In this issue, you will find:

1. Company Progress
2. What’s next?
3. Why some beers claim to be Gluten-Free
4. Monthly Questions
5. Housekeeping

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

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Company Progress  Top of Page  
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We recognize that it has been a while since we have sent information about our progress. We appreciate your patience and support. And yes we are still moving forward with commercial production. Over the last several months we have been in discussions with a company that presently owns a brewery and is interested in the opportunity of producing gluten-free beer. While the talks have been going well in general, as with all negotiations there are some points of contention. For instance, as celiacs we are always thinking about the rest of us and feel there is a need to consistently act on behalf of the celiac community. They have been fairly good at researching the issues surrounding celiac disease, but it is clear that technical knowledge does not easily translate to intimate knowledge of the disease. Especially as it relates to the psychological components associated with living (or coping) with this disease on a daily basis. This lack of understanding has become clear in reviewing some of their strategic plans and frankly, it concerns us. With this in mind, we assure all of you that we will not enter into a partnership with any company unless we can be assured that the best interests of the celiac community are to be taken into account in every strategic and tactical decision.

While we feel confident that we can overcome these concerns, we are fully prepared to move forward if we cannot come to an agreement. Therefore, we believe that an agreement would be good for all parties (including you), but our success is not dependent on an agreement. The speed of discussions have been increasing so we should know one way or another fairly soon. We will send more detailed information once we have an agreement in place. We were asked to refrain from releasing certain information until an agreement is finalized.

We attended the Healthy Villi, Boston Chapter, Support Group meeting on February 2nd. Even though the weather was lousy, the meeting was a great success (over 200 people) and the organizers and volunteers should be acknowledged for the incredible job. We offered samples of the blonde ale and pale ale, with great accolades. As was the case with the Gluten Free Living Conference, we had couple bottles left over that were donated to the Celiac Disease Research Center at the University of Maryland. I believe we raised $115 for the Center. On behalf of the celiac community we thank all those that made donations.

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What’s next?  Top of Page  
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Hopefully we can quickly come to a partnership agreement and start production and distribution of gluten-free beer. As mentioned above, we will send out more information as soon as we know. Rest assured beer is on the way.

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Why some beers claim to be Gluten-Free  Top of Page  
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We receive many emails asking about whether certain barley beers are safe or not. Some even forwarded emails from the breweries supporting the claim or in one case we received an actual test result showing that the gluten levels were below the World Health Organization’s standard levels.

These claims by breweries clearly show that they do not understand the technical issues associated with celiac disease. Barley does not contain the protein gliadin; it contains hordein, which is also a toxic protein to celiacs. Due to this situation, it is not surprising that some tests show low levels of gliadin (which is what they test for). At this point in time there are no lab tests for hordein and it has been shown that gliadin tests are highly unreliable. Therefore it is clear that breweries do not understand the issue at hand.

Does this mean that all beers are toxic to celiacs? Yes and no. There may be some beers that some celiacs can drink, but there are celiacs that cannot drink any beers. The point is that, once again, we need to know more about the issues than the manufacturers and cannot take any information at face value. So, if any brewery tells you that their beer is gluten free ask them if they tested for gliadin or hordein? Obviously they can only say they tested for gliadin, which doesn’t help us determine its toxicity.

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Monthly Question(s)  Top of Page  
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Since we get quite a few questions from our great supporters that seem to be of interest to others, we decided to dedicate a section of our newsletter to answer some of your more frequent questions.

Q: Your website says that you will be in production early in 2003. Why is it taking so long?

A: Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to this question. There are two main reasons. One, as we are treading into uncharted technical areas we have come across several technical issues that no one ever anticipated (this includes some of the foremost brewing experts in the country). We have had to develop an entirely new way of brewing beer since the traditional methods do not work. This has taken more time than anticipated. Two, the state of our economy has clearly played a major role in our difficulty to raise the necessary funds. Because of this scenario, we have had to change our strategy. For instance, partnering with another brewery was not part of our original strategy, but due to the economy, we have had to reconsider this option. Just to be clear, we will not produce a beer that is subject to cross contamination or other gluten concerns. We appreciate your patience and we hope you can appreciate the technical obstacles we have had to overcome to bring this product to market.

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HouseKeeping  Top of Page  
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Cheers,