;)

I think what you heard, Tom.. is a business story about Bard's Tale Beer. The former management team at Pabst Blue Ribbon will be heading up Bard's Tale Gluten Free Brewery. I saw the story on the wires earlier today.

BTW... in case anybody reading this is interested to know about Celiac and wondering if they may have it... it's much, much more common than initially thought. An estimated 1 out of 300 Americans have it. It's mostly in people of European backgrounds (Scandinavians, British, Germans, etc.) There is a high prevalance of Celiac in Canada because of the European background of many living there.

Celiac is easily detected with a simple blood test... but you have to request it. Make sure you continue to eat wheat products as normal before being tested, or you could get a false negative.

If you have a close relative with Celiac, you really should be tested every year. The gold standard in diagnosing celiac sprue is with an endoscopy and colonoscopy.

It's now thought many people who had been diagnosed with IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) actually have celiac. So.. if you have any of the symptoms.. it might be worth going to the doctor and getting that blood test. But the symptoms are so widespread. Some people have bloating and chronic diarrhea, while others have fatigue, or depression.

Celiac can also be present with no symptoms. If you have celiac and continue to eat wheat gluten, it can result in anemia, osteoporosis, malnutrition, damage to the small intestine, and stomach cancer. But the good news is, it's easily treated-- no drugs or surgery... just a gluten free diet.

Most of this is true...however, I need to correct one small fact. The blood test is the first step in a diagnosis. The only way to know for sure is getting an endoscopy or colonoscopy. This is the only way to receive an actual diagnosis of Celiac Disease.

That's very true. Thanks for the clarification.

People with celiac have a higher than normal level of certain auto-antibodies in their blood. There are two types of tests done when celiac is suspected-- the gliadin and the reticulin. The two blood tests, if positive, are said to be 90-percent accurate in diagnosing celiac.

Once again, a false negative can occur if the person has gone on a gluten-free diet for three to six months prior to the tests... so in order to get an accurate diagnosis, you must remain on a normal diet containing gluten.

If both tests are positive and symptoms suggest celiac, then the next step, in diagnosis, as Centaur pointed out, is endoscopy and colonoscopy. What the doctor does is takes a small piece of tissue from the small intestine (a biopsy) to look for damage to the villi. That's considered the 100-percent sure diagnosis.