Gluten-free beer

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A small proportion of the population (~1–5%) is intolerant of gluten type proteins in cereals such as wheat and barley. In barley, it is the hordeins that are responsible for the adverse immunologic reaction in the intestines of celiac disease sufferers and those that are gluten intolerant. The malting and brewing processes generally reduce the level of gluten measured by ELISA to below the 20 PPM gluten recommended by the Codex Alimentarius Commission in 2009. The detectable levels of gluten could also be reduced still further by treatment with a enzyme product such as Brewer's Clarex during the beer maturation stage. However, ELISA may underestimate the level of potentially problematic polypeptides that remain in the beer. Recently, an ultra-low gluten-free barley variety, Kebari, was released which potentially provides the opportunity to safely produce gluten-free beer from barley malt. (although it doesn't appear to be on sale anywhere in the US)

• A Comprehensive Comparison of Gluten-Free Brewing Techniques: Differences in Gluten Reduction Ability, Analytical Attributes, and Hedonic Perception 2023
• https://zerotolerance.mywikis.net/wiki/Main_Page
• https://www.glutenfreehomebrewing.com/
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S092422441400003X
• https://beerandbrewing.com/free-your-beer/
• https://gfbsupply.com/

Gluten: It is the main structural protein composite of wheat and other cereals, including rye and barley. The protein fraction of gluten comprises gliadins and glutenins, with gliadins containing monomeric proteins and glutenins containing aggregated proteins. Recently, Sapone et al. (2012) thoroughly reviewed the gluten-related disorders. Besides the well-known disorder of celiac disease (CD), there are spectrum of other acknowledged gluten-related disorders. Hence, the number of individuals preferring a gluten-free diet is much higher than the projected number of CD patients, fueling a global market of gluten-free products reaching US$2.5 billion in worldwide sales in 2010. This trend is supported by the concept that along with CD, other conditions related to the ingestion of gluten have emerged as health concerns among many individuals in the world, which has caused emerging health care concerns and reduced its market potential as food ingredient. Because of consumer preference for gluten-free diets, gluten has become a significant by-product of grain production. Hence, new applications of gluten should be explored.

An intact D-hordein of beer, alongside the additional wheat prolamins of Weissbier, was immunoreactive to gliadin-specific IgA from celiacs’ sera.

According to ELISA determinations a large number of commercial beers display a gluten content much lower than 20 ppm (Dostálek et al., 2006; Guerdrum, 2011), despite the unambiguous detection of gluten epitopes by MS even in apparent gluten-free beer samples (Real et al., 2014). In other cases, ELISA methods provided clearly aberrant figures, mainly due to the lack of an adequate standard (Tanner et al., 2013a). For example, gluten content ranging from 5 to 47 mg/g has been reported for wheat-containing beers. These values are obviously unreliable as they exceed largely the whole protein content of beer. Apart from beer brewed with nonceliacogenic cereals, beer producers have recently introduced barley-based beer brands declared as gluten-free, in which gluten is removed or degraded by bacterial or mold (Aspergillus niger) prolyl endopeptidases (van Landschott, 2011; Knorr et al., 2016). The effective removal of these gluten-like epitopes is commonly assessed with ELISA methods that might provide unreliable responses. For these reasons, the development of robust assays to quantify hydrolyzed gluten in foods and beer is an urgent question that may be answered through antibody-independent methods such as MS (Colgrave et al., 2014).

An ultra-low gluten barley (<5 ppm) has been recently obtained by conventional breeding programs and the use of this grain for brewing has been realized with commercial introduction in Germany and has the potential to provide a safe, gluten-free alternative for celiacs (Tanner et al., 2016).

Beer contains immunologically active proteins and peptides. Proteins of beer can elicit IgE-mediated allergic reactions, although the prevalence of allergy to beer is relatively low. On the other hand, among the beer (poly)peptides some are derived from gluten and can trigger an autoimmune reaction in subjects suffering from celiac disease. Intact hordeins occur at low concentrations in beer, because of their scarce solubility in the low-alcohol solutions.

Hordeins are notable for their role in celiac disease in humans (Hager et al., 2014).

• Hager, A.S., Taylor, J.P., Waters, D.M., Arendt, E.K., 2014. Gluten free beer - a review. Trends Food Sci. Technol. 36, 44–54.
• https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0056456
• https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0056452
• https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1094/ASBCJ-2014-0129-01
• Progress of the use of alternatives to malt in the production of gluten-free beer
• Chestnut in beer production: applicability and effect on beer quality parameters