Author: Steffen Page 3 of 11

Another famous American beer and something many visitors probably waited for a long time is Samual Adams crafted Boston Lager. Well, what’s the definition of craft beer? In my eyes it’s a beer produced by an independent small brewery selling it almost only locally, preferebly run as a family business and the boss checks the quality daily with passion and dedication. Boston Lager is to me more a mass production beer produced by a S&P listed company with almost 1 Billion $ revenue. Here is a nice little article about Sam Adams. Maybe I am wrong so I would be happy to see comments with your opinion

But what about the gluten concentration in Boston Lager? Here is the test result:

Beer: Samuel Adams Boston Lager
Producer: Boston Beer Company
Originating country: USA
Brewing location: USA
Bottle size: 12 oz = 0.355 l
Alcohol by volume: 5.0%
Ingredients: water, malt, hops, and yeast (internet research as ingredients are not listed on the can)
Miscellaneous: –

Test Kit: Imutest Gluten-in-Food Kit

Test result: The test result is negative. According to the instructions there should appear a clearly visible pink test spot on the left of the test area ( T ) to indicate the presence of gluten. The pink spot on the right test area ( C ) is a control spot and indicates that the extract/sample is suitable, the test has been performed correctly and all reagents are active. Even though the detection limit in this kit is very low (1-2 ppm) and the test is negative please note this is not a medical advice – please see also my facts page.

I owed you the test result from the Chinese beer poll back in December last year. I haven’t posted the result as we had other test results with higher priority – like the tests from Adam and Joe M. And I have to apologise as I wasn’t able to get the winning beer (Yanjing) and not even the runner-up (Zhujiang). Finally I found Snow (3rd in the poll) in a small shop in Shanghai. If you don’t know where to go in Shanghai you are lost. Mainly Western beer brands are available beside the most famous Tsingtao which I already tested in 2014.

And I wanted to explore the city and not only look for beer. Actually I found a good shop with a lot of beers but I wasn’t able to buy them as the only accepted way to pay was Alipay. China really lives the digitalisation. Almost everything can be paid with mobile phones using WeChat for instance. Anyway, I tested Snow then. A very light, American lager style beer with low alcohol and not much taste.

Beer: Snow / 雪花啤酒
Producer: China Resources Snow Breweries Ltd.
Originating country: China
Brewing location: China
Bottle size: 500 ml
Alcohol by volume: 3.3%
Ingredients: Water, Malt Extract (9%), Starch, Corn, Hop Extract, Yeast according to internet research
Miscellaneous: –

Test Kit: Imutest Gluten-in-Food Kit

Test result: The test result is negative. According to the instructions there should appear a clearly visible pink test spot on the left of the test area ( T ) to indicate the presence of gluten. The pink spot on the right test area ( C ) is a control spot and indicates that the extract/sample is suitable, the test has been performed correctly and all reagents are active. Even though the detection limit in this kit is very low (1-2 ppm) and the test is negative please note this is not a medical advice – please see also my facts page.

Radeberger is not the best selling but probably the most popular beer in Germany. I found this survey which is almost 5 years old but things haven’t changed since then a lot I guess. Only mainstream beers were considered but Germany has so much beer and so many breweries. Look at this fantastic map which shows all German breweries (be patient it takes a while to load all pins).

Anyway, I like Radeberger and it is available almost everywhere in Germany.

Beer: Radeberger
Producer: Radeberger Exportbierbrauerei
Originating country: Germany
Brewing location: Germany
Bottle size: 0.5 l
Alcohol by volume: 4.8%
Ingredients: water, barley malt, hops
Miscellaneous: –

Test Kit: Imutest Gluten-in-Food Kit

Test result: The test result is negative. According to the instructions there should appear a clearly visible pink test spot on the left of the test area ( T ) to indicate the presence of gluten. The pink spot on the right test area ( C ) is a control spot and indicates that the extract/sample is suitable, the test has been performed correctly and all reagents are active. Even though the detection limit in this kit is very low (1-2 ppm) and the test is negative please note this is not a medical advice – please see also my facts page.

During my last trip to Detroit I wanted to try some local beer – Michigan beer. The most famous local beer seems to be Badass – the beer launched by Kid Rock. It is available in many locations. I have only seen this from tap and found it quite OK. Next time I will try to get a bottle to test it on gluten.

I was surprised how far Michigan is with gluten free options. In Clarkston in the outskirts of Detroit I was able to get gluten free food without problems. E.g. at the  Clarkston Union restaurant I was able to get my burger with gluten free buns. The Woodshop next door even offers gf Mac & Cheese – both of course serve Badass beer.

I had not much time to look for Badass in shops so the only local beer I found was Petoskey Sparkle American Lager and Rochester Mills Pine Knob Pilsner. I decided for Petoskey as I didn’t want a Pilsner but only found out later that it contains wheat which is according to my experience always a bad sign for the gluten concentration.

Beer: Petoskey Sparkle
Producer: Petoskey Brewing Company
Originating country: USA
Brewing location: USA
Bottle size: 1 Pint can
Alcohol by volume: 4.1%
Ingredients: not stated, back side lists wheat and 4 malts and 3 different types of hops
Miscellaneous: –

Test Kit: Imutest Gluten-in-Food Kit

Test result: There is a clearly visible pink test spot on the left of the test area ( T ) which indicates the presence of gluten. According to the instructions a “very low gluten” level of 20 to 100 ppm should give a test spot which is weaker or similar in intensity to that of the control spot ( C ). Please find some more information here.

On a scale from 1 to 20 I would rate the test spot intensity 4. As Imutest uses the R5 antibody since a while it is difficult to estimate the gluten level in ppm in comparison to Skerritt antibody they used earlier, hence I will mark the test just positive. Even though this test is positive please note it is not a medical advice – see my facts page.

As announced in my previous post this is the first test of Greek beer. Not much to say about this beer, average taste, easy to drink but not really my thing. But the purpose of this site is to test the gluten level and here you go:

Beer: Mythos
Producer: Mythos Brewery
Originating country: Greece
Brewing location: Greece
Bottle size: 0.33 l
Alcohol by volume: 5.0%
Ingredients: water, barley malt, hops, yeast (internet research as ingredients are listed in Greek on the bottle)
Miscellaneous: –

Test Kit: Imutest Gluten-in-Food Kit

Test result: The test result is negative. According to the instructions there should appear a clearly visible pink test spot on the left of the test area ( T ) to indicate the presence of gluten. The pink spot on the right test area ( C ) is a control spot and indicates that the extract/sample is suitable, the test has been performed correctly and all reagents are active. Even though the detection limit in this kit is very low (1-2 ppm) and the test is negative please note this is not a medical advice – please see also my facts page.

I spent my last holiday on the island of Crete. Crete is the biggest of the Greek islands and fifth largest in the Mediterranean Sea. As usual I take the chance to test some local beers. But Greece is very much influenced by Dutch breweries. You get Heineken, Amstel and other Dutch brands easily and also some local brands like Alfa are owned by Heineken. So I decided to first test Amstel as I was currious but don’t worry I also tested a Greek beer called Mythos and will post the result soon.

In my hotel a cheap mass-produced beer called ‘Cretan Beer’ was served which tasted horrible. The barrel though was labelled with ‘Heineken’ so it seems the god and the rubbish beer is produced in the same brewery and all its somehow Dutch. But the bottled Amstel tasted quite OK – crisp and refreshing, good carbonation.

Beer: Amstel
Producer: Amstel Brouwerij/Heineken
Originating country: Netherlands
Brewing location: Greece
Bottle size: 0.33 l
Alcohol by volume: 5.0%
Ingredients: water, barley malt, hops (internet research as ingredients are listed in Greek on the bottle)
Miscellaneous: –

Test Kit: Imutest Gluten-in-Food Kit

Test result: The test result is negative. According to the instructions there should appear a clearly visible pink test spot on the left of the test area ( T ) to indicate the presence of gluten. The pink spot on the right test area ( C ) is a control spot and indicates that the extract/sample is suitable, the test has been performed correctly and all reagents are active. Even though the detection limit in this kit is very low (1-2 ppm) and the test is negative please note this is not a medical advice – please see also my facts page.