GLUTEN, GO DUCK YOURSELF
- 100% Traditional Beer Ingredients 100%
- Less Than 0.00002% Gluten 0.00002%
THE STRUGGLE IS REAL
Our founder and avid homebrew, Matt DelVecchio, was crushed in 2012 when he found that his beloved brews were the cause of his health issues. The same delicious grains (barley, wheat and rye) that imparted such wonderful flavors in beer were also adding gluten to his beer – which was on the no-fly-list for his Celiac diagnosis. It was a crushing blow to have something you love, not love you back – and doubly so with his dream of opening his own brewery. Then a miracle came…
WE PUNCH GLUTEN IN THE FACE
THANK YOU SCIENCE!
After thinking his beer drinking days and his dream of opening his own brewery were a thing of the past, a wonderful elixir of the gods came to the rescue in 2013. A new enzyme by the name of Clarity Ferm came to market to help brewers when their perfectly good beers became cloudy – a condition known as chill haze. Thanks Science! Around this point a happy accident happened. Someone in the industry noticed there was something settling at the bottom of fermenters when using Clarity Ferm – gluten! Turns out this magic potion could take any beer in the fermenter and knock the gluten out of it. DOUBLE THANKS SCIENCE!
This was a pant-filling shock to Matt, who after drying his tears from the taste of beer again – dusted off his dreams and went to work with Brett to open Duck Foot Brewing Co in 2015.
DOES IT REALLY WORK?
Matt stakes his health on it. Beyond that endorsement, here’s some numbers and facts to take into account…
- Every Duck Foot Beer goes through the gluten reduction process, using Clarity Ferm
- The FDA states that food labeled as gluten free needs to be lab tested to come out to less than 20 parts per million of gluten
- Every batch of Duck Foot beer goes to an independent lab prior to packaging, and is tested to be less than 20 parts per million of gluten.
- Every one of our beers is made with traditional gluten-laden grains, and are indistinguishable from a beer that hasn’t gone through the process.
- You’re welcome. And yes, we’ll list that with a bunch of facts. That’s how we roll.
%
of our beers are gluten reduced
SO WHY DON’T WE PUT “GLUTEN FREE” ON OUR PACKAGING?
Well, currently the federal government hasn’t blessed this process to be labeled as gluten free. And with 100% honesty, there’s some back and forth on if you can accurately measure gluten in a liquid state.* So beers made this way are known as “gluten reduced.” Hopefully in the coming years all the breweries making gluten reduced beers will be able to proudly put “gluten free” on their bottles and cans.
*Fine print and disclaimers? Well, yeah – ya surprised? Legally, we can make no promises on how this beer will do with your digestive system. Beyond legal liabilities, our common sense keeps us from making such statements too. Everyone is different, and getting to know your body’s sensitivities can be a rocky path. After that tough love out of the way, we can honestly say that our founder Matt (who is diagnosed with Celiac) has had no issues with Duck Foot beers. As of writing this disclaimer, in the 5 years we’ve been open – we’ve had no reports from our gluten sensitive patrons that our beer has caused them issues.
FIND OUR BEER NEAR YOU, OR HAVE IT DELIVERED!
LET MY PEOPLE DRINK
So now that you’ve perused the nitty-gritty, let’s talk about the real thing you care about – the beers! For hundreds of years, Monks have revered beer as a gift from god – and we can agree with that sentiment. We know we’re the gluten reduced life raft in a choppy ocean of beers you’re not willing to risk drinking. It would be a huge bummer if that life raft was stocked with beer that sucked and had no imagination. That leaves us in an important position. We have a dedication to not just quality, but friggin’ variety! We love bringing a huge variety of beer styles to our patrons, so they don’t have to have their go-to beer be the same boring slog – but a full cornucopia of varying libations. We’ve collected several awards over the years when our beers were judged alongside gluten filled beers. That’s awesome, because we’re not a gluten reduced brewery. We’re a brewery that happens to brew gluten reduced beers. Hell yeah. Go explore our site for all the things we’re brewing up. Cheers!