Low Gluten in Beer

Dos Equis is a Mexican lager. Its grain bill resembles an American lager more than other popular Mexican lagers, such as Pacifico or Modelo.

Beer: Dos Equis
Producer: Cerveceria Cuahtemoc
Originating country: Mexico
Brewing location: Mexico
Bottle size: 12 oz
Alcohol by volume: 4.2%
Ingredients: water, malted barley, corn starch/ syrup, hops and ascorbic acid

Test Kit: Imutest Gluten-in-Food Kit

Test result: The test result is positive. According to the instructions there should appear a clearly visible pink test spot on the left of the test area ( T ) to indicate the presence of gluten. The pink spot on the right test area ( C ) is a control spot and indicates that the extract/sample is suitable, the test has been performed correctly and all reagents are active. – please see also the facts page.

Shiner Bock is the flagship beer of Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas. German and Czech immigrant began brewing it in 1913. It’s known for having German hops as an ingredient.

I grew up in Texas. Having watched hundreds of Shiners disappearing with family and friends, I made it a priority on my list of beers to test for gluten.

Beer: Shiner Bock
Producer: Spoetzl Brewery
Originating country: USA
Brewing location: USA
Bottle size: 12 oz
Alcohol by volume: 4.4%
Ingredients: Water, Barley, Rice, Hops

Test Kit: Imutest Gluten-in-Food Kit

Test result: The test result is positive. According to the instructions there should appear a clearly visible pink test spot on the left of the test area ( T ) to indicate the presence of gluten. The pink spot on the right test area ( C ) is a control spot and indicates that the extract/sample is suitable, the test has been performed correctly and all reagents are active. – please see also the facts page.

Odoul’s is an American non-alcoholic beer. O’Doul’s is brewed like traditional beer – fermented and aged. The alcohol is then removed through the use of low temperature, low-pressure distillation.

Beer: Odoul’s
Producer: Anheuser-Busch
Originating country: USA
Brewing location: USA
Bottle size: 12 oz
Alcohol by volume: 0.4%
Ingredients: water, barley malt, corn, high fructose corn syrup and hops

Test Kit: Imutest Gluten-in-Food Kit

Test result: The test result is positive. The test result indicates low levels of gluten. According to the instructions there should appear a clearly visible pink test spot on the left of the test area ( T ) to indicate the presence of gluten. The pink spot on the right test area ( C ) is a control spot and indicates that the extract/sample is suitable, the test has been performed correctly and all reagents are active. – please see also the facts page.

Red Stripe is a Jamaican lager sold widely in America. I was told years ago that Red Stripe was gluten free so I’ve been curious to test it.

Beer: Red Stripe
Producer: Denies & Geddes
Originating country: Jamaica
Brewing location: Jamaica
Bottle size: 11.2 oz
Alcohol by volume: 4.7%
Ingredients: Pilsen Malt, Hops, Cassava Starch, Water

Test Kit: Imutest Gluten-in-Food Kit

Test result: The test result is positive. According to the instructions there should appear a clearly visible pink test spot on the left of the test area ( T ) to indicate the presence of gluten. The pink spot on the right test area ( C ) is a control spot and indicates that the extract/sample is suitable, the test has been performed correctly and all reagents are active. – please see also the facts page.

The Czech original Budweiser was tested 5 years ago already. So it was about time to test again on the level of gluten. This time Oivind tested with similar conditions: same beer, brewed most likely in the same brewery in Budvar/Czechia, same alcohol level, same ingredients so probably same recipe and the same test kit was used – GlutenTox Home. The only difference was that Oivind tested the can rather than the bottled variant.

The vessel shouldn’t really make a difference but still we have different test results now and then. 5 years back there was no indication on gluten in the sample and the test was done on a 5 ppm level, i.e. the most sensitive threshold. Oivind now experienced a different result – see below.

Beer: Budweiser Original
Producer: Budějovický Budvar n.p.
Originating country: Czech Republic
Brewing location: Czech Republic
Bottle size: 0.5 l can = approx. 16 Oz.
Alcohol by volume: 5.0%
Ingredients: water, barley malt, hops
Miscellaneous: –

Test Kit: GlutenTox Home Kit

Oivind tested with the thresholds of 10 and 20 ppm. The limit of detection depends on the number of drops taken from the extraction solution, please find some more information here.

Test result: There is a clear indication of the presence of gluten above 10 and 20 ppm. The red test line of the 20 ppm test is weaker than the test line of the 10 ppm test. This result makes sense as it shows that there seems to be much more than 10 ppm and little more than 20 ppm of gluten in this sample. According to the instructions there should appear a clearly visible red test line on the right of the test area ( T ) to indicate the presence of gluten. The blue line on the left test area ( C ) is a control line and indicates that the extract/sample is suitable, the test has been performed correctly and all reagents are active. Please don’t take any of my test results as a medical advice – see my facts page.

This is a test of the Norwegian variant of Heineken with 4.7% ABV rather than 5.0% as in the regular Heineken. As explained in the San Miguel 4.5 test only alcohol up to a level of 4.7 % ABV can be sold in grocery stores in Norway.

The regular Heineken was tested already in 2013 and 2015 and had very low gluten. Anyway, here is the result of this special Norwegian Heineken.

Beer: Heineken
Producer: Heineken Brouwerijen
Originating country: Netherlands
Brewing location: Norway
Bottle size: 0.5 l
Alcohol by volume: 4.7%
Ingredients: water, barley malt, hops extract (translated from Norwegian)
Miscellaneous:  Label states that the beer is “brewed under supervision of Heineken Brouwerijen B.V., Amsterdam by Hansa Borg Bryggerier AS, Norway”

Test Kit: GlutenTox Home Kit

Oivind tested with a threshold of 20 ppm. The limit of detection depends on the number of drops taken from the extraction solution, please find some more information here.

Test result: A faint red line appears on the right of the test stick ( T ). The red line is quite weak however, it indicates the presence of gluten equal to or above 20 ppm. The blue line on the left test area ( C ) is a control line and indicates that the extract/sample is suitable, the test has been performed correctly and all reagents are active. Please don’t take any of the test results as a medical advice – see the facts page.

This is the second test from Oivind. After his recent San Miguel test he tested another San Miguel with less alcohol. This San Miguel has only 4.5 % ABV. I didn’t even know that this variant exists. He explained that in Norway it is only allowed to sell alcohol up to a level of 4.7 % ABV in grocery stores. Alcohol over 4.7 must be purchased at the wine monopoly. So this variant seems to be determined for Norway or the Scandinavian countries in general. Actually it doesn’t look very different from the regular San Miguel with 5.4 % ABV, only the word “Especial” is missing on the label.

Beer: San Miguel
Producer: Mahou-San Miguel
Originating country: Spain/Philippines
Brewing location: Spain
Bottle size: 500 ml = approx. 16 Oz.
Alcohol by volume: 4.5%
Ingredients: water, barley malt, maize, hops
Miscellaneous: Producer name on label states Cervezas San Miguel which is the assumed brewing location.

Test Kit: GlutenTox Home Kit

Oivind tested with a threshold of 20 ppm. The limit of detection depends on the number of drops taken from the extraction solution, please find some more information here.

Test result: There is no indication of the presence of gluten above 20 ppm. According to the instructions there should appear a clearly visible red test line on the right of the test area ( T ) to indicate the presence of gluten. The blue line on the left test area ( C ) is a control line and indicates that the extract/sample is suitable, the test has been performed correctly and all reagents are active. Please don’t take any of the test results as a medical advice – see the facts page.

This test was provided by Oivind from Norway. San Miguel was tested already back in 2017 but with a different test kit. Also the ingredients either changed or had to be declared differently in the earlier test. Anyway, here is the result of San Miguel.

Beer: San Miguel Especial
Producer: Mahou-San Miguel
Originating country: Spain/Philippines
Brewing location: not stated on label
Bottle size: 330 ml = approx. 12 Oz.
Alcohol by volume: 5.4%
Ingredients: water, barley malt, corn, hops
Miscellaneous: Ingredients translated form Norwegian

Test Kit: Imutest Gluten-in-Food Kit

Test result: The test result is negative. According to the instructions there should appear a clearly visible pink test spot on the left of the test area ( T ) to indicate the presence of gluten. The pink spot on the right test area ( C ) is a control spot and indicates that the extract/sample is suitable, the test has been performed correctly and all reagents are active. Even though the detection limit in this kit is very low (1-2 ppm) and the test is negative please note this is not a medical advice – please see also my facts page.

With Willy’s test of Brand Pilsener we achieved the milestone of 100 tested beers. In August 2019 we conducted the 100th gluten test but now we have reached the 100 beers. As announced already I will focus on different things and not test so much anymore. If you have tests completed and want to share the results you still can reach out to me of course. The site will stay alive as we still have more than 20.000 visitors per month (real visitors, no crawlers or such) and the information we share seems to be useful to many people. And here some more statistics (click/tap on READ MORE).

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