In our newsletter we wrote about the White Labs product named Clarity-Ferm that is used to prevent chill haze in beer. As a side-effect, it appears to sharply reduce the gluten content of a beer. Current methods for brewing low gluten or gluten free beers involve using grains other than barley such as sorghum, corn sugar and rice and it can be difficult to blend these into a great tasting beer. Clarity-Ferm is added to the beer immediately after chilling before yeast is pitched. Please keep in mind that everyone has varying levels of gluten sensitivity. We have brewed a beer at Maltose Express using Clarity-Ferm and Mark Lennon who has sensitivity to gluten was nice enough to drink approximately three to four pints of this beer. Mark cannot drink half a pint of beer under normal circumstances. However, he was able to drink alot of our beer treated with Clarity Ferm and not experience any bad side affects. Thanks being our first test case Mark! If you or someone you know has Celiac disease this may be a way to drink great tasting beer again. Ask us for a sample if you would like to try our beer brewed with Clarity-Ferm.
As of June 06th, 2012 we have given samples of our beer brewed with Clarity Ferm to 12 people who have some degree of sensitivity to gluten. All 12 have been able to drink the beer without any reaction to gluten.
