If you need a gluten free diet, then you will know that you can not drink most beers. The grains that beer is made from contains gluten so therefore most beers have gluten. There has been a push in recent years for more and more alcoholic beers to become gluten free but the question is, what non alcoholic beers are gluten free?
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What Non Alcoholic Beers Are Gluten Free?
I have reviewed over 110 non alcoholic and alcohol free beers. You can see my entire best of lists here. Of these non alcoholic beers, around 20% are gluten free, which is a very high percentage. A lot of the non alcoholic craft breweries make most of their beers as gluten free. One of the prime examples would be Big Drop Brewing Co.
For an ultimate guide to gluten free non alcoholic beer, you can read my full article, here.
Below is a list of over 20 gluten free non alcoholic beers for you to try, i have included all the nutritional data as well.
| Beer | Score/10 | Style | ABV | Calories/100ml | Carbs/100ml | Sugar/100ml | GF |
| Minus | 9 | IPA | 0.50% | 10 | 1.1 | 0.1 | Yes |
| UNLTD. | 9 | IPA | 0.50% | 4 | 1 | 0.1 | Yes |
| Pine Trail | 8.5 | Pale Ale | 0.50% | 18.5 | 3.6 | 0.1 | Yes |
| Off-Piste Hazelnut Porter | 8.5 | Porter | 0.50% | 26 | 4.4 | 2.3 | Yes |
| Galactic milk stout | 8.5 | Stout | 0.50% | 27 | 6.7 | 3.1 | Yes |
| Nirvana Stout | 7.5 | Stout | 0.00% | 20 | 4.8 | 2.8 | Yes |
| Drop Bear Bonfire Stout | 7.5 | Stout | 0.50% | 17 | 3.4 | 0.2 | Yes |
| Free Damm | 7 | Lager | 0.00% | 20 | 4.7 | 1.7 | Yes |
| Upside Dawn | 7 | Golden Ale | 0.50% | 14 | 3.2 | 1.4 | Yes |
| Woodcutter | 7 | Brown Ale | 0.50% | 22 | 4.9 | 2.7 | Yes |
| Drop Bear Yuzu Pale Ale | 6.5 | Pale Ale | 0.50% | 8 | 0.4 | 0.1 | Yes |
| Uptime | 6.5 | Lager | 0.50% | 11.8 | 1.4 | 0.1 | Yes |
| All Out | 6.5 | Porter | 0.50% | 25 | 5.8 | 1.3 | Yes |
| Fieldhopper | 6 | Golden Ale | 0.50% | 12.4 | 1.2 | 0.1 | Yes |
| Drop Bear Tropical IPA | 5.5 | IPA | 0.50% | 6.5 | 0.5 | 0.1 | Yes |
| Wildtrack | 5.5 | APA | 0.50% | 16 | 3.9 | 0.6 | Yes |
| Paradiso | 5.5 | Citra IPA | 0.50% | 18.5 | 3.6 | 2 | Yes |
| Free Star | 4.5 | Lager | 0.00% | 19 | 4.5 | 1.1 | Yes |
| Drop Bear New World Lager | 4 | India Pale Lager | 0.50% | 14 | 1.8 | 0.1 | Yes |
| Double Strike | 4 | Sour | 0.50% | 16 | 3.5 | 3 | Yes |
| Esmeralda | 4 | Cerveza with Tequila | 0.50% | 32 | 1.6 | 0.3 | Yes |
How is gluten free non alcoholic beer made?
There is probably 3 main ways to make gluten free beer.
1. Use alternatives to barley, wheat and rye.
Below are ingredients used to make gluten free beer, that do not contain gluten. So called non gluten containing ingredients (NGCIs)
- millet
- rice
- sorghum
- buckwheat
- corn (maize)
As they don’t start with gluten containing grains they can be truly gluten free and not merely gluten free <20ppm (gluten removed) if attention is paid to the starting yeast.
If you are extremely gluten sensitive and anything near 20ppm gluten may still affect you then these types of brews are for you. They are pretty easy to search for now with good old Google.
2. Filtration
Incorporate special low gluten barley along with the NGCIs then filter the remaining gluten out.
With modern brewing techniques, low gluten malts and NGCIs and be brewed in such a way to leave a very low level of gluten that can then be filtered out at the end to get below the 20ppm standard and hopefully 10ppm to be classed as “gluten absent”
3. Enzymes to break down gluten
The last way is to brew your normal beer with barley, rye or wheat then introduce an enzyme that breaks down all non starch compounds, including gluten
This is probably the most common method now. Adding an enzyme such as Brewers Clarex can break down all the gluten to inactive parts than can be left in the beer or again filtered out.
The top 5 gluten free non alcoholic beers
1. Aegir Minus AVB 0.5%
| Type | IPA |
| Calories | 10kcal per 100ml 35.5kcal per 12fl oz |
| Carbs | 1.1g per 100ml 3.9g per 12fl oz |
| Sugar | 0.1g per 100ml 0.36g per 12fl oz |
In contrast to most IPAs i try, which are citrus in nature, this have a beautiful pine fragrance.
Despite being very low calorie it had good body and luxury mouthfeel.
I have bought dozens on this since my first drink.
2. UNLTD. AVB 0.5%
| Type | IPA |
| Calories | 4kcal per 100ml 14.2kcal per 12fl oz |
| Carbs | 1g per 100ml 3.6g per 12fl oz |
| Sugar | 0.1g per 100ml 0.36g per 12fl oz |
This is the lowest calorie beer i have tried so worth a mention for that alone but they have managed to create a really flavoursome IPA which doesn’t just taste like fizzy water.
They have included a special ingredient to create some bulk so it feels like a much bigger carb beer.
3. Galactic milk stout ABV 0.5%
| Type | Milk Stout |
| Calories | 27kcal per 100ml 95.9kcal per 12fl oz |
| Carbs | 6.7g per 100ml 27.8g per 12fl oz |
| Sugar | 3.1g per 100ml 11g per 12fl oz |
This multi award winning stout is top notch. You get all the coffee, chocolate type notes you would want and more.
I would say it is verging more on porter than stout, but nerdy semantics aside, this is an absolutely cracking dark beer.
4. Off-Piste Hazelnut Porter ABV 0.5%
| Type | Hazelnut Porter |
| Calories | 11kcal per 100ml 39kcal per 12fl oz |
| Carbs | 3.3g per 100ml 11.7g per 12fl oz |
| Sugar | 2.8g per 100ml 9.9g per 12fl oz |
The second of 3 from Big Drop in the top 5
This is a surprisingly light porter but all the malt, caramel and chocolate tones you want. The added flavour kicker is a hazelnut undertone.
You can drink an awful lot of this
5. Big Drop Pine Trail ABV 0.5%
| Type | Pale Ale |
| Calories | 18.5kcal per 100ml 65.7kcal per 12fl oz |
| Carbs | 3.6g per 100ml 12.8g per 12fl oz |
| Sugar | 0.1g per 100ml 0.36g per 12fl oz |
Last but certainly not least is a smashing IPA from Big Drop. Their Pine Trail is synonymous for non alcoholic IPAs.
There is plenty of malt along with a citrus and pine hop hit that goes down very easily.
They have got the balance here just right and it is very good indeed.
How do you check if a beer is gluten free?
If you have Celiac i’m sure you are well used to this and on the ball. The default is to assume all beers are not gluten free until proven otherwise.
They will often be advertised as gluten free and you can look up the ingredients and check other their website to get an idea of what brewing techniques are used. You may also find their gluten free ppm number and certification.
If you are very sensitive to gluten then look for the NGCIs without any barley, rye or wheat in the beer
