Gluten-Free Brewing: A New Beginning April 27 2020, 0 Comments

My name is Ben, you may know me. I operate the Wine and Hop Shop and am part of the team at Working Draft Beer Co. Beer and beer brewing has been a huge, in some ways defining, part of my life for 15+ years. 

What you may not have known about me, is that a few years ago, I started developing strange rashes and digestive issues. What became apparent, much to my chagrin, was that I had developed a sensitivity to gluten.

Over the past couple of years, I've tried lots of things to try and heal my guts to a point that perhaps I could, at least occasionally, drink gluten with minimal to no side effects. Unfortunately, at least for now, abstinence seems to be the only answer that works for me.

I had hopes that Clarity Ferm, an enzyme that White Labs sells that breaks down gluten in beer, would allow me to enjoy glutinous beverages, but alas, while it helped a bit, I still didn't feel well after drinking it, so I had to put that on pause as well.

As you may imagine, this was not an easy thing to come to grips with. Owning a homebrew shop and a brewery, being surrounded by great beer and great beer culture, and not being able to take part in it has been a difficult adjustment.

However, there is a positive light at the end of this tunnel (hence this blog). Steven, who's worked at the Shop for about 1.5 years, recently was hired at Alt Brew to brew their delicious gluten-free beer. Talking with Steven about all-grain gluten-free brewing reignited my desire to make beer.

So I built a new home-brewery (I had given my first rig to Working Draft to use as a pilot system), one that is simpler than my original brewery, but still with enough bells and whistles to help make brew-day more efficient. And I've worked with Trevor at Alt Brew to source gluten-free grains (thanks so much Trevor!!!). 

I plan on doing periodic entries in this blog about my new adventures in all-grain gluten-free brewing. I just brewed my first batch, an IPA, the style should not be a surprise for those who've ever seen my left arm, and I'm looking forward to writing about the things that I learn from each batch.

This new project has really reinvigorated my creative juices. I can't wait to make for beer for me (and my mom, who also can't do gluten) and share with you what I've learned!