Do You Have Any Beer?

Ah beer. A simple pleasure enjoyed by most. Once upon a time, I used to drink Guinness and many a fine Belgian beer. Them were the days! Now that it is off limits, I’ve had to search for alternatives. In a pub or restaurant there is wine, cider (for the masochists amongst us) and most spirits are my choices. At times, I envy the non-alcoholic beer that is available for the designated drivers. It’s a sad state of affairs.

Then there was light *insert angelic chorus here* Thanks mostly to my husband who tirelessly searches for alternatives of food and beverages for me, due to my recently required diet, the fabled gluten free beer was found. The first off-licence we knew of that sold it was Redmonds in Ranelagh, Co. Dublin. They do a wide range of specialist beers from all over the world and some of those specialist beers happened to be gluten free. Yay me! However, living out in the wilds of Co. Kildare, my ventures to that particular part of the country are few and far between. Now with the run into Christmas coming, I wanted to stock-up on some beer before it became too inconvenient to do so, so off we went.

Then there was disappointment. They had narrowed their gluten free selection to just one beer. Estrella. This is quite a decent beer, but it is no means my favourite. So resigning my self to a beer-less winter *you can actually hear the smallest violin in the world playing just for me*, we traipsed up the main street to grab some food for an early dinner. This turned out to be serendipitous, as usually it's trial and error going to a place that will cater for my needs. We ended up in Hobarts and it was a revelation! I had their ‘American style’ pancakes. Nom.

They were extremely accommodating and the food was tasty. I do like how when you spot a sign ‘Gluten Free Now Available’ it’s like the premises is announcing something that is completely novel to the clientele. So if you’re out and about in Ranelagh and want some decent and most importantly, edible food, get yourselves to Hobarts. It’s an all-day breakfast café with great staff and a decent menu.

When the high of eating serious amounts of food had worn off, I went back to mourning my lack of beer supplies. This is where the second revelation came to light. My husband, Geoff, had been busy looking for other off-licences that would stock beer I could drink and found out that Molloys in Tallaght village did just that. So on the way home we detoured to their shop and lo and behold my two favourite beers were there in number! 

The imaginatively named Glutaner is the holy grail of gluten free beer, in my opinion. It is more expensive, but worth it. A really good all-rounder. It is sorghum malt based and is brewed in Belgium. I can’t say enough good things about it. Even my husband who can drink ‘normal’ beer is partial to Glutaner. I’m not keen on the GFA and GFL lagers that are  shown in the picture above, as I find the aftertaste is unkind to the palate. Then there is Green’s Premium Pils. Another Belgian beer and is brewed with de-glutenised barley malt making this taste like any other decent Begian beer. It is more affordable than the Glutaner, yet, just as tasty in its own way. Now I'm stocked up with a healthy number of Glutaner and Green's clinking away, fridge-bound, in my shopping bag - my last thought is if only I could get a gluten free Guinness. Talk about having your cake and eating it too.