When I first found out I had gluten issues, I resolved to have a stiff upper lip. I could give up sour­dough bread and my favorite pasta. I could even give up pie and real choco­late chip cook­ies, but when I found out I had to give up beer, I actu­ally cried. Like I’ve said before, it wasn’t my finest moment, but it helps to illus­trate my love of one of the world’s old­est bev­er­ages. So imag­ine my absolute delight when I tried Omis­sion Hand­crafted Lager on our last trip to Ore­gon. Brewed by Wid­mer Broth­ers Brew­ing in Port­land, OR, their tag line is “It isn’t just what we took out, it’s what we left in.” No joke. Instead of using sub­sti­tute ingre­di­ents, Omis­sion brews with the basics: malted bar­ley, hops, yeast and water, but the gluten is removed through a pro­pri­etary process devel­oped by Omis­sion. (By the way, the inter­na­tional stan­dard for “gluten-free” is 20 parts per mil­lion or less, as defined by the United Nations Food & Agri­cul­tural Orga­ni­za­tion and the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion, and Omission’s lev­els are well below that. All batches are inde­pen­dently tested via the R5 Com­pet­i­tive ELISA test).

Six years in the mak­ing, brew mas­ter Joe Casey sought to pro­duce an excel­lent gluten-free beer when his wife was diag­nosed with Celiac dis­ease. Also diag­nosed with Celiac is cur­rent Wid­mer CEO Terry Michael­son who has worked with the com­pany since 1994 – another case of neces­sity is the mother of invention.

I’ve tried both beers and I really couldn’t believe my taste buds. The lager is won­der­fully tasty, with a light fin­ish. The pale ale has a beau­ti­ful malty qual­ity and reminds me of our much her­alded local offer­ing, Stone Pale Ale. Drink­ing this beer isn’t a sac­ri­fice on any level. We found Omis­sion at Wind­mill Farms, our local gro­cery store, but feel free to email them for loca­tion infor­ma­tion. (Their site doesn’t yet have a list of retail­ers). I hate to say it, but this beer leaves all other gluten-free offer­ings in the dust. Give it a try and let me know how you like it. I’m still dry­ing my eyes from tears of joy!