Carlsberg Group is the 4th largest brewery group in the world and Carlsberg beer is sold worldwide. I tested Carlsberg on two gluten thresholds, here is the result.
Beer: Carlsberg
Producer: Carlsberg Group
Originating country: Denmark
Brewing location: Germany
Bottle size: 0.5 l
Alcohol by volume: 5.0%
Ingredients: water, barley malt, hops (translated from German)
Miscellaneous: Brewed and bottled in Germany.
Test Kit: GlutenTox Home Kit
I did the test twice, first with a threshold of 20 ppm and then with a threshold of 5 ppm. The limit of detection depends on the number of drops taken from the extraction solution, please find some more information here.
The picture on the left shows the result with the 20 ppm threshold, picture on the right 5 ppm threshold
Test result: Both tests are negative. In these tests Carlsberg has less than 5 ppm gluten (or even no gluten). However, it is not a medical advice – please see my facts page.
Sam nipper
And I now just saw this. I see you did do two tests here. Good work. Much appreciated.
Alan Vale
Thank you very much for this information. It would be very interesting to see results for British-brewed Carlsberg and the Heineken available here in the UK.
Les Carter from Australia
Same here for Aussie/NZ brewed Carlsberg and Heineken, I think they do brew those beer over here.
Les Carter from Australia
I have sampled the Becks, Heiniken and Carlsberg beer following Steffen’s and the Swedish tests. I have had no adverse reaction from a Coeliac aspet, but have only had one or two cans per week, I do not want to push it. More importantly I make sure I only purchase the 500 ml cans brewed and canned in Germany, Denmark, Holland etc, as tested. I am not buying the same brands brewed here, which is generally the bottled variety. Our local Aldi store has imported Heiniken, Carlsberg and Becks in the 500ml cans on special this week, going to buy a few. For the benefit of overseas readers they are AU$9.99 per 4 pack of 500 ml. Beer is not cheap here, too much tax. A carton of 24 375ml bottles of local beer, Tooheys, VB etc is around $45 but often on special for $40.
Steffen
Hi Les, best advice ever: ‘Don’t push it’!
Even though we test a number of beers negative I completely agree with you not to push it to the limits. When we test a beer with e.g. 10 ppm it means one could take 2 litre of this beer to reach the 20 ppm limit. But everyone reacts differently and so your advice is the best.
Cheers Steffen
russ
10ppm does not mean 2 x equals 20ppm – it is about concentration of the gluten – too many molecules hitting the villi will damage them … but 10ppm means that the statistical chance of hits is low enough not to cause damage … no matter how much you drink.
Les Carter from Australia
Just having a 500ml can of Carlsberg now, the green can. I just read on the side of the can the ingredients ‘ Gluten !!!! One will do me.
Les Carter from Australia
I forgot to mention the can I have is brewed in Denmark. Hope it is ok, just realised that Steffen’s test was done on the German brewed Carlsberg.
Adam from Adelaide, South Australia
Thanks this is a really good website.
Thanks for the hard work. Hope you get to drink some too!
Where I am it’s hard to find Carlsberg from Europe. In fact it’s brewed here, under licence, at Cooper’s Brewery (one of my favourite’s breweries before being diagnosed with coeliac disease in 2006).
I phoned Cooper’s to see how similar their product is to the Danish product. A lady there I spoke to said they’re continually inspected by Carlsberg people and are very particular about everything including completely reverse osmosis of the water used!
So after successes with Corona and Coors Lager (called Coors Light in North America) I tried one stubbie bottle of Carlsberg. Unfortunately about three hours later I had amazingly horrible gluten pains, of which I hadn’t experienced in years.
Have been a bit scared of trying anything else at this stage. Corona is not great anyway, plus they use an ingredient that’s in car anti-freeze! And Coors mustn’t be allowed to be called beer, only slightly flavoured water.
Les Carter I would love to chat to you sometime about your experiences with beer if you’re still checking this website out. Not sure how to do that though.
Happy and safe beer drinking everyone.
Steffen
Hi Adam,
Thanks for your detailed feedback.
Yes I get the chance to drink some beer over the week. I have one or two beers twice a week. I don’t really like wine or strong alcohol but I really enjoy a cold beer in the evening from time to time.
The amount of gluten depends on many factors. One is the filtration method (so called ‘cold filtering’) and what is used to filter beer. All German big breweries use crushed diatomite (also known as Kieselguhr or Diatomaceous Eearth) to filter their beer. This method is not without controversy but seems to be one of the most important reasons why the German major beers I tested have so low gluten. But there are many other factors that’s why I believe the most useful test is the self-test like you did with Carlsberg.
Agree with Corona’s ingredients, not comparable to e.g. German beer purity law however it remains an option for Celiacs.
Cheers Steffen
Adam from Adelaide, South Australia
Hello Steffen
Interesting what you say about German beers. What is the issue with the diatomite? I don’t know much about it. I do know about about the German beer purity law and that’s what attracts me to German beers. My wife and I avoid preservatives, additives and sugar as much as possible. There are a lot of questionable practices that occur in big business. I guess that’s what you’re maybe talking about with the diatomite?
Adam.
Steffen
Hi Adam,
Diatomite is fine with me but there was a discussion about a possible radiation of diatomite:
http://www.lowgluten.org/warsteiner-gluten-test/#comments
There is actually no health threat, so I consider diatomite safe. Further more, after diatomite is used for filtration it is completely recyclable as it will be re-used in agriculture.
Cheers Steffen
Les Carter from Australia
Hi Adam from Adelaide. I purchased the Carlsberg in the 500 ml cans from Woolworths -BWS. Currently I am into Becks, but my favoured one is Budweiser, I only keep it to 2 max though. I was diagnosed Coeliac in 2010.
I have E mailed a few Aussie breweries re gluten content, i.e. Tooheys, Coopers, Carlton, they have not tested any of their beers for gluten content, nor will they. The Aussie O’Briens GF beer is a crazy price $75 a carton and not that good anyway. So I am not partaking of any Aussie beer, just trying the ones Steffen has so kindly tested for us unfortunates.
Lester
OK Guys, now for the Carlsberg Elephant beer, bought a 6 pack today. Any of you Coeliacs/ GF drinkers tried it? 7.2% abv.
Steffen
Hi Les, uuhhh this sounds like a tough beer. I guess one is enough already – haven’t tried it, though.
Cheers Steffen
Lester
Thanks Steffen, to my palate the Carlsberg Elephant is not a nice beer. Strange taste. Maybe I should sip it from the bottle. I always serve my beers ice cold.
Steffen
…ice cold. This reminds me to the time when I enjoyed a beautiful Guinness Extra Cold in a pint glass in my favourite pub in Cambridge.
Cheers Steffen
Lester
Yes the ‘Extra Cold Guinness’ has been around in UK for a few years. Cambridge? Visited there in July, stayed a week at Holiday Inn – Huntingdon Racecourse, doing some touring and tasting the ciders. Guinness is always served very cold here, draught or bottled/canned. Not had one since my Coeliac attack in 2010.
Steffen
I was also diagnosed with CD around 2010/2011 and had only one Guinness since then and that was for the test here:
http://www.lowgluten.org/guinness-gluten-test/
Unfortunately my favourite pub in Cambs doesn’t exist anymore 🙁
Lester
Not bad but not great taste, head poor, no bad reaction, only had one, prefer the Pabst blue ribbon.
Andres from Spain
Hi there! I live in Spain and supermarkets are packed with gluten free branded beers.
I often drink Daura, Estrela Galícia gluten Free Brand.
I’d like to know what is the current understanding about Carlsberg “normal” beer and which German / European regular beers are considered the safest?
Cheers!
Steffen
Hi Andres, with normal beer we refer to regular beer brewed with barley and not specially treated to remove gluten. The ordinary San Miguel or Estrella you find in your super market in Spain.
For me the German mainstream beers work the best as I never have reactions. So it’s difficult to say what is ‘safe’ as everyone reacts differently on gluten. If you are fine the gf beers in Spain stay with it. Cheers Steffen
Simon Smith
Fantastic work. As a father I’ve always dreamt of having a beer with my boy unfortunately he is celiac so we hunt up and down for a good gluten free beer. He came home from a freind and said he’d had a Carlsberg and had no reaction. Amazement! but as with food there is always the doubt in the back of your mind like someone said 1or 2 cans is ok I think. “I hope” anyway great page well done and stay safe🍻
Danny, Dorset UK
Hi there, I was diagnosed coeliac in February 2020 and a keen beer drinker. I always wanted to know the safe limitations for us. I’ve been drinking the GF labelled beers no worries but (when pubs open) I’d love to have a draught pint again. Do you know if Carlsberg and Coors light on tap are safe to drink? Thanks
Danny, Dorset UK
Steffen
Hi Danny,
Draught beer might not be 100% comparable to the bottled beer we mostly test here. It can give an indication but to be very safe you should test the draught beer. And even then the next beer cask can have different gluten concentration. It’s not so easy as you can see. Cheers Steffen
Søren
it’s fascinating how much the brewing location can impact gluten content. it’s a real eye-opener, especially considering the personal nature of gluten tolerance. Steffen’s tests offer some peace of mind though, but the stories shared here really highlight how one size does not fit all when it comes to gluten sensitivity. It makes me think we could all benefit from more specific testing and clearer info on our beers. It’s a bit of a journey, isn’t it? Finding that safe, enjoyable brew might be trickier than we thought, but sharing insights like these sure helps navigate the gluten-free beer world. Cheers to more knowledge and better choices ahead!