Cider, Perry & Gluten Free Beer at the Luton Beer & Cider Festival

Visiting the 30th Annual Luton Beer & Cider Festival.

Since visiting our first Beer Festival in October 2011 (as advised to and accompanied by fellow Minigolfer and hangover expert Kevin 'Don't call me Max' Moseley) we've since been to the Luton Beer & Cider Festival, as well as keeping our eyes out for good gluten free beers, lagers & ales, and cider - with the Cider Tap at Euston in London a favourite haunt of our.

The Luton Beer & Cider Festival is held at the Hightown Sports Centre!

Last year we decided to visit the Luton Beer & Cider Festival after hearing from the Beds & Mid Herts Coeliac Group that there would be bottled gluten free beer available at the event. It's nice to have the choice and I had a bottle of the Blonde ale as well as a fair few 'thirds' of cider and perry.

Another half of Hardings Cider almost finished...

This year we visited the 30th edition of the Luton Beer & Cider Festival, that was once again held at the Hightown Sports & Arts Centre in Luton. This year there were three gluten free beers available, alongside dozens of cask beers, a large selection of bottled foreign beers, wines and a good selection of cider and perry.

It was nice to see posters and leaflets about Gluten Free beer on display at the festival

As a big fan of cider there were plenty to choose from, with twelve ciders, one apple/pear mix and eight perries. Emily was also pleased to see her favourite "Apples & Pears" available. This is made by Millwhites in Hemel Hempstead. And our friend Simon 'Oscar' Hall was very pleased with his 'sampling' of many pints of incredibly dark and think real ale!

Coming from even closer to home is the excellent brew made by Hardings Cider. Having read about the only cider made in Luton in the Autumn 2012 newsletter from the South Bedfordshire branch of CAMRA I purchased a few pints of the medium and sweet cider and very nice they were too. They'll certainly be on the menu for the upcoming BBQ season!

The Hardings Cider was proving popular on the night and the particular edition was the Hardings 3 County Bounty. I sampled a half of it, along with some thirds and halves of the Ross-on-Wye Alpaca Perry(!), the interesting Dunton medium and the Millwhites Rioja Finish.

A great evening out and as a bonus I've got some bottles of Green's Gluten Free Blond & Brown Ale to have tonight. Along with a bag of Awfully Posh's Pork Crackling. Lovely stuff.

Green's Gluten Free Brown Ale and a bottle of Blond too

Links:

- South Bedfordshire Branch of CAMRA

- Hardings Cider

- Millwhites Cider

Related Blog Posts:

- Drinking and 'Pub' Games at the 29th Luton Beer & Cider Festival

- Gluten Free Ales, Beers and Lagers

- Gluten Free

- Coeliac

Drinking and 'Pub' Games at the 29th Luton Beer & Cider Festival

Dominoes, Table Skittles and Gluten Free Beer at the Luton Beer & Cider Festival.

On Friday 17th February we headed to the 29th Luton Beer & Cider Festival at the High Town Sports & Arts Centre in Luton.

The souvenir glass from the Beer Fest and a hand of my Dominoes

Ahead of the event I’d been informed by the Beds & Mid Herts Coeliac Group that there would be four Gluten Free Beers on offer (in amongst the many beers, ciders and perries)! I'd also spoken to one of the organisers, who is a Coeliac, and found out the beers would be available on the foreign beers stand.

The four GF beers available were from Green's and were the Bottle Conditioned Re-fermented Blonde, Brown and Dark Ales & Greens Discovery. I chose a bottle of the Blonde Beer and would definitely buy it again. It was excellent that the Beer Festival had chosen to include Gluten Free beers on the roster too. I'm a big fan of Cider and Perry, but it's nice to go to a Beer Fest and actually have the choice to buy a Beer if I want to. 

The four Gluten Free Beers available. There were plenty of posters around the venue advertising the beers, along with a factsheet explaining what Coeliac Disease is.

In amongst the drinking me and Emily played some Dominoes in a best-of-3, 5 & 7 series to decide the Luton Drink Club Dominoes Champion.

A Dominoes game in 'action'

The main hall at the Beer Fest housed a vast array of ales and was where the four Gluten Free beers were being sold.

Me with a Gluten Free Ale and another 'third' of strong Cider!

The hall also housed the CAMRA stand where they had two Pub Games available to play – Shove Ha’penny and Table Skittles!

The Table Skittles at the CAMRA stand

The Shove Ha'penny Board

Me lining up a swing on the Table Skittles

An excellent evening with lots of different drinks to try. Roll on the 30th Luton Beer & Cider Festival!

Links:

- South Bedfordshire Branch of CAMRA

Blog Posts:

- Gluten Free Beers and Lagers

- The Weymouth Preliminaries Rock Paper Scissors Contest

Gluten Free Ales, Beers and Lagers

Details of Gluten Free Ale, Beer and Lager that I've 'sampled' since being diagnosed as a Coeliac *hic*

Having had two bottles of Mongozo Gluten Free Pilsener bought for me I thought I'd give a run down of the other Gluten Free Ales, Beers and Lagers I've tried since being a Coeliac (as people 'Intolerant to Gluten' can't drink 'normal' Beer/Lager).

Enjoying a Redbridge Beer at The Yardhouse in Las Vegas in 2010

I must admit that I do like all of them, they all taste like 'the real thing'. Reading reviews in Crossed Grain magazine some people in 'taste tests' rated some more highly than others, but I can't say I'd avoid any of them. I do have a particular favourite in Redbridge Beer, but that's only available in the US.

I was a big fan of all types of lager, beer and ale before I was diagnosed as a Coeliac, so it is nice to know there are brewers out there providing for Coeliac customers.

Here's a list and links of those I've tried to date:

- Mongozo Pilsener

- Hambleton’s Gluten Free Ale (GFA) and Gluten Free Lager (GFL) - I've tried both.

- Green's Gluten Free Beers - I've tried both their of their new Premium Golden Ale and the Premium Pils. Previously I've tried a few of their other beers, including Pioneer and Trailblazer. Green's do have a wide-range, further details below.

- Estrella Damm Daura

- Schnitzer Brau

- St Peter's Brewery - I've tried the G-Free™ variety

- Glebe Farm Pathfinder - Spotted in the window of Drinkers Paradise in Camden

- CELIA at The Regent Pub in London

- Green's Supreme Golden Ale - on sale in a Sainsbury's in Birmingham

- Daas Blond Beer

Many of these beers and lagers are available in major supermarkets, although stock levels are generally quite low.

I've yet to try the following UK beers and lagers (they're definitely on my 'To Drink' list):

- Against the Grain

- Ambar

- Crop Circle bottle-conditioned beer by Hopback Brewery

- Green's Refermented Blonde Ale

- Green's Refermented Dark Ale

- Green' s Refermented Brown Ale

- St Peter's Brewery Winter Ale

- Green's Mission

- Green's Quest

- Green's Discovery

- Green's Endeavour

- Green's Herald

- Green's Pathfinder

- Stringers Brewery - Plan B - I heard about it via twitter in March 2012 from North Herts CAMRA & Stingers Beer - the beer will be available at the 2012 Hitchin Beer & Cider Festival on the 9th & 10th of March.

While in Las Vegas we tried Redbridge Beer which was great, and we picked up a case of Bard's Beer, which was nice too.

While writing this blog post I also spotted this excellent list of Gluten Free Beers on the Gluten Free Diet website. I can't wait to work my way through that list too!

I found out via twitter that the Orange Tree Pub in Baldock, Herts can cater for Coeliacs, with both food and drink, as they also serve Gluten Free beer and lager.

Enjoying a bottle of gluten free beer

In November 2014 the excellent GFree Radio Show had a gluten free drinks special and I was a guest on the show to discuss alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. You can listen to the show at 'GFree Radio episode 80: Our #GF drinks special'.

Non-Gluten Free, but Beer (and Minigolf) related Blog Posts:

- Minigolf and Crazy Golf courses in Pub Beer Gardens

- A New Minigolf Beer - The '19th Hole' from Uncle Stuart's Brewery at Wroxham Barns, Norfolk
- Mini Golf at the Camden Town Brewery in London

Non-Gluten Free and just about Beer-related Blog Post:

- The Weymouth Preliminaries Rock Paper Scissors Contest

Gluten Free Food & Drink-related Blog Posts:

- Gluten Free Beer
- Gluten Free Reviews on Travel Gluten Free

- Gluten Free Fish & Chips that we've found on our travels

- Great Gluten Free Tea Rooms

Links:
- For more information about Coeliac Disease please visit the Coeliac UK website.

- The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has a list of Gluten Free Beers on its website.