Gluten Free Beer Challenge: Part One

Both my mother and sister are on Gluten Free diets, so I tend to stock a GF beer or two around for when my sister comes over. So I thought we could taste a few to see what's best to get when you want a GF beer. This is part one because these are relatively common American made GF beers. Part two will be for the Foreign stuff. The three beers we go to first are Bard's, New Grist and Red Bridge. Let's start with the Bard's. Bard's pours out a dark straw and lacks any nose. The flavors, however are pretty good. There's hop crispness, a malty caramel, and it tastes a lot like a normal beer. New Grist is almost clear very light yellow and has a very bready yeast nose. The flavor is also yeasty and it's something like a sour dough wheat beer. Not in a good way. Red bridge pours out a straw color and has a sweet caramel nose. This is a nice sweet malty beer. The flavors are those of a good craft made lager. Wow, the Red Bridge is the best by a fair amount, I would drink this any time. The Bard's is also pretty good and has the most hop. Pretty refreshing as well. The New Grist frankly sucks. It's an undrinkable mess. So Red Bridge and Bard's are both good bets.

The Pike Tandem Double Ale

The Pike brewery is from Seattle and they have brought us a double ale. Double is always a good sign cause it usually means more alcohol. The Tandem is a light to medium brown and has a crisp nose with some mocha, caramel and spice. The mocha and caramel come to the mouth first, followed by strong spice that goes through to the finish. This is a really nice beer although the strong spice could throw some people off a bit. The hop is just there in a tingle of the tongue. I would buy this again, I really enjoyed it and the other Pike beer I had, Kilt Lifter , was pretty good as well. The Pike has started off strong. I look forward to sampling their catalog, purely for reviewing purposes.

Abita Andygator Helles Doppelbock

Abita is a brewery just outside of New Orleans and any business down there could use our patronage. I generally like things that say doppel or trippel, because those are happy words that mean more alcohol. This is of course the case with Andygator, 8% ABV. Andygator pours out a light to medium gold and has a mild honey and floral nose. It also tastes a lot like it smells, strong honey with floral notes and caramels. The hops keep a low profile at first but build very late on the finish. I actually kind of like the way they creep up on you it's different. This is a nice beer with something interesting to it and well worth giving a look. I don't think this earns a spot in the rotation but I might revisit it again sometime. As I get down to the bottom, I have to say smooth and likable, just like me.

Lagunitas Undercover Investigation Shut-Down Ale

This interestingly named ale is from the Lagunitas Brewing Company outside of San Francisco California. It pours out a clear amber and has a strong hop bitter nose with a sweet raisin scent. Boy the flavor is stronger than the scent. There's big hops, very strong in the middle, and again on the back end. Also we have raisin and caramels, and some herbal flavors. This is really strong on the hop, but there is other strong flavors as well as alcohol, 9.8% ABV. So there is some balance here. This is a nice beer. I like it despite it's massive hop, and I will get this again. Boy, five minutes after I finished this stuff and my mouth is still awash in hops. Give one a try. Just one.

Green Flash Brewing Trippel

Trippel is waffle language for lot's of alcohol, so this one starts with a leg up. Green Flash Brewing is out of San Diego California and I can't help thinking their name is some sort of weed reference. Trippel pours out a cloudy light amber and has yeast, alcohol and a hazelnut hint on the nose. The flavor is actually a bit mead like. There's lots of honey, caramel apple, and a nuttiness.There's a definite hop bite on the front that really disappears on the back end. This is pretty good stuff and a heady 9.7% ABV. I got that nice warm feeling in the belly that would make this an excellent cold weather beer, but it's refreshing as well making this a great year round beer. This is really easy to put down for such a high alcohol beer, I will be getting this again soon. My first impression is so very good I will report on the second one.

Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale

Bar Harbor Brewing Company is of course from Maine. Blueberry Ale sounds a bit hit or miss, but it has a nice ring to me. It pour out a deep reddish copper. The nose has blueberry and sweet caramel and that's where the taste goes. This is just like a quality amber ale, just with a really nice blueberry flavor. There's tingly hop here that comes and goes even a minute or more after a sip. It's the oddest thing. I really am enjoying this beer and it goes on my favorites list. I will seek this out again, it's just a fun beer to drink. You could easily have several of these and I think it could be good any time of year. A big winner.

Baltika Extra Lager

I liked the San Miguel I had the other day, so I thought I'd look into some other beers from around the world. Baltika Extra Lager is a Russian beer with a big 8% alcohol content. I guess extra means strong in this case. It pours out a slightly cloudy light gold and has a citrus, woody nose. First impression is it's almost completely non carbonated, like a mead. It tastes kind of like you poured a dry mead into a little bit of sweet white wine and added a touch of pee. As I soldier on with this beer I get more of the hop and the pee. This really smacks of Russian malt liquor. I expect if you roll up to a homeless guy in Moscow,he might have this in a paper bag. I can sense the hangover that would follow pounding a bunch of these.