(Albany, NY) – Harvester Brewing Company isn’t the only gluten-free beer producer that is pleased with the TTB’s recent ruling affecting Widmer Brothers’ Omission Beer brand. The ruling essentially stipulates that beers that, at one point, contained gluten and had it removed during the production process cannot carry the phrase “Gluten-free” on the label.
Steadfast Beer Company recently shared its comments on the ruling on Facebook:
The TTB (Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms Tax & Trade Bureau) just deemed it fit to brand alcoholic beverages made from Gluten-Free ingredients with the designation “Gluten-Free”. Seems logical, no? They also deemed it unfit to brand GF when an alcoholic beverage’s ingredients are NOT Gluten-Free themselves. Seems logical, no? Well, some of our potential competitors out there are hitting the market with gluten-neutered barley beers. As Celiac beer drinkers, isn’t this a little alarming???
In addition, the company tells BeerPulse that it is expanding distribution throughout the state of Colorado through Republic National Distributing.
Fellow notable gluten-free beer producer, New Planet Beer, is based in Boulder.
I don’t get it – why is this alarming? From what I have read, it seems that the Omission ales are lower ppm gluten than some of the beers that can currently carry the GF label. This stinks of marketing, not science (or maybe just ‘sour sorghum’).
I get it: the malt based GF beers taste better and they can’t compete. So rather than focus on the finished product (which is better) they focus on the ingredients (which contained gluten! Oh no!).
There is no “science” to back up any claims that the beer is gluten free because there is no reliable gluten test that works with beer. Furthermore the product they use to supposedly remove gluten is really nothing more then a head retention enzyme that chops proteins into smaller proteins so they can pass through a filter. So in laymans terms they are selling an unreliable product using ghetto rigged ingredients.
But, if after several months, people haven’t reported getting sick from the Omission Beer, kind of passes the sniff test, no? Your point may be well made in theory but I haven’t heard of any people getting sick in reality.