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Gluten-Free Beer

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For many potential beer fans, gluten intolerance has stopped them from ever quaffing brews made with barley. Those times are now over. Gluten-free beers are popping up all over the country, giving those with Celiac Disease (intestinal damage due to gluten intolerance) a new opportunity to drink with impunity. Not to mention that traditionally, beers from around the world have been made with alternative ingredients, some glutinous and some not. Thee is even a gluten-free beer festival held in Chesterfield, England. Here we will discuss some alternatives to using barley malt in beer, and some substitutes that are possible.

Over two million people in the United States have been diagnosed with Celiac Disease. This represents a large market of potential beer drinkers who otherwise have few alternatives. Many health conscious people are also found in this category of non-gluten imbibers. Gluten is a protein found in such grains as barley, wheat, rye, spelt, and oats. As far as beer brewing is concerned, barley is a huge concern if one is interested in making a gluten free beer. Oats and rye can be a problem as well, depending on what flavor of beer you are planning to make.

Some common substitutes for barley are millet, sorghum, rice, corn, and soybean. The good news is that substitutions are possible. The bad news is that many of them do not taste very much like the stuff made with barley.

Many beers in Japan are now being made with soy or pea protein along with hops and sugar to produce a product known as “third beer”. This technology is fairly recent, but sales are booming in Japan. With a few more years of experimentation, these bold new brewing techniques may be perfected to provide a great new gluten free beer like product.

Traditionally speaking, in Tibet, Nepal, and the surrounding areas, beer made with millet or rice has been a staple drink for many years. This drink, called Chang or Chung can be made at home and features the use of ginger and rice flour yeast cakes to promote starch to sugar conversion as well as fermentation. For more information about making your own Chang, read Stephen Harrod Buhner’s book Sacred and Healing Herbal Beers.

One beer manufacturer that is ahead of the game as far as gluten free beers go is Green’s. Their gluten-free beers are made using Sorghum, Millet, Buckwheat and Brown Rice, and contain no allergens. Their beers boast a high nutritional value as well, with 2x-3x the Zinc and Selenium content of Barley, an increased Calcium content, and rich in B vitamins. Their beers include the Quest (trippel bock), Mission (amber), and Pathfinder (dark) ales, lending a huge variety to a specialty market.

Credit to the first craft beer made with sorghum is claimed by Bard’s Tale Beer with their flagship brew called “Dragon’s Gold”. This beer has made a fine impression and weighs in at 3.8%- 4.7%%, with a hoppy, floral aroma, and, of course, no glutens. The Bard’s Tale brewing company has made a commitment to producing gluten free beer for all, and is an example that other brewers will hopefully follow.

The market for gluten free beer has grown considerably in Japan, while regular beer sales are slumping. With new varieties of gluten and malt free beer emerging in the U.S., this could possibly turn into a burgeoning market.

The Brew Scholar

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Brew Scholar Diploma

Brewing today is more of a science than ever. With advances in the specialty fields of micro-biotics and plant biology, this science is now receiving praise – and the degree programs – from the highest level of academia. The golden age of microbrews we are living in is giving more and more respect around the board to brewmasters, and has created a whole new field of academia – the brew scholar.

With more and more inventive and daring microbrews being created every year, we are seeing the ancient art of brewing given more and more attention. With a better understanding of what happens on the cellular level during each process of brewing – malting, mashing, fermenting, and kegging – efficient short-cuts and better ways of cleaning and sanitizing are becoming apparent. The advent of science of genetic engineering may provide even more efficient ways of fermenting beer as well. Already on the market is the product known as turbo yeast, which ferments quickly and more efficiently than most regular yeast strains. Alcohol fermented by the use of turbo yeast is used primarily as a fuel source or for distillates.

The use of Ethanol as a fuel source is growing rapidly. In Brazil, ethanol production is high, and new “flex” cars are being manufactured, which can run on either Ethanol, Gasoline, or a mixture of the two. U.S. president George W. Bush even visited there in March 7th of 2007, where he signed agreements with Brazilian president about importing alternative alcohol based technology from Brazil to the United States. The rise in value of Ethanol as an easy fuel to turn to has only increased opportunities for the Brew Scholar. After all, alcohol is most easily manufactured through the art and science of fermentation.

Speaking of which, there is a book by brew scholar and professor of brewing technology at U.C. Davis Charles W. Bamforth called Beer: Tap Into the Art and Science of Brewing. This book goes into scientific detail about all aspects of the brewing process, with a mind to a layperson’s understanding of the topics. This is an excellent book for those interested in the details of the process of making beer. This is a good place for a starting home brewer or beer fan to learn more about what they are drinking. Professor Bamforth also gives lectures from time to time, so keep an eye out for his name in your neck of the woods.

One interesting development in the birth of the brew scholar is that many respectable Universities are now offering degrees in brew science. The U.K.’s University at Nottingham has offered since 2006 a master’s course which is open to graduates as well as current brewery employees. Class topics include yeast efficiency, brewery design, and more.

At U.C. Davis, in northern-central California, malting and brewing are taught as part of the bachelor of science degree in Food Science or the master’s degree of science within the Food Science Graduate Group. This is where Professor Bamforth teaches. There are three tiers to the Davis brewing program. First is Introduction to Beer and Brewing, which gets the student familiar with the importance of beer as an international industry, and a basic understanding of how industrial breweries operate. Next is the theoretical class Malting & Brewing Science, which familiarizes the student with all aspects of industrial beer production from growing grains to the point of sale. Thirdly is Practical Malting & Brewing, where the student learns “hands-on” in the brewery and at the lab about analyzing beer and the links of that analysis with production methods.

With the golden age of microbrews going strong, it will be a wonder to see what these new brew scholars can do with beer. We are sure to see more interesting varieties and more efficient beer production thanks to these new degrees. Blue-collar workers finally have something to thank academia for!

A Nutritional Guide to Beer

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Beer has always been a source of nutrition for it’s drinkers.  The most common problem people have with beer is that it is too nutritious to be considered a mere beverage.  Beer is food, and must be considered as such in order for the avid beer drinker to maintain health.  Too much beer – just like too much food – and not enough exercise has been the downfall of many a beer fan.  The body of a beer has a great effect on it’s nutritional value, and so does the yeast used in the brewing.  First let’s look at some of the overall nutritional qualities of beer.

The most nutritious aspect of beer drinking is probably the least considered – not the malt, hops, barley, but the yeast.  Yeast sediment is uncommon in most commercially produced beers, but that doesn’t mean that the yeast isn’t there – it is.  Floating unseen in the body of the beer are the remnants of the magical creature that transforms sugar into alcohol.  Yeast remains accountable for the addition of B-complex vitamins, protein, and minerals to brews.  Most commercially produced beers have the yeast sediment rigorously strained out of it – but it is still there.  In “real ale” “live ale”, or “cask-conditioned” ales, you are likely to find a higher yeast content, as the beer is less processed.

One testament to the nutritious qualities of beer is the use of beer in certain food dishes.  In Belgium, a land where beers are many and varied, they make a dish called Carbonnade.  This is basically a beef stew, but it is made with beer instead of water!  Irish stew is another likely candidate to be spiked.  Beer is also found occasionally as a marinade (for kielbasas), as a moisturizer (beer can chicken), and is even claimed by some to tenderize meat.  I have even seen beer-based desserts on the menu at mid-scale restaurants – the most common being the Guinness Ice Cream Float.  Furthermore, the study “Effect of beer, yeast-fermented glucose, and ethanol on pancreatic enzyme secretion in healthy human subjects” conducted in 1996 suggests that the non-alcoholic part of beer, yeast fermented glucose, stimulates pancreatic enzyme production, helping the body to absorb nutrients from it’s meal.  It is likely that beer is not only nutritious, but also helps the body process other nutrients in the digestive system as well. 

Beer for desert, anyone?

To understand how beer can fit into our dietary regimens, let’s look at the nutritional qualities of a few types of beer.  Different makes of beer have different nutritional values, so we’ll have to be specific here.  We are going to select three champions from three different fields of brewing.  For the dark beers, we will choose Guinness as a popular representative.  For the amber ales, New Belgium’s Fat Tire, and for the Pale ales, Sierra Nevada’s Wheat Beer. 

Twelve ounces of Guinness have roughly the same nutritional value as a baked sweet potato with no toppings: Sodium 20 mg. vs. 22 mg. in potato, carbs 10g vs. 12.4 g. in potato, and 40 calories worth of carbs vs. the 50 cal. sweet potato.  Guinness also has 82 cal. from alcohol (making a total of 122 cal.), and 0 g. fat, whereas the potato has 5 cal. of protein and 1 g. of fat.  As we can see, if you add a little butter, salt and pepper to the potato and the extra 4 ounces to the pint, they will come out roughly the same (although the potato will probably have more fat; the Guinness is actually quite lean).  This is a good way to look at the number of drinks you are having – a pint of Guinness is about like eating a lightly topped baked potato – but quite a bit tastier after the 2nd one.

New Belgium’s Fat Tire Amber Ale is well known for it’s full body and malty flavor.  All of that flavor does add up to more slightly more calories and carbs.  Fat Tire has a total of 155 calories and 14.7 grams worth of carbs, bringing it’s nutritional value up to that of a slightly larger baked sweet potato.  The good news is that you can easily work those extra calories off by bicycling to the bar and back!

Sierra Nevada’s Wheat Beer is a light-tasting alternative as far as beers go – but the flavors of this beer add up to more calories than Guinness!  With the same sodium content(20 mg.), and also more carbs (13.1g.), more protein (1.6g vs. Guinness 1g.), and more Alcohol 95 cal. than Guinness.  This goes to show that color isn’t everything.  Although Guinness is certainly the lightest beer, in terms of calories, from the field of Stouts.

We can see that different beers have a wide variety of nutritional values.  The one guideline I can suggest to figure out the nutritional qualities of your beer is that the more maltiness and body of the ale, the higher the caloric content is likely to be.  Keep all this in mind and keep a tally of the potato equivalent you are drinking each night.  This will help you to get the most out of your beer without getting too much!