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Gluten-free alcohol

Which drinks are gluten free, which are not, and why distillation changes the answer even when the starting grain does not.

Distillation removes gluten protein, so whiskey, vodka and gin are gluten free regardless of whether they were made from wheat, barley or rye. Fermentation does not, which is why beer is not. People mix the two processes up, and end up avoiding safe drinks and trusting unsafe ones.

Gluten free

Whiskey, bourbon, scotch, rye whiskeyGluten protein does not carry over in distillation, whatever the mash was.
Vodka and ginIncluding wheat-based vodka.
Rum, tequila, mezcal, brandy, cognacSugarcane, agave and grape bases, with no grain at any stage.
Wine, champagne, proseccoGrapes. The historical worry about wheat-paste barrel sealing is essentially obsolete.
Hard ciderFermented apple. Check flavoured versions for barley additions.
SakeRice and koji.
Most hard seltzersCane-sugar based ones are fine; malt-based ones are not. The base is on the label.

Not gluten free

Beer, ale, lager, stout, IPAMalted barley.
Wheat beer, hefeweizen, witbierWheat plus barley malt.
Malt liquor, malta, non-alcoholic malt drinksBarley malt, and easily mistaken for soft drinks.
Gluten-removed beerBarley beer treated with an enzyme. The R5 ELISA under-reads fragmented gluten, so the test result overstates the case. Not recommended for celiac disease.

Check these

Flavoured spirits and pre-mixed cocktailsAnything added after distillation is a fresh question.
Cream liqueursSome use barley-derived ingredients for body.
BittersSmall volumes, but several use barley.
Cocktail mixersMalt and barley turn up in some sour and bloody-mary mixes.
Draft lines and shared glasswareA rinsed pint glass that held beer is a smaller risk than most people fear, but a dirty draft line pouring cider after beer is not nothing.
Check it in the aisle instead

Point CiCi at the barcode on anything on this list and get this same reasoning in about two seconds, plus the carbs and whether it has been recalled. 360,000+ packaged foods are already read and waiting.

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Food guides

Each guide covers a whole aisle and explains the mechanism, which is more portable than any list of names.

Gluten-free breadOrdinary bread is wheat and contains gluten. Gluten-free bread is a separate product category built from rice, sorghum, tapioca and starch blends. The…Gluten-free beerOrdinary beer is brewed from barley and contains gluten. Two different things sit on the shelf labeled for gluten-avoiders. Beer brewed from sorghum o…Gluten-free soy sauceMost soy sauce is not gluten free. Conventional soy sauce is brewed from roughly equal parts soybean and wheat, and the wheat is fundamental to the fe…Gluten-free oatsOats contain no gluten of their own, but the answer changes by country and by supply chain. In the US and EU, oats labeled gluten-free are permitted; …Gluten-free candyMost hard candy, most gummies and most plain chocolate are gluten free. Four things decide the rest: wheat flour in wafers and cookie pieces, barley m…Gluten-free sauces and condimentsCondiments are where gluten hides most reliably. Soy sauce is a wheat product, most Worcestershire outside the US contains malt vinegar, gravy and rou…

Other lists

Hidden sources of glutenThe ingredients that contain gluten without naming a gluten grain. It explains why careful label-readers still get sick.Gluten-free foods that sound like they aren'tIngredients people cut out unnecessarily. Over-restriction has a real cost, and this list is here to give some of that food back.Naturally gluten-free foodsWhole foods that never contained gluten in the first place. They are the cheapest and safest way to eat, and they sidestep the 183% price premium on labeled gluten-free products.Grains that contain glutenThe gluten grains, every alias they travel under, and the one grain whose answer changes depending on which country you are in.Gluten-free grains, seeds and floursThe complete list of grains, pseudocereals, seeds and flours that contain no gluten, including several that databases and older guides get wrong.A gluten-free shopping listA working list for a first shop after diagnosis, organised the way a supermarket is. The few things in each aisle that need checking are called out.Eating gluten free at chainsChains are more predictable than independents, and that predictability cuts both ways. What to ask, what almost always fails, and why a published allergen menu is not the same as a safe kitchen.Newly diagnosed with celiac diseaseWhat to do first, what can wait, and the three mistakes almost everyone makes in the first month.
16 ingredients on this list

Every one of them is checked automatically when you scan a product — along with everything else on the label, and every rule that fires. Unlimited scans, free.

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The scanner

Reading a page is fine. Standing in the aisle is the hard part.

This site answers the question you knew to ask. The app answers the one you didn't: the barley malt in a rice cereal, the wheat starch in a gummy. Scan the barcode, or photograph the panel when the barcode isn't in any database, and CiCi shows which words on the label produced the answer.

  • 360,000+ packaged foods already read. Ingredient statement, allergen declaration and nutrition panel, each one assessed by the same rules you can see working on this page, so most scans are an instant answer rather than a lookup.
  • Unlimited scanning, about two seconds an answer. Fig and Spoonful both cut you off at five scans a month.
  • Carbs and the full nutrition panel on every scan. Total and net carbohydrate with the arithmetic shown. For the roughly 6% of people with type 1 diabetes who have coeliac disease too, that is two apps collapsed into one.
  • Your glutening log. Record a reaction and CiCi shows what those days had in common. It counts overlaps and never tells you what caused it.
  • Saved products. The regular shop in one place, so next week is not a re-scan of the same forty items.
  • Scanning happens on your device. No scan is ever attached to you, sold, or sent to an analytics service.
Try it free for 14 days →See pricing

14 days free, then $29.99 a year. Cheaper than Fig, and it does what three separate apps do. This website stays free forever either way: every answer on it, permanently, with no account.

Sources
TTB Ruling 2020-2 — gluten content statements on alcohol