St. Peter's Brewery - "Sorgham Beer" ale

For those out there who are gluten-intolerant, a trip to the bar can be an unpleasant experience. Most beer is made with wheat or barley, which contains the protein gluten - and would make for a pretty rough drinking session for anyone unable to process such a protein. But brewers have picked up on this and have created several beers made from ingredients that don't contain gluten. Today's post is of one such beer - it's St. Peter's Brewery's "Sorgham Beer" ale, a 4.2% ABV German pilsner-style beer made with sorghum. Interestingly, the proper name of the beer spells sorghum with an "a", whereas the ingredient is spelled with a "u". The label has both spellings.

Sorghum is actually a grass with many variants. My research reveals that the variant of sorghum used in today's beer is most likely Sorghum bicolor, pictured below. This kind of sorghum is used around the world for various purposes like livestock feed, and grain substitutes in food products. But most importantly for our purposes, it's used as a wheat substitute in gluten-free recipes.

A field of Sorghum bicolor.

I should note as well it's a neat-looking bottle; it's a green flask-shaped thing reminiscent of really old apothecary bottles. I should also note that of all the colors of glass bottles, translucent green glass is one of the worst for blocking harmful light. So don't let this sit in the sun!

OK, let's see how this is.

It pours swiftly, a clear maple color, and produces a very thin layer of white foam. When candled, it's clear and tiny little bubbles are evident.

It's got a sweet, brown sugar nose. The taste is malty, somewhat flat, but actually not that bad. It's light, with a nice caramel malty flavor and a slight bit of hops (really not that much though.) The flavor dies away quickly though, and the aftertaste nonexistent.

It's interesting. It's not super flavorful, and rather light, but I admit it's not what I was expecting. I was expecting a sort of stale, dry taste reminiscent of grass ('cause that's what it is) but I was wrong. The flavors were subtle, but the caramel maltiness was kinda nice. Reminds me a bit of a watered-down bock. And while it's not a super-flavorful creation, I feel this is a serviceable lager. And in all consideration, it's not a bad option for those who are gluten-free.