No wheat, no barley, No beer? Part 2: Rudy's Verdict

Rudy's Gluten free taste trials. 

No Gluten allowed! (Original here)

Rudy: In my own small town of Minocqua, WI, we have several types of sorguhm beers availible to us. I decided to try three of them, for some reason three is my magic number when  tasting beers, I tend to like variety and contrast and since one is not a variety and two does not have much contrast, three is genrally perfect for this task! 



The beers:


Bard’s Original Sorghum Malt Beer brewed by Bard’s Tale Beer Company in Utica, New York, 
I was taken in by the label and was very excited to try this beer, however that soon left me as the beer rushed to my mouth. The first thing I thought of was wow, this is horrible…I have had bad beer before, I think we all have, but this was worse! I decided that one taste was not enough, for the sake of a true review I must give it a second chance…Nope! It was still bad, the taste is somewhere between a fizzy 9-volt battery test on your tongue topped off with a heady alcoholic slap to the face. I did try one more gulp, ( because three is the magic number), and then I sinned and poured it down the drain. I am not proud of the fact I wasted beer, but some things are more important; like retaining the contents of my stomach.


Redbridge, an Anheuser-Busch product from St. Louis, Missouri.
I was a little gun shy about tasting this beer, after all the Bard's was atrocious. Needless to say I marched forward and found this beer drinkable. It had the same attributes as many types of non-alcoholic beers. O’Doul’s would be the closest example. It did not taste bad, or at least not as bad as the first beer. I noticed the same cotton mouthed flavour that Budweiser is famous for. In comparison to the first beer this was much more palatable.

Lakefront New Grist brewed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin by Lakefront Brewery. 
This beer was the best of the lot. I could finally finish a beer and want another one from the same brewery. New Grist is that perfect summer beer for a hot and muggy day. It was cool, crisp, light in color, with a smidge of citrus taste. On the whole a good tasting beer. If I were unable to eat gluten products and this was presented to me I would think, someone finally cared about me and my dietary problems. Lakefront took the time to create a beer that tastes like a beer, (even if it is kind of like a wine cooler), but a beer non the less.


My final analysis of these beers is this I would not be inclined to consume these beers on a daily basis or anytime in the near future. The Lakefront New Grist was enjoyable, but the other two had an in your face taste and I was left with a queasy stomach after drinking them. I'm glad to have tried them but will stick to the normal and not so normal grain beers I have come to enjoy. I hope that brewers can provide a better gluten free beer in the future.



Skye: Being located in the DC metro region I had a slightly larger selection at hand so I choose some imports. I'll reveal my findings and thoughts tomorrow.