In case 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’d have thought so, with simply honey, water, and yeast substances, however that may make for a really quick dialog! So, the place does that dreaded gluten typically come from in mead?
Hopefully, this text will allow you to get pleasure from extra mead whereas sticking to your gluten-free weight-reduction plan.
What’s Mead Historically Made From?
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It’s not a wine (though typically 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 a very good craft beer, high quality wine, or a tough cider.
Historically, mead was made with simply uncooked honey, water, and wild yeast. Some historians even recommend the wild yeast would typically 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 actually protected for a gluten-free weight-reduction plan. 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 is no such thing as a method 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 include lower than 20 elements per million (ppm) of gluten. Though labeling an alcoholic drink as gluten-free is voluntary, it’s the brewer’s accountability to make sure the declare to be a gluten-free mead just isn’t deceptive in any manner.
In addition to being the bottom degree of gluten that may be precisely measured, 20 ppm can be thought of a protected degree of gluten for even essentially the most die-hard celiacs. In case you undergo a gluten intolerance, you’ll undoubtedly know solely too properly what impact even a small hint of gluten may cause.
Gluten Containing Elements in Mead
So how does a drink utilizing honey as its main ingredient change into an enemy to these following a gluten-free weight-reduction plan?
Historically and by federal regulation, mead is assessed as an agricultural wine, with no grains, cereals, or molasses permitted in its manufacturing. Most boutique meaderies will get pleasure from vineyard standing, which implies no grains are allowed for use by regulation and, due to this fact, in the USA, any mead commercially produced needs to be gluten-free.
Sadly for individuals who have celiac illness or undergo from gluten intolerance, fashionable meads can usually be made utilizing further substances which include gluten or use processes the place there’s a danger of gluten cross-contamination. These processes and additional substances 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 often called barley mead or barm. There’s even a subcategory of mead often called braggot, the place 1/3 of the brew is barley however can typically be as much as 50%.
As barley is likely 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 is no such thing as a 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 still 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 include any gluten. It’s a single-cell organism that grows on the sugar from honey. However typically, a mead producer might use a brewer’s yeast, a by-product of the beer brewing business.
The barley gluten discovered on this yeast slurry could also be low sufficient to not pose a danger to anyone in search of a gluten-free beverage however may nonetheless be dangerous to those that are hypersensitive to gluten.
Growing old 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. Keep in mind, mead is a type of drinks which tastes higher the longer it ages or matures. We’re not speaking a couple of chilly, quick-brewed lager that’s finest drunk just a few months after manufacturing. Typically we’re speaking years, identical to a high quality wine.
Whiskey barrels, notably these used to retailer whiskey bourbon, might add a desired smokiness to the aged mead. However it could possibly additionally cross-contaminate the mead with any gluten discovered within the earlier beer or whiskey batch. Though the ensuing cross-contamination is prone to be low, it’s advisable to keep away from barrel-aged meads if you’re attempting to stay to gluten-free meals and drinks.
A Last Phrase on Mead and Gluten
I hope we have now not scared you out of attempting mead, particularly when you already love an occasional glass of “the nectar of the gods” however are fearful about gluten. There are actually 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 not sure if the mead you might be buying suits your gluten-free necessities, examine 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 needs to be protected, even for these with gluten intolerance. In case you are nonetheless not sure, 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.
