I have had the opportunity over the last few months to try quite a few Gluten Free beers. I thought a review of them might be helpful to other Celiacs who are looking for a good drop...
I will start with O'Brien's range of 3 beers, since they are the easiest to find here in AU (all Dan Murphys and First Choice have the Lager and Pale AFAIK, as well as a lot of other bottle shops having one or more of them, and health food/gluten free shops):
O'Brien "Lager" - 7/10 (but only because I am not a lager fan)
This beer has come a long way since I first tried it a year ago. It is a crisp clean lager with an excellent malt character. The Sorghum is apparent (as with nearly all GF beers made with it) but is wel hidden by the hops and slight caramel.
O'Brien "Pale Ale" - 9/10
This is an excellent beer, the citrus/tropical hop arroma blends well with the light Sorghum and caramel. Very drinkable beer that I would rank with barley containing competitors in the same price bracket.
O'Brien "Brown Ale" - 10/10
This is the best GF beer I have had, true to the English style with a great balance of caramel and noble hops. This beer has no detectable Sorghum flavour and could easily be mistaken for a real Barley beer. Hard to find, but highly reccomended!
Staying with Aussie micros we can look at Billabong's offerings:
Billabong "Blonde" - 7/10
I have tried this beer a few times from what I believe are at least 2 different batches, both immediately screamed of citrus. The bottle does state that it is brewed with noble hops and Curacao orange peel. It however is not off putting, it just takes it out of the session beer category in my opinion.
Billabong "Australia's Pale Ale" - 8/10
This is right on par with O'Brien's Pale Ale, has the same character of citrus and passionfruit, but the hopping is slightly lighter. Being a hop head, it is easy to guess which I most enjoy
From the UK, St Peter's Brewery has just 1 offering:
St Peter's "Gluten Free Beer" - 7/10
This is a very light beer, more of a Pilsner than a lager. It has the distinct Amarillo character to it, which really takes away from the beer, being this is all you can pick. It is however a bit easier to drink than the Australian counterparts (which is usually the case with beer anyway). The bottles are like an old style medicine bottle, or something the snake oil salesman might have used. They get an extra point just for the packaging, and the larger 500ml serving size
From Germany, Schnitzer Brau has 2 GF Beers, both are made with 100% Millet:
Schnitzer Brau "German Hirse Premium" - 5/10
This beer is quite different to the usual Sorghum brews. It is much lighter in flavour and colour. This could be a great session beer, but for what you will pay to get it here, you might want something more.
Schnitzer Brau "German Hirse Lemon" - 4/10
This is a very light beer, at only 2.6% alcohol, and with loads of lemon flavour, it tastes more like a watered down shandy than anything. I did not enjoy it, and regret having paid $5 to try it...
From the USA, there are 2 GF beers (more if you count some of the traditional SA copies, but I doubt you will find those here):
Lakefront Brewery's "New Grist" - 3 to 7/10
I rate this 3 to 7 out of 10 because I have tried 3 different batches of this beer. One of the batches was terrible and had a level of chloro-phenol that was well above threshold! However I did get a chance to try a batch that was less than 3 weeks old and it was excellent! It is made with unmalted Sorghum and rice extract. It is extremely light and easy to drink (think the GF equivalent of Budweiser). This stuff was also only a few dollars more per slab than Bud or Miller in the US.
Anheuser Busch's "Red Bridge" - 8/10
This is a surprisingly great beer. Same price as Bud and Miller, but I would honestly pick it over them, even if I didn't have to. Despite the name, it is not a red beer. It has a good lager colour and light caramel malt flavour which is well balanced by the hop bitterness. If you can find this beer I recommend you try it, even if you are not a Celiac.
I will add more as they become available to me, there certainly are others out there and I endevour to try them all!