Since 1870 we’ve lived and breathed malting. With this passion and expertise, and by combining traditional and modern techniques, we create an impressive range of malted and non-malted products, including several unique and exclusive barley malts.
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In April, Sarah Marshall, Technical Brewing Sales Manager visited Bellfield Brewery in Edinburgh for a brew day to find out more about brewing gluten free beer. Bellfield pride themselves in making a range of great tasting craft beers that are inclusive to those with gluten intolerances, coeliacs and also vegan friendly.
All their beers are certified by Coeliac UK & the Vegan Society. They were founded in 2015 by two coeliacs who wanted to have the option of drinking a wider range of craft beers, rather than the limited selection of GF beers that were available at the time. They don’t push the gluten free message dramatically on their advertising, it is more about opening opportunities for those who can’t consume gluten as well as the general craft beer drinker.
To be inclusive and cater for different dietary needs; there is now far more awareness on gluten intolerances within people’s diets. Being Celiac is a much more serious autoimmune disease, rendering people much more sensitive to glutens to a point where they can’t consume normal beer, eat bread, pasta, etc.
Many beers are naturally under the legal UK threshold but can vary from batch to batch, so is very much worth checking. As gluten is an allergen – testing every batch is morally the right thing to do. In the UK the legal limit for calling a beer ‘Gluten Free’ is 20 ppm (parts per million), but many GF brewers aim for much lower than this to help cater for celiacs. Please note that legal ‘gluten free’ levels differ in the USA and around the world and labelling legislation also maybe different. Careful research is suggested.
In the USA, a product can only be labelled as ‘gluten free’ if the ingredients that contain gluten can be tested and proven to be gluten free before they are processed (hydrolysed or fermented). This is not the case in the UK – in the UK it is testing of the final product. Labelling in the UK and Europe is more detailed about if a product is made from naturally gluten free ingredients or if it is made from gluten containing grains that have had the gluten removed in processing, allowing consumers to make their own mind up.
The problem is that even the naturally gluten free products are often produced in the same environment to gluten containing products so there might be some slight contamination, however this is very minimal.
Bellfield pride themselves is making GF craft beer that is as indistinguishable as possible from normal craft beer. They do this by using various methods throughout the brewing process, some to reduce high gluten containing ingredients, some methods to reduce gluten and other methods to substitute or add back in factors and flavours that might be lost due to these differences to ‘normal brewing’. They have spent years doing R&D to find a formular that works well for them.
By combining as many of these processes as possible they ensure their beer is as low in gluten content as it possibly can be and is often tested as ‘gluten absent’ (below 10ppm).
If you have an MCV / Lauter tun system, do a good protein stand at 45degC for 20 mins before raising the temperature to 64/65degC for the amylase enzymes. This lowers the protein (including gluten) levels down. Alternatively add protease enzymes to a single infusion mash. Remember, these protease enzymes are not selective for gluten proteins so will break down proteins that contribute to head retention (GF beers often have poor foam), and body & mouthfeel as well.
Mash temperature – go for good conversion temp so 64/65degC as there will be a lot of adjuncts such as Torrefied Maize & Torrefied Rice which won’t contain enzymes, so you need the enzymes from the base malt to do as much work as possible. This will leave you with more fermentable sugars, so potentially a thinner final beer. You could add Dextrin Malt to compensate for the lack of body (has lots of unfermentable long chain sugars), or Flaked Torrefied Oats or Naked Oat Malt (note – if you are adding amylase enzymes in the mash, this can convert dextrins in the dextrin malt into shorter chain fermentable sugars potentially undoing the point of dextrin malt).
Fermentation is as normal.
Add protease enzyme in fermentation/ conditioning according to the supplier instructions. Ensure optimum temperature, pH and time is given to allow the enzyme to circulate and work correctly. Variability on final gluten content is often caused by not giving the beer the right contact conditions with the enzyme or enough conditioning time.
If you wish to label a beer as gluten free, every batch should be tested. Gluten is an allergen that has serious consequences to those who are very sensitive to it. Send a sample from each batch to an accredited or approved lab. The approved method of testing in the UK is an R5 ELISA (Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay) Competitive method – this complies with Coeliac UK approval. The USA testing is different.
In a similar way to regular brewing, vary the ingredients. If you are relying on the enzyme to reduce gluten content, you can use different gluten containing grains and malts but making a GF wheat beer using malted wheat in high %s could be very tricky!
Otherwise substituting gluten containing ingredients with other naturally gluten free grains such as:
Variability – strongly recommended to test every batch. Don’t skimp on enzyme contact time.
Thin beer / lack of body – replacing malted barley with lower gluten adjuncts like torrefied maize & T. wheat will dilute gluten proteins (great!) but also other proteins for body. Look at keeping as much dextrin in as possible (either higher mash temps or dextrin malt), or using something like oats – lower in gluten but good for body.
Poor head retention – not much getting around this, the enzyme used for GF products will break down the same proteins for head retention – it is not selective to gluten proteins. You could start with a higher carbonation in your beer but that can create dispense problems. Oats can help up to a point but still add some gluten. Dextrin or chit malt can add body and head retention as they are undermodified but still, adds gluten.
If you need some technical support or you are experiencing some challenges during your gluten free beer brewing, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our Technical Team! Our Technical Team are more than happy to help you make the most from our grains. Learn more about our Flaked Torrefied Rice, Maize, Oats, and other cereals here. Happy brewing!
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