I am a huge fan of Twitter because it is a great place to have a conversation with companies, bloggers and everyday people about a shared topic. While 'talking' on Twitter yesterday we heard that Mike's Hard Lemonade (Lite versions) are gluten free. Wait, isn't Mike's made from barley, so how can it possibly be gluten free.....
They start with a malt base of fermented barley, not unprocessed barley, and hops that are processed using a highly specialized, multi-stage filtration process. Step three of this proprietary filtration process removes all the color, malt sugars, glucose and flavors from the malt base. The end result is an extremely pure neutral malt base that is gluten free.
This all sounds well and good, but this Examiner dug deeper to determine if the product is tested for gluten.....
It turns out two of their directors of quality assurance and compliance have gluten allergies and have been highly involved in gluten-free testing to ensure they are offering an authentic and high quality gluten-free product. mike's lite hard lemonade and mike's lite cranberry lemonade were tested in February 2011 through the University of Nebraska's Food Allergy Research and Resource Program using two different methods - including the ELISA test, the most stringent test currently available for gluten quantification. Test results show that both lite products and the original hard lemonade contain less than 5 parts per million (ppm) of gluten, less than the 20 ppm needed to be considered gluten-free.
This is great news for myself, I have been dying to try the product and it comes just in time for tailgating. I don’t care for gluten-free beer or bourbon, which is all anyone drinks at a tailgate, so now we can enjoy a cold refreshing drink and not be the only one refraining from drinking.
The new Lite Hard Lemonades are naturally sweetened with cane sugar and Rebiana-A, a natural sweetener grown from the stevia plant. The original hard lemonade is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, so this is a nice change from the company.
Can't wait to pick up some of the Cranberry Lite Hard Lemonade at my local grocery store and give it a try. Have you tried the new lite hard lemonades? What did you think?
Article Courtesy: Jennifer Harris
GFPhilly says
Headline and story should be clear that this is only as to the "lite" hard lemonades.
Administrator says
I understand your confusion, however, the last sentence of the 3rd paragraph clears this up, saying. "Test results show that both lite products and the original hard lemonade contain less than 5 parts per million (ppm) of gluten, less than the 20 ppm needed to be considered gluten-free."
Administrator says
We agree GFPhilly. We adjusted Jennifer's story to highlight the LITE lemonades are the ones that are Gluten Free. Thanks.
Nix says
So is the NOT lite gluten free... I'm confused by the testing you cite and the comments.