Dragon's Gold gluten free beer relaunch
Bard's Tale Beer Co. producers of Dragon's Gold gluten free beer are set to relaunch their product this month.
Bard's Tale, created by Craig Belser and fellow coeliac Kevin Seplowitz, is currently only the third US brewery to produce a gluten free beer, and the first to try it with nothing other than malted grain.
With between 2-3 million coeliacs in the US alone, and beer being a major part of the North American lifestyle, the creation of a good tasting, gluten free beer is almost on a par with the search for the holy grail.
Dragon's Gold is sorghum based, which has provided a huge challenge from a flavour point of view. Barley, traditionally used in the brewing process, is important to the flavour of the beer, however Dragon's Gold has taken on that challenge and overcome the flavour issues, producing a gluten free good tasting beer. Belser says, "The bar we set was: if it doesn't taste exactly like beer, we won't sell it."
Dragon's Gold originally hit the gluten free market in late 2004, and demand was such that they quickly reached their barrel production capacity. Their contract brewer doubled their output and then hit production problems with the beer related to excessive foaming. These problems were directly related to sanitation at the contract brewery, and exploding bottles caused the beer to be pulled off shelves.
The company now has a much larger brewer who is expected to hit the ground running with more than quadruple the original barrel production, and plans to massively increase further production.
The gluten free beer market is still tiny compared with the 200+ million barrels of domestic beer brewed last year, however it is a rapidly expanding market, and one that Bard's Tale Beer Co. want to capitalise on.
"By giving someone a beer, you're giving somebody back a big piece of their lifestyle," said Belser, and he has plans to introduce sorghum-based pale ales, stouts and porters in the future.
For more information visit Bard's Tale Beer Co: www.bardsbeer.com