Brasserie de Brunehaut is a Belgian brewery. They brew several varieties of beer, four of which are gluten-free.This particular beer is an artisinal blonde ale made with "eco-friendly ingredients," or so the label states. The beer contains 6.5% ABV.
First off - if you buy this beer, open it over the kitchen sink! It was bursting with bubbles as soon as I got the cap off, which is why you see a bit of dampness below my beer glass in the photo. Oops.
As far as I can tell, Brunehaut brews this beer with barley, then de-glutenizes it through an enzymatic process that brings the finished product down to "less than 5ppm" of gluten. They say "less than 5ppm" because that's as low as current tests can detect. Current US standards do not allow for this beer to be labeled gluten-free, so you won't find those words on the label in the United States. However, you will find the lovely international gluten-free symbol on the cap, seen here.
I would like to say that people who are very sensitive to gluten may still react to this beer simply because of its ingredients. If you are one of these highly-sensitive people, then I would probably not recommend it. But that is your decision to make. I did not react to this beer and found it quite pleasant.
Onto the taste test. I poured from the 11.2 oz stubby bottle into my conical pint glass. The color is a cloudy butterscotch with a big, fluffy white head that left behind a little bit of lacing.
The beer has a slight apple-y smell with hints of yeast and grass, but the aroma itself is not very strong. The beer is a bit watery, but very smooth and lightly carbonated. It tastes like a typical Belgian blonde at the beginning, with some hits of apple and earthy hops. There is a slight bitterness in the aftertaste, but it is not unpleasantly bitter.
Basically, Brunehaut Blonde Ale tastes like a regular beer. I wouldn't have guessed it was gluten-free just from the taste. There was no weird sweetness, no grassy-ness, and no sorghum funk. Just a pretty damn good ale. This was a lovely end-of-the-day treat paired with a handful of pistachios. My only complaints are that it's a bit hard to find, and a little expensive for the size - this single bottle ran me a little over $4.
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