Friday, March 12, 2010
Happiest Hour: The Kettlehouse goes gluten-free
Posted by Matthew Frank on Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 3:30 PM
In this week's Happiest Hour, the Kettlehouse gives beer-loving and long-suffering "Celiacs" a reason to dust off their growlers with its new Seeley Axe White.
Breaking beer news bulletin: The good people at Missoula’s Kettlehouse Brewing Co. have brewed an experimental “gluten-reduced” beer called Seeley Axe White. It’s very likely gluten-free, but the brewery is reluctant to call it that until it can be tested for gluten proteins.
- My growler back in action.
Why I care: Because three years ago I discovered I have Celiac Disease, an inherited autoimmune disease in which the lining of the small intestine is damaged from eating gluten proteins found in wheat, barley and rye. That meant my Kettlehouse growler was relegated to a spare change collector, and my love of beer spoiled by gastrointestinal symptoms displeasing enough to make me swear off even my beloved Cold Smoke. Beer became my forbidden fruit.
What’s Seeley Axe White? Seeley Axe—get it? We gluten-intolerants are called “Celiacs”—is a beer brewed with the gluten-free grain sorghum and, in the tradition of Belgian white beers, bitter orange peel and coriander.
How’s it taste? Like beer, which is to say, amazing. As its name implies (but as its ingredients belie), it tastes a bit like a wheat hefeweizen, but it also has a pale ale-like hoppiness lacking in every other gluten-free beer I’ve tried.
Will it stick around? Kettlehouse owner Tim O’Leary says reviews have been very positive so far, and that it could be a “sleeper hit.” “We’re testing it in our taprooms, and if it seems commercially viable, at least in Missoula, we’ll figure out what we have to do to continue making it…,” he says. “What we’re trying to do is get a recipe dialed in that we can offer if there are any bars around that want to have it on tap.”
Where to get it: The Kettlehouse’s taproom at 602 Myrtle Street. It’s not currently available at the Northside location, but that could change.
—Matthew Frank
Happiest Hour is a new column that celebrates western Montana watering holes. To recommend a bar, bartender or beverage for Happiest Hour, e-mail editor@missoulanews.com.
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This is hilarious! In a great way! ! !
As more people live in this society which is polluted with junk from bad-chemical ridden antibiotics, environmental polutants in general, and the crap in processed foods which most people consume in the majority of their diets. . . even more people will discover their immune systems being pushed beyond their thresholds. . . and, sooner or later, when presented with the damage, as an oicial "celiac",...
I would imagine, that this innovative creation of a sorghum based "Beer", really will take flight. (Might pass the inspection as officially GF if not grown in areas surrounded or adjacent to non-GF crops.)
Thanks for your innovation.
On behalf of all those GF'ers, present and future.
the dude who posted first sounds like he prefers to date trees, but I know a girl who is also alergic to gluten that I can now get drunk. Thank you once again Kettle house, you've never let me down.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Infinity! Pleeeeeeeeeeeeese understand how exciting this is to the gastrointestinally challenged like myself. I would bet this beer becomes a huge hit. It would be so nice to go the the bar and be able to have a drink. I could be like.....normal. Good job Kettlehouse. I will dust off my growlers (if I can find them after all these years)and come try Seeley Axe.
Thank you KettleHouse for being a part of the Gluten Free movement! Options in Montana are still limited, but it's wonderful when local business get involved and provide high quality products for it's Celiac and GF community! I hope to see Seeley Axe in the Flathead valley soon, and be able to raise a pint. CHEERS!!!
Yessss! I JUST discovered my wheat allergy, and while I have for so long sacrificed (unknowingly) feeling gastrointestinally OK for my love of beer, toast, sandwiches, pizza, and pasta, I have finally begun to realize the things I might have to give up to feel normal. Pretty great that KettleHouse doesn't have to be on that list! I can't wait to try it! But hopefully I can get it in cans some day so I don't have to further break my cheap ass by tipping bartenders and paying 'taproom' prices. Thanks KHole. Coldsmoke is and always will be my heaven though.
Right on! I will grab a growler full next time I wind up in Missoula. Aside from the few GF beers available in the northwest as well as hard ciders, the pickens are slim. I love that the variety is growing. Other GF'ers, please visit my wife's blog on Gluten-Free living. We are out of Belgrade and she does a lot of write-ups on the Gluten-Free stuff she finds in the greater Northwest (so far, Billings on out to Portland.) Her page is http://glutenfreemontana.blogspot.com/
BTW, if you haven't been looking, you CAN get other Gluten Free Beers in the Bozeman and Missoula areas. Bard's has been our favorite so far. We have also tried all of the Green's (Expensive), Red Bridge (Think Budweiser, since they make it), Toleration, and New Grist (Portland). That's about the only ones we have found in the Northwest. We did stop in at the Deschutes Brewery in Portland and had the GF beer that they were working on and it was too light for our tastes. It wasn't bad, but I think we got our hopes up a bit too high. I am stoked for the Kettlehouse attempt.
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