Sunday Night Suds - Lakefront New Grist

Tonight's Sunday Night Suds beer review looks at "kitniyos" beer - Lakefront's New Grist - a beer brewed from sorgum and rice.

I am not familiar with the demographics, but a minority of the world population is afflicted with celiac disease. Celiac.org explais that:

Celiac Disease (CD) is a lifelong, digestive disorder affecting children and adults. When people with CD eat foods that contain gluten, it creates an immune-mediated toxic reaction that causes damage to the small intestine and does not allow food to be properly absorbed. Even small amounts of gluten in foods can affect those with CD and cause health problems. Damage can occur to the small bowel even when there are no symptoms present. Gluten is the common name for the proteins in specific grains that are harmful to persons with celiac disease. These proteins are found in ALL forms of wheat (including durum, semolina, spelt, kamut, einkorn and faro) and related grains rye, barley and triticale and MUST be eliminated.

Enter, Lakefront Brewery - a Milwaukee, Wisconsin craft brewer (their beers are even available at Miller Park where the Brewers play) with a wide variety of brews including the New Grist. As explained on their website "New Grist is brewed from sorghum, hops, water, rice and gluten-free yeast grown on molasses. These ingredients are carefully combined to form a crisp, refreshing “session ale” brewed for those with Celiac Disease and anyone with an appreciation for great tasting, handmade beer." The website also explains that Lakefront tests each batch of New Grist before shipping it out to make certain that no gluten has gotten into the process.

So can you drink it on pesach of you eat kitniyos? Although the Star-K gives the hashgacha on New Grist, there is no pesach certification. A few years back, Ramapo Valley Brewery did produce a Passover Honey Gold lager which did have a pesach certification as they used no grain in the process. Unfortunately, the Ramapo Valley Brewery does not make it anymore (I don't think that they have produced any beer for the last three years).

So what does it taste like? Well, it does not taste like a lager, its probably close to a really thin wheat beer. Having said that, its not an unpleasant drink, especially when cold. My one unresolved question is the alcohol content as neither the Lakefront website nor BA have quantified New Grist's abv.

Lakefront Brewery New Grist is under the kosher supervision of the Star-K. Although the LOC on the Star-K site http://www.star-k.org/loc/kosher_letter_8197_lakefrontbreweryinc.pdf says that this (and about 15 other varieties) are kosher, but only with the Star-K on the label, I was unable to find a Star-K on the label of any of the varieties that I purchased. This seems common with the Star-K as many of the Sam Adams beers that are listed as under the Star-K do not have the symbol on the label. Concerned that I had wasted my money, I contacted the Star-K last year and they confirmed that Lakefront brews are permissible without a Star-K on the label.

For the experts' take on the New Grist please click here http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/741/26368 . As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

Finally, if you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site such as JBlog, please feel free to click here to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!