Why I Gave Up Beer for Lent

February 17, I gave up beer for Lent. Not just beer, though – I actually gave up all gluten. It was an experience at first. I am that person, after all, who had to wonder if a pretzel had gluten in it. I wanted this year’s Lent to be an education, to learn something while relating to some people in my life who are gluten-free, and the helpful benefit of simultaneously giving up one of my favorite drinks in the whole wide world: beer.

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Ultimate 6er | Gluten-Free Holiday Beers

‘Tis season to be jolly, but don’t ignore the gluten-free folks! Finding the perfect beer gift for the gluten-free person in your life isn’t as daunting as it seems. Here’s a list of truly gluten-free beers available across the country, brewed with naturally gluten-free malted ingredients such as corn, quinoa, buckwheat, and sorghum.

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Great Frontier Brewing Co. | Oak Street IPA

Many breweries open with hopes to win a GABF Gold Medal; but not many open due to creating a GABF Gold-winning recipe. However, that’s exactly the case for Great Frontier‘s Mike Plungis.

Great Frontier Brewing Company is located in Lakewood, Colorado. Since opening over three years ago, their focus is on brewing gluten-free and gluten-reduced beers. The inception of the brewery and its beers, like the Oak Street IPA, all came about in a unique fashion.

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Dos Luces Brewery | Chicha Inti

It was a cold, dark and slightly damp fall evening — but as soon as I walked inside Dos Luces Brewery, the stream of twinkling lights, plentiful plants and colorful, open space melted away the snow from my shoulders and why-is-it-dark-at-4 p.m. attitude. The brewery, which opened this summer, was filled with a smattering of locals sipping beers in unassuming white cups on a quiet Wednesday evening. A few sips of the Chicha Inti beer, an Incan drink brewed from blue corn and radiating with sweet spices, quickly made me forget the omnipresent chill and transported me to the warm, verdant oasis of my grandmother’s garden. Read More

Gluten-Reduced Beer is Having a Moment

Craft beer seems to go through phases. Right now, you can’t find a new brewery that isn’t making something exceedingly bitter, hazy or barrel-aged. In some ways, consumers’ preferences for different craft beer styles mirror their often-fleeting style, dietary and exercise obsessions. Every year there seems to be a new trend popping up that captures the minds of the economically important 25-34 age demographic. One dietary preference that has weathered the storm of fleeting fads has been the rise of gluten-free and gluten-reduced diets due to its digestive health benefits. Now, several prominent craft brewers are joining the fray by introducing gluten-reduced beers. Are these new options a simple novelty or a beer style that is set to explode? We asked two brewers leading the charge.

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Holidaily Brewing Colorado’s 100% Gluten-Free Brewery Turns One

Photo Credit: Holidaily Brewing Co.

Gluten-free – trendy, healthy, high maintenance or life altering. Those are just some of the reactions you might receive when you ask people what they think about gluten-free. In truth, those two words evoke vastly different reactions from just about everyone. For Karen Hertz, gluten-free became part of her life during a treatment plan as she battled and beat melanoma in 2007 and then both papillary thyroid cancer and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, an autoimmune disease, in 2008. After beating cancer twice Karen developed a passion for health and happiness. This centered around gluten-free options, but there weren’t many out there in the world of beer. Read More