Should you fall into the estimated 6 – 7% of the US inhabitants who are suffering from gluten intolerance, you’ll have already tried a gluten-free beer or two (or three, or 4 – relying on whether or not it’s Saturday or not). However is mead gluten-free?
You’ll have thought so, with simply honey, water, and yeast elements, however that may make for a really quick dialog! So, the place does that dreaded gluten generally come from in mead?
Hopefully, this text will assist you take pleasure in extra mead whereas sticking to your gluten-free food regimen.
What’s Mead Historically Made From?
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It’s not a wine (though generally it’s referred to as honey wine), not a beer, and positively not a cider. Mead is in its personal class but can usually style like craft beer, high-quality wine, or a tough cider.
Historically, mead was made with simply uncooked honey, water, and wild yeast. Some historians even counsel the wild yeast would generally be blown onto the water trapped in upturned beehives. The pure fermentation course of, and ensuing mead, would happen with out the necessity for human intervention.
A naturally occurring alcoholic beverage, what could possibly be higher? Conventional meads of the previous have been virtually definitely secure for a gluten-free food regimen. However in these days, folks didn’t appear to fret an excessive amount of about gluten!
What’s Gluten?
Gluten is a protein discovered within the majority of wheat merchandise. It acts because the glue holding grains like wheat, barley, or rye collectively and sustaining their form. As it’s a naturally occurring protein, it can’t be stripped from the grain – mainly if a grain incorporates gluten, there isn’t any option to make the ensuing beverage or meals gluten-free.
The FDA states that for a meals or drink to be labelled “gluten-free,” it should comprise lower than 20 components per million (ppm) of gluten. Though labeling an alcoholic drink as gluten-free is voluntary, it’s the brewer’s duty to make sure the declare to be a gluten-free mead will not be deceptive in any manner.
In addition to being the bottom stage of gluten that may be precisely measured, 20 ppm can also be thought-about a secure stage of gluten for even essentially the most die-hard celiacs. Should you endure a gluten intolerance, you’ll undoubtedly know solely too properly what impact even a small hint of gluten could cause.
Gluten Containing Components in Mead
So how does a drink utilizing honey as its major ingredient develop into an enemy to these following a gluten-free food regimen?
Historically and by federal regulation, mead is classed as an agricultural wine, with no grains, cereals, or molasses permitted in its manufacturing. Most boutique meaderies will take pleasure in vineyard standing, which suggests no grains are allowed for use by regulation and, due to this fact, in america, any mead commercially produced must be gluten-free.
Sadly for individuals who have celiac illness or endure from gluten intolerance, fashionable meads can usually be made utilizing further elements which comprise gluten or use processes the place there’s a threat of gluten cross-contamination. These processes and further elements can take a number of kinds:
Barley or Malted Barley
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Meads can usually have some type of barley added and are generally generally known as barley mead or barm. There’s even a subcategory of mead generally known as braggot, the place 1/3 of the brew is barley however can generally be as much as 50%.
As barley is without doubt one of the three main gluten grains (wheat, barley, and rye), including barley malt to a mead makes it a no-go drink for these with a gluten intolerance.
The label of any commercially produced mead will usually point out if it incorporates barley gluten.
Brewers Yeast
The yeast used within the mead fermentation course of is a trickier one to identify, as there isn’t any authorized packaging requirement to specify the precise pressure of yeast used. Even when no barley was used within the manufacturing of the mead, there should be small traces of barley if a brewer’s yeast was used.
A gluten-free yeast, like wine yeast used within the conventional mead course of, doesn’t comprise any gluten. It’s a single-cell organism that grows on the sugar from honey. However generally, a mead producer could use a brewer’s yeast, a by-product of the beer brewing trade.
The barley gluten discovered on this yeast slurry could also be low sufficient to not pose a threat to anyone on the lookout for a gluten-free beverage however might nonetheless be dangerous to those that are hypersensitive to gluten.
Ageing in Used Barrels or Casks
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Some boutique meaderies will use casks or beer barrels within the mead’s growing older course of. Bear in mind, mead is a kind of drinks which tastes higher the longer it ages or matures. We’re not speaking a few chilly, quick-brewed lager that’s greatest drunk a number of months after manufacturing. Usually we’re speaking years, similar to a high-quality wine.
Whiskey barrels, significantly these used to retailer whiskey bourbon, could add a desired smokiness to the aged mead. However it will probably additionally cross-contaminate the mead with any gluten discovered within the earlier beer or whiskey batch. Though the ensuing cross-contamination is more likely to be low, it’s advisable to keep away from barrel-aged meads in case you are making an attempt to stay to gluten-free meals and drinks.
A Last Phrase on Mead and Gluten
I hope we’ve not scared you out of making an attempt mead, particularly if you happen to already love an occasional glass of “the nectar of the gods” however are frightened about gluten. There at the moment are many producers of mead that may assure their mead to be gluten-free, together with some improbable tasting meads from the Redstone Meadery or Chaucer’s Meadery.
In case you are uncertain if the mead you might be buying matches your gluten-free necessities, test the labelling or simply ask the meadery three easy questions:
- Is barley used within the manufacturing of the mead?
- Do they use a brewer’s yeast for the mead fermentation?
- Are beer casks or whiskey and bourbon barrels used within the growing older course of?
If the meadery can reply no to all three questions, it must be secure, even for these with gluten intolerance. In case you are nonetheless uncertain, brew your personal at house, leaving out any gluten. There’s additionally a wide array of gluten-free onerous cider, beers, or wines out there on-line and in shops.
