"redbridge" news and stories

I've been putting it off and I'm not sure why: Celiac Disease hits close to home. For as long as I can remember, my grandmother, a Celiac sufferer, has struggled to maintain a gluten-free diet. I've seen firsthand the hardship of trying to find wheat and gluten-free versions of foods that the rest of us take for granted.

So kudos to Anheuser-Busch for tackling this market by introducing Redbridge gluten-free beer in late 2006. Having the backing of one of the "big boys" means Redbridge is readily available by gluten-free standards. I even found it at a bar down the street from me (though admittedly I live in the oft progressive borough of Brooklyn).

So why the delay in reviewing this beer? Well, frankly, I feared of the flavor. To avoid wheat and barley, Redbridge is brewed with sorghum, which I think we can all agree, doesn't sound too enticing. And though I laud A-B for the offering, I was afraid this love-in would come to a quick end as soon as the beverage met my taste buds.

But for the second year in a row, Redbridge took gold at the Great American Beer Festival in the Gluten-Free Beer category. Granted, only 10 beers competed, but I still thought it time to do grandma proud and give it a try.

After the jump, read my review of the surprisingly satisfactory Redbridge gluten-free beer...

A great man -- MC Paul Barman -- once said of beer: "The liquid is ubiquitous and has such a hold; on all the strata, it's just got to be government-controlled. Behind the bottle and the throne sits an unknown man wiser and bigger for the liquor store the number one franchiser. Perhaps George Bush and his sons are relatives of Anheiser."

I'm not 100% sure what MC was talking about, but his gist is right: Sometimes you just feel like beer is everywhere. Television, sporting events, plastered on the side of a bus: It's seems like everyone wants us to be thinking beer. Which got me thinking, What beers do I encounter on an average day?

A far more accomplished lyricist -- John Lennon -- once wrote a song called "A Day in the Life," and from what I've heard Lennon liked to drink, so in his honor, here, after the jump, were my beer encounters on an average day... Tuesday.

Back in August, we started looking at a category of beer that is getting increasingly popular as awareness of celiac disease and gluten intolerance grows: gluten free beer. At the time Anheuser-Busch was just starting to test their own gluten-free brew, but it must have been a success because the company is now ready to release their newest product. Redbridge beer is completely wheat and gluten-free and is described as a "full-bodied lager brewed from sorghum for a well-balanced, moderately hopped taste." It contains 4.8% alcohol per bottle and will be sold in six packs at higher end grocery stories (described as "stores carrying organic products) and in some restaurants.

This marks the first truly mainstream GF beer on the market, as others like Bard's Tale Beer's Dragon's Gold and Ramapo Valley Brewery's Passover Honey Beer are all produced by small breweries in small batches and are not available everywhere.

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