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Gluten Free Sorghum Beer

Monday, September 7th, 2009 | Beer | 21 Comments

I tried Bard’s Gold last night, my first sorghum based beer.  Sorghum is a species of grass and its seeds can be harvested as grain to make beer, a frequent practice in Africa.  In fact, most African beers, including their locally brewed Guinness, are sorghum based.  Bard’s claim to fame is that it contains no barley, wheat, or oats and is gluten free, like that’s a good thing.  I know that there are many people who are allergic to gluten (and many people who claim to be allergic but probably aren’t), so this just might be the beer for them.  It should be noted that gluten based grains nourished and helped form human civilization, which is why I find the present day prevalence of gluten allergies a bit ludicrous, but that’s just me…

Anyway, I’m not sure I liked sorghum beer, or at least this sorghum beer.  I found that it tasted a bit like grass.  It was rather light and had a distinctly different taste from similarly light barley based beers.  It wasn’t really bad, but I agree with some of the Beer Advocate reviews.  If I had a non-fake gluten allergy and had to drink sorghum beer for the rest of my life, I might just quit drinking beer, supposing I couldn’t find any better options than Bard’s.  For now, I’m going to stick to the gluteny goodness of the barley, wheat, and oats people have been eating for ten thousand years.

Cheers,

Chris

Tags: africa, bard's gold, Beer Advocate, gluten, gluten allergy, gluten free beer, sorghum