Brunehaut: The best gluten free beer you’ve never heard of

I’ve tried my share of gluten free beers. I’ve tried every one I can get my hands on.

And these were the best.

The BEST.

I had never heard of Brunehaut brewery before I saw their beers on a shelf at Horrock’s in Lansing, MI. Probably because they seem to be a really old, obscure brewery in Belgium that just happens to make two amazing gluten free beers. Wikipedia says that they’ve been in operation since 1890, which explains how they’ve actually managed to make a gluten free beer that has that lovely thing called taste.

I got one of their blonde ales, which I basically chugged the second I got home from the store. Amazing. Wish I had three more. Right now.

And an amber ale.

Both were full bodied, smooth, with no hint of weird sorghum or grass.

Both were also gold medal winners at the 2011 United States Open Beer Championships. I am so proud that our country has one of those. Go USA! ;)

I wish I could tell you where to find this beer, but the locations map on their website only has where you can find it in Belgium. I don’t know what twist of fate brought them to this random store in Michigan that I happened to go to; it just must have been my lucky day!

The best I can say is to beg a locally specialty store to order it for you. Cost should be no object, just get it.

These Brunehaut beers give me hope that one day us Celiacs can also enjoy specialty beers.

Cheers ;)

13 Responses to Brunehaut: The best gluten free beer you’ve never heard of

  1. Brunehaut does a great job. There are some other gluten free beers that will be making their way to the US before long from the same region. I think the Belgiums have always made the best beers but they have some pretty strong competition in the gluten free arena. You can find other reviews on the Gluten Free Beer Association website.

  2. The Brunehaut Gluten Free Beer will be on the shelves and bars in California in February!

    • That’s great news! I’ll be first in line when it gets to DC. I’m going to mention it to a few bars and distributors here to see if they’ll order it. I’m sure it’ll sell like hot cakes.

      • I am the California rep for Brunehaut The importer is c2imports. They are great. Where do you buy your beer for home and what is your favorite bar? Let us know!

      • Jealous you have Brunehaut on hand all the time! :) My favorite beer bars in DC are Churchkey and Bier Baron – next time I go I’m going to suggest that they talk to their distributor about ordering some Brunehaut. I typically buy beer from Cleveland Park Wines http://www.clevelandparkwine.com/, or Whole Foods. Hope to see Brunehaut in more places soon!

  3. It wasn’t random, I requested they carry it after reading about it. Sadly, I got it don’t really care for Belgian beer, not enough hops…

    • You rock, Mark! And you’re so ahead of the curve :) You should order some New Planet Off Grid next if you’re seeing your gluten free beer selling – it’s really good, and getting picked up by a ton of stores here. Thanks for stocking Brunehaut, otherwise I never would have tried it!

  4. I have tried New Planet as it is from a brewery in Boulder who is using Fort Collins Brewery to keep up with demand. It is nice is light in flavor which is why I like RedBridge better. RedBridge is from makers of Bud and can be found across the USA my favorite bar/grill keeps it in stock for me. They had problems getting New Planet all the time so I asked them to get RedBridge in they have not had a problem getting or keeping it in stock.

  5. I just picked these two flavors up at Foods for Living in East Lansing, MI and they are delicious! I’m always on the look out for new gluten free beer in hopes of finding one that taste good and this fits the bill! Thanks for the list!

  6. Anybody in the NYC area looking for Brunehaut both amber and blonde can get it at Aces beer & Soda Inc, Brooklyn Ny 11233 718 495 2828 or go to acesbeer.com and send them an email, they also carry Estrella Damm Daura from spain and have gluten free ciders cheers to all

  7. Dogfish has a GF beer called ‘Tweason Ale. It’s a seasonal, and I was told that the release is in April. Also, New Grist brewed in Wisconsin is pretty good.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s