For those resolving to eat better and live healthier, going ‘free-from’ seems to be the new ‘stop smoking’, as today around one-third of British consumers are buying and eating free-from food; of whom 22% buy gluten-free products, 19% buy dairy-free products and 16% buy wheat-free and lactose-free products according to gov.uk statistics. Indeed, the UK free-from industry is heading for a £558 million valuation by the end 2018 (Mintel statistics). And that kind of maths has had everyone from international food giants to micro-breweries clamouring for a piece of the pie. Gluten v Beer Gluten is a protein found in grains such as wheat, barley and rye – all principle ingredients in most beers found in the UK and throughout the brewing world. For gluten-intolerant people, where ingesting it can cause bloating and or fatigue, it’s socially inconvenient. In people who suffer from Coeliac disease, it triggers digestive symptoms such as diarrhoea; causing damage to the intestines. But it’s not just Coeliac sufferers who are avoiding Gluten in their diet. Increasingly health-conscious adults, keen to take up the latest dietary trends, have been limiting or eliminating gluten from their diets. However latest research claims gluten-free foods on the whole contain more fat, salt and sugar than their gluten-carrying counterparts. But that’s a whole other article and not in this Bird’s remit. Free-from Beer? Not only were the terms ‘free –from’ and gluten-free’ rarely spoken 30 years ago, the chances of finding a gluten-free beer were a big fat zero. Then in 2004, after several years of trials Derek Green, himself a gluten-intolerant type, launched Discovery, the UK’s first ever Alternative Grain and naturally GF beer; which is still produced today within Green’s range of gluten and naturally gluten free beers. Gluten-free beer v Gluten removed Beer Beers brewed from cereals such as rice, millet, buckwheat, corn and sorghum will not trigger the digestive symptoms in coeliacs as discussed above – these are true gluten-free beers. Gluten-removed beers are made with a special enzyme in the brewing process which breaks down the gluten protein to get rid of its potentially inflammatory nature; although it could be said that perhaps the term ‘gluten –reduced’ would be a truer description (to qualify as “gluten-free” a product must be 20 parts per million gluten or less). Whilst most drinkers are probably familiar with names such as Estrella Damm GF lager, Celia Premium Czech lager and St Peters G-Free, seen in most pub fridges these days, happily there are increasingly bigger flavoured GF and GR beers more widely available – check out BB’s top options below: Gluten-reduced Beers Magic Rock’s Fantasma (Can) First Chop Brewing Hop 4.1% (Can) Wold Top Scarborough Fair IPA, 6% (Bottle) Monty’s Brewery Dark Secret Stout (Bottle) Kennet & Avon - Savernake Stout 5.3% (Bottle) Brass Castle Hoptical Illusion 4.3% (Can) Autumn Brewing Bavarian Pilsner 4.5% (Bottle) Bellfield Lawless Village IPA 4.5% (Bottle)