Gluten Free Redbridge Beer

Redbridge Beer is a new gluten free beer offered by Anheuser-Busch. While smaller brewers have produced gluten free beers, such as Boar's Tale and Grist Mill, Anheuser-Busch's latest beer, a gluten free offering, is significant because one of the largest beer manufacturers and distributors has turned its attention to this niche market, opening up beer drinking again to more than three million people who cannot consume gluten in any form.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune condition in which the body views gluten as a foreign invader. The gluten embeds itself in the villi in the intestinal tract, flattening the little finger-like structures that help food to move along. When a person drinks a beer with gluten in it, for instance, the gluten damages the intestinal tract. People with celiac disease have higher rates of cancers, thyroid disease, and other food allergies.

Gluten free Redbridge beer is the first gluten free beer produced by a major beer maker. Redbridge used sorghum, a gluten free grain, to produce the beer. Sorghum-based beers have been popular in Africa, and the sorghum beer process has been well known for thousands of years. Anheuser-Busch uses these African techniques in producing a Redbridge for mass consumption. The beer does not include any additional ingredients that may contain gluten; contamination by additional ingredients with gluten could harm people with celiac disease or other conditions in which gluten cannot be tolerated by the body.

Smaller brews cost big bucks. Bard's Tale, for instance, retails for $12.99 per six pack. Grist Mill is $9.99 per six pack, while Redbridge is just $8.99 per six pack. Anheuser-Busch's ability to make and distribute the new choice in mass quantities lowers the price. Even so, at $8.99 per six pack of Redbridge, the average drinker will not be seeking out the higher-priced options.

Redbridge was produced in partnership with the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness This helps the NFCA as well as Anheuser-Busch. The NFCA can use the mass marketing of the beer to promote awareness of celiac disease, while Redbridge beer will get the NCFA's approval as a gluten free beer. This win-win environment helps Redbridge beer to reach millions of customers, and the partnership gives both parties an opportunity to gain exposure.

Until recently, mass marketed gluten free beer was a dream for celiac patients, but the smaller microbreweries helped bring sorghum-based beer to the U.S. Now Redbridge is slowly making its way to taps across the U.S., to help celiac patients and those suffering from gluten intolerance to get a little piece of fun back into their lives.