Gluten-free and tastes good too

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SCOTT'S PALE ALE: The beer certainly looks the part in its smart 330ml brown bottles

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I've been waiting to bring you this good news for a long time. Beer-loving Kiwis who suffer from coeliac disease can finally buy a locally brewed gluten-free beer. And better still, unlike many of its peers, it actually tastes pretty good!

I can't imagine life without being able to enjoy beer or one of my favourite foods, bread but about 4 per cent of New Zealanders have to live without both. Coeliac disease is a digestive ailment that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. People who have the disease cannot tolerate a protein called gluten, which is found in wheat, rye and barley. Given most beers are made from a mash of malted barley and some specialty brews include rye and wheat too that all adds up to really bad news for beer-loving coeliacs!

Aucklander Phil Scott was diagnosed with the disease about four years ago and, having discovered there weren't any New Zealand-brewed gluten-free beers, decided to brew his own. With a combination of Kiwi ingenuity and help from local engineers, Phil gathered together assorted dairy tanks, commissioned a new stainless steel brewkettle and put together a 600-litre brewhouse in a business complex in Kelston, West Auckland. New Zealand's first gluten-free brewery, Scott's Brewing Company, was born. But that was the easy bit; Phil then had to design and trial his first beer.

Although corn, maize, potato, rice, soy and tapioca are gluten-free, they're not ideal for beer-making and most brewers making beers for coeliacs have settled on grains like sorghum and buckwheat. Sadly, the gluten-free beers I've tasted previously have all lacked malt flavour and mouthfeel, often to the point of resembling soda water! It seems the ultimate challenge for brewers when making gluten-free beers is to leave some residual sweetness to provide flavour and body.

Phil's first beer, Scott's Brewing Co. Pale Ale (4.5 per cent), is made with a grist of sorghum, buckwheat and corn. The hops are predominantly the New Zealand-grown Cascade variety and fermentation is with an English ale yeast. The beer pours a bright golden hue beneath a wispy white head that doesn't hang around for long. The aroma is pleasant, with a honey-like sweetness that combines well with citrus notes from the hops. In the mouth there's an early suggestion of fruity sweetness that reminds me of the fruit lollies they give you on Air New Zealand flights (the green ones?), but this soon gives way to a rising tartness and an austere dry finish.

Sure, the beer isn't exactly full-bodied, but it's got no less mouthfeel than many modern "low carb" offerings from much bigger brewers. Overall, as gluten-free beers go, I reckon Scott's Pale Ale is a pretty decent effort that compares well with imported examples like O'Briens (from Australia) and Green's (England).

The beer certainly looks the part in its smart 330ml brown bottles and although it will be sold in sixpacks, I suspect local supermarkets will also offer it by the single bottle. At about $4 a bottle, that's a good bit less than the competition.

For the future, Phil is considering producing a lager and a dark ale (possibly for next winter), as well as occasional seasonal releases. Good on him, I say!

Cheers!

- The Marlborough Express