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Almost no ordinary beer is gluten free. Lager, ale, stout and IPA are brewed from malted barley, wheat or rye, and all three contain gluten. Brewing does not remove it.
What does exist is a growing category of beer made specifically to avoid the problem, and a labelling system that is more complicated than it first appears. Here is what is actually in the glass.
Does beer contain gluten?
Yes, and considerably more than most people assume.
A standard barley beer contains anywhere from around 60 parts per million of gluten to over 25,000, depending on the style. For context, the threshold for a gluten free label in the UK and EU is 20 ppm or less.
Rough averages by style:
Even lager, the lightest conventional option, sits at roughly three times the gluten free cutoff. There is no such thing as a conventional beer that happens to be safe.
Gluten levels also vary between brands and even between batches of the same beer, with measurements within the lager category alone ranging from 19 to 45 ppm. That variability is part of why the labelling matters more than the style.
What does "gluten free" mean on a beer label?
Coeliac UK sets out the position clearly. By law, manufacturers can only label a beer gluten free if it contains 20 ppm of gluten or less.
Crucially, that threshold can be met two different ways, and the label looks identical either way.
The two types of gluten free beer
Naturally gluten free. The beer is brewed from grains that never contained gluten: sorghum, rice, millet, buckwheat or maize. Nothing needs removing because nothing was there. Some are made in dedicated gluten free breweries where no gluten enters the building at all, though those are rare in the UK.
Gluten removed. The beer is brewed conventionally from barley, then treated late in the process with an enzyme, usually Brewers Clarex, which breaks the gluten proteins into fragments small enough to fall below the detection threshold.
Both can legally be labelled gluten free in the UK. This is the more common method here, and it is why a beer marked gluten free can still list barley in its ingredients.
Is gluten removed beer safe if you have coeliac disease?
This is the part most retailers skip, and it deserves a straight answer.
The short answer is that Coeliac UK recognises gluten free beer as suitable, and lists specially manufactured gluten free beers, lagers and ales in its Food and Drink Guide and Live Well Gluten Free app. If a beer carries a legal gluten free label in the UK, it has met the 20 ppm standard.
There is a nuance around testing worth understanding, because it is why you will see different advice depending on which country you read.
Coeliac UK notes that laboratory testing is the best way to assess gluten in a product, but that difficulties arise when testing beer with the R5 ELISA Sandwich method normally used for foods, because the gluten has been broken down. An alternative, the R5 ELISA Competitive method, is more effective for beer and other fermented or hydrolysed products.
Not every producer uses the more suitable method, which is where the uncertainty comes from rather than from the beer itself.
Research published in PLOS ONE examined a beer legally classified as gluten free at under 20 ppm and still found detectable immunoactive peptides. When those fractions were tested against blood cells from fourteen coeliac patients, the most reactive produced a measurable immune response. That is one beer rather than a general finding, but it is why the caution exists.
The United States takes a stricter line and does not allow enzyme-treated barley beers to be called gluten free at all. They are labelled gluten reduced. So the same beer can be gluten free in Britain and gluten reduced in America, with neither country being dishonest. They are applying different standards of caution to the same evidence.
What that means practically. Beers brewed from naturally gluten free grains carry no measurement question at all, so they are the most straightforward option if you want certainty. Gluten removed beers are recognised as suitable in the UK and most people avoiding gluten drink them without issue. If you are newly diagnosed or particularly sensitive, it is worth raising with your GP or dietitian rather than deciding from a label.
Why does my gluten free beer list barley?
A question we get asked regularly, and the answer is reassuring rather than alarming.
Allergen labelling rules require barley to be declared as an ingredient if it was used, regardless of what happened to the gluten afterwards. So a gluten removed beer will carry both a gluten free claim and a barley declaration, which looks contradictory but is exactly what the law requires.
It is also a useful signal. If a beer says gluten free and lists barley, it is a gluten removed beer. If it lists sorghum, rice or millet instead, it is naturally gluten free.
Are gluten free beers healthier?
Not inherently, no. This is worth saying plainly because the phrase gets used loosely.
Removing gluten does not remove calories, carbohydrate or alcohol. A gluten free beer at 5% is broadly as calorific as a conventional beer at 5%, because calories in beer come from alcohol at 7 per gram and residual carbohydrate at 4, neither of which the gluten treatment touches.
There is no evidence that avoiding gluten benefits people who are not coeliac or gluten sensitive. Gluten free beer is better for a specific group of people with a specific medical reason, not better in general.
Worth adding that Drinkaware makes the same point about alcohol generally: gluten free drinks are not alcohol free drinks, and the usual guidance on units applies either way.
What can make a difference is how far the beer is fermented. Beers fermented out more completely convert more grain sugar into alcohol, leaving less carbohydrate behind. That is a separate process from the gluten treatment, though the two often appear together because both involve enzyme work late in brewing.
Does gluten free beer taste different?
Gluten removed beer generally does not. It starts as ordinary beer and the enzyme goes in near the end, by which point the malt and hop character is already built. Most people cannot tell.
Naturally gluten free beer is a different proposition. Sorghum and rice produce a lighter, thinner body than barley, and the malt depth is harder to replicate. Brewers usually compensate with more aggressive hopping, which is why gluten free IPAs tend to work better than gluten free lagers in that category.
Gluten free beer at DrinkWell
Our range is gluten removed rather than naturally gluten free, brewed from barley and treated to bring the gluten below the 20 ppm threshold. All are full strength and all come in under 100 calories a can.
Note the can sizes. Tennents is 440ml, the rest are 330ml, so compare by volume rather than by can.
What about wine and spirits?
Wine is naturally gluten free. It is fermented from grapes, and no gluten-containing grain is involved at any point. The only theoretical exposure is from wheat paste occasionally used to seal older oak barrels, which does not apply to modern winemaking in any meaningful way.
Spirits are also gluten free after distillation, even those made from wheat or barley. Coeliac UK explains that gluten does not form a vapour, so it cannot pass into the distillate. That includes malt whisky. The exception is where a gluten containing ingredient is added after distillation, which the label must declare.
Cider, sherry, port and liqueurs are all gluten free too.
Common questions
Is lager gluten free?
Standard lager is not. It averages around 63 ppm of gluten against a 20 ppm threshold, making it the lowest of the conventional styles but still well above the limit. Specifically produced gluten free lagers are widely available.
Is Guinness gluten free?
No. It is brewed from barley and contains gluten above the threshold.
Is Corona gluten free?
No, despite a persistent rumour to the contrary. It is brewed with barley malt.
Can coeliacs drink gluten free beer?
Beers brewed from naturally gluten free grains, generally yes. Gluten removed beers are legal and widely tolerated but carry the measurement uncertainty described above, so this is worth discussing with your healthcare team rather than deciding from a label.
Is gluten free beer lower in calories?
Not automatically. The two are unrelated. Our range happens to be both, because the beers are fermented out further, but that is a separate process.
Does alcohol free beer contain gluten?
Often, yes. Removing alcohol does not remove gluten, and many alcohol free beers are brewed conventionally from barley. Check the label.
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This article is general information and not medical advice. If you have coeliac disease or suspect you may be gluten sensitive, please speak to your GP or dietitian. Please drink responsibly. UK guidance is no more than 14 units a week, spread across three or more days, with several drink-free days.
Browse Our Gluten Free Beer Collection