In this issue, you will find:

1. The Celiac Sprue Association Conference
2. What’s coming next?
3. Company Progress
4. Michelob Ultra and other beers
5. What is malt anyway?
6. Housekeeping

We hope you enjoy following our journey through the world of innovation and great beer.

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The Celiac Sprue Association Conference  Top of Page  
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The CSA Conference in Omaha this past weekend was a great success. We were able to unveil our Blonde Ale to the public and once again received very positive feedback. The beer went very well with the beef and chicken tacos we had for lunch on Saturday. For those of you who were able to make it to the conference, we were honored to meet you and glad you had a chance to try our beer. Thank You.

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What’s coming next?  Top of Page  
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After attending the past two conferences, we are going to take the feedback and make some slight modifications to the recipes in order to further improve our beer. We’re sure some of you don’t believe it, but yes we already know how we can make our beer even better. Therefore we have not scheduled any events for the near future. Though, we are having discussions with several organizations and establishments about holding events. Presently, areas of consideration are: Chapel Hill, NC; Denver, CO; Long Island, NY; Boston, MA; Dallas, TX; Portland, OR; and Chicago, IL. If your area is not on the above list and you would like to see us hold a local event (especially California), please contact us.

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Company Progress  Top of Page  
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We know that you are all patiently waiting for us to start shipping our beer and we want to ensure you that we are working diligently to move as quickly as possible to make this happen. We made some great progress this weekend after discussions with another company about malt supply. To date, we have been working with a couple malting companies, on a contract basis, for our supply of malt. This particular company is offering us an opportunity to be more involved in the malting process, thereby giving us more control to ensure the gluten free status of the malt. If we can close the deal, which should happen shortly, this agreement will give us a solid supply foundation as well as the confidence that our ingredients are of the highest quality in the business. This is really great news.

We have also had some very positive discussions with some key investors. If we can keep the momentum going, we could be shipping beer very shortly. If anyone is interested or knows someone who might be interested in being part of this great opportunity, please let us know.

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Michelob Ultra and others  Top of Page  
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We have noticed that there have been some postings to the listserve and other discussion groups about the status of Michelob Ultra (low-carb beer) and other potentially safe beers for Celiacs. To begin, Michelob Ultra is made with barley and is not a rice beer as some people have previously claimed. This information comes directly from the Anseuser-Busch web site (http://www.anheuser-busch.com/news/MichelobUltraLaunch.htm). With that said, we do not know the levels of gluten or gluten peptides that are in the beer. Therefore, we can say with some degree of certainty that Michelob Ultra does contain gluten and/or peptides; we just cannot say whether or not the levels are low enough to avoid reactions and/or intestinal damage. Therefore, every one needs to make their own decision in regards to drinking this beer.

We have also seen claims about some Danish beers being safe to drink (according to the Swedish Celiac Association). Supposedly, this group runs tests on a number of beers to determine if the beer has safe gluten levels. We have not found this list so we cannot comment on its validity.

On a personal note, does anyone have the answer to the following question: Is there any other way, other than a biopsy to determine if the intestines are damaged or being damaged by gluten? If not, how would one know if a low gluten product was safe (other than getting regular biopsies)? As a Celiac, this is particularly confusing since I, and I assume many of you would cherish to opportunity to drink these so-called “low gluten” beers, but hesitate to do so, since we have no easy way to determine if we are doing long term damage. Any comments on this subject are appreciated.

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What is Malt anyway?  Top of Page  
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This section was in the last newsletter, but since we have many new subscribers, we felt it was important to leave in this issue.

We know that several Celiac publications, both online and in print, have communicated the malt is not safe for Celiacs. Technically, this is a misleading statement. We believe that the organizations making these claims know that a large majority of malt is made from barely and this is true. But malt by definition is not tied to barley. Malt is actually the result of a process that can be used on any grain/seed that can be germinated. Therefore, one can make malt from sorghum, buckwheat, rice, corn, millet, etc.

The purpose of malting grain is to modify the chemical properties within the grain to improve brewing/distilling processes. This is mainly the growth of enzymes that are used to convert starches to fermentable sugars which in turn are converted to alcohol by the brewer’s yeast. Therefore a malt beverage can be GF depending on the grain being used.

We hope this clears up some confusion. If you still have questions, please feel free to contact us and we will do our best to get you the appropriate answers.

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HouseKeeping  Top of Page  
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Cheers,