The Anonymous Widower

Is Gluten-Free Beer Illegal In Italy?

I have puzzled for some time, why there is no Italian gluten-free beer, as if Germany with their strict brewing regulations can have one, surely can most countries.

So I searched Google using “birra senza glutine” and found this Italian site. It says this about a beer called Beautiful Elena.

Beautiful Elena : Italian craft beer derived from rice. By law in Italy can not be called beer, because this name is reserved only to beverages that contain barley or barley malt, then find it on the shelves labeled “rice drink alcohol.”

So it looks like many of the gluten-free beers we have couldn’t be brewed in Italy.  But they can sell other countries’ products.

August 18, 2013 - Posted by AnonW | Food | Beer, Coeliac/Gluten-Free, Italy