My Hoppy Place gifted Real Food Fans with a bottle of sorghum beer originally recommended by the Beermudgeon. While selecting the beers for our tasting (the write up is in the queue), we asked the Beermudgeon if he’d ever had any good gluten-free beers and he happily recommended St. Peters Sorghum Beer from the UK. Over at Real Food Fans, they’re livin’ relatively gluten free so, in the spirit of sharing, we shared. Courtney at Real Food Fans tells us more about it in a guest post.
Jess and Marlene gave me this beer to try because of my gluten sensitivities. It’s made from sorghum and comes up on “gluten free” beer lists, although it doesn’t claim to be completely gluten free.
I decided to give it a go with a dinner of liver with basil-anise butter and a side of kale, a meal calling for beer instead of wine. I haven’t a clue in the world what kind of glass one is supposed to use for sorghum beer, so I used a plain old pilsner glass (one with a dragon on it, for good luck).

St. Peters Sorghum Beer in a lovely pilsner glass.
OK, I’m not a professional beer taster. It looked like beer. It smelled like beer, with a nice sharp hoppy/citrus smell coming out of the bottle. But I forgot to wave it around under my nose to check for the subtleties, so I can’t tell you if it had hints of banana or chocolate or monkey sweat. Considering how flat a lot of gluten-free products are, just smelling like beer is a compliment.
The taste was very hoppy/bitter, like a strong IPA, but it didn’t have the astringent, mouth-drying aftertaste I associate with the style. I’ve read that sorghum has a fairly high sugar content. I’m not sure if that’s what changed the follow-on mouthfeel or if it was something else. The beer definitely stood up to and balanced the assertive liver and kale dinner. It left me feeling satisfying and refreshed and (probably because it didn’t leave an astringent aftertaste) I was perfectly fine with only one and didn’t feel like I needed a water chaser.
I’d be perfectly happy serving this to a crowd and would not feel the need to advertise that it was for special diets or anything. It’s a very good beer in its own right.
In short, thanks, Jess and Marlene, for letting me try the beer and for having fun posting the results! Feel free to pass another down the bar to me any time.
Filed under: Beer, Food, Tasting notes on May 13th, 2010 | No Comments »