Daura is one of, it not the, first gluten free beer to deglutenize.
To deglutenize beer, it is first produced as a normal beer and then the gluten is stripped through a proprietary process. Daura has won a Gold Medal at the World Beer Championships, a Gold Medal at the International Beer Challenge and the World’s Best Gluten-free Lager Award at the World Beer Awards in 2011. Estrella has been producing beer for over 130 years, founded in Barcelona Spain in 1876 and currently on their 11 generation of Master Brewers.
Today is all about Estrella Damm Daura gluten free Lager beer. The beer has a light beer nose. The beer pours with a tall, white head that fills the glass at first and dissipates completely leaving a slight lacing on the glass. The beer is a light golden color with slight carbonation. Being a dark beer drinker this has a very mild, light beer flavor. It is a very light bodied gluten free beer with a definite light beer flavor. If you are a light beer drinker then this could very well be the beer for you. For many folks all over the world it is an excellent, award winning beer.
This is a good gluten free lager light beer and do well to pair with any summer time bar-b-que. This is a gluten free beer that I would definitely recommend to folks that prefer a light beer when they have a cold one.
To read more about S.A. Damm, 130+ yr old brewery. Check out their Facebook page and the Estrella Damm web site.
For more information about Estrella Damm, this is a flyer that was produced for the US debut.
**One thing to keep in mind is this is, according to the brewer this is a less than 3 ppm beer; for most folks this will be just fine. For those of you that are more sensitive, like my wife, you will want to proceed with caution.**
UPDATE
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the US has ruled that no alcohol that is produced with gluten containing grains can be labeled as Gluten Free. Estrella and others like them have removed the words Gluten Free from their labels as they should and they can not advertise in any way that they are gluten free but instead they are gluten removed. I would not recommend this or any other deglutenized beer to a Celiac just to be on the safe side. There are too many options that are purely Gluten Free if you are Celiac. If you are one of the very many folks that are choosing to eat a gluten free diet for health, this is an excellent beer for you.
{ 38 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi,
I am gluten sensitive, tried your beer, like it. However I have many other food allergies, and need to know what other ingredients the Daura Lager has, I had a reaction.
Please respond. Thank you. Holly
Hi Holly,
I will see if I can get someone from the company to reply with an answer to your question. You are aware that Daura is a regularly brewed beer and then deglutenized correct? This beer can no longer be labeled as Gluten Free in the US. You may have had a reaction to another ingredient in the beer but you also may have reacted to the trace amounts of gluten left in the beer after the deglutenizing process.
Hi holly:
Daura is a beer made from malted barley, rice, corn,hops, water from our Barcelona wells and crafted to brake down the gluten to a level below 3 mg/liter when we do analyze the final product using the ELISA R5 Competitive method.
As far as we know the small quantities of residual protein fractions shouldn’t originate any reaction except if you are one of the few persons sensitive to such low levels.
Added to what I have said, we have had some years ago one case of one person that was allergic to rice and also being allergic to gluten and for this reason once he had drank the bottle of Daura he had an allergic reaction that is completely different of an intolerance reaction.
I hope we have answered what you needed.
Best regards from Barcelona.
Thank you Mr. Castane for your assistance in answering Holly’s question. It is good to know that as a company, Estrella Damm is on the ball!!! 🙂
I had the pleasure of trying this beer last night. It came the closest to a regular beer i’ve tried so far. I have tried New Grist, Redbridge and the two Widmers. Will definitely buy this again.
Hey Jared,
Thanks for the comment! It is always helpful to know what other folks think about the various gluten free beers.
This is the only gluten free beer I’ve ever had that tastes like beer. It does NOT taste like the American light beers (e.g., Bud Lite, Coors Lite, Miller Lite etc,) but tastes like REAL beer. I’d rather drink club soda than most all “light” beers. (Please pardon the caps. I’ve been drinking beer for a very, very long time and get ticked off at reviews that treat this beer as if it’s a Corona (light already) Light. I bought a four pack because we were having a friend over that is (he thinks) “gluten sensitive” and drank one (he drank three) and really liked it. I’d bought gluten free beer before on similar occasions and would usually give my friend whatever was left to take home with him because it was, to my taste, awful. Since I’m not bothered by gluten, I may not buy another four pack because it’s quite expensive, but it is GOOD. So, my advice is twofold. (1) If you are gluten sensitive and like beer, this is head and shoulders above the sorghum beers, so try it and (2) it’s pretty expensive for someone who doesn’t have to have gluten free beer, but it’s quite good if you don’t mind spending the money and want to try something new..
Hey Joe,
We really appreciate you taking the time to give us your thoughts. It is always good to get the opinion of someone who is not gluten sensitive or intolerant. 🙂
Just tried the Daura tonight for the first time. It was fantastic! I’ve been trying many different beers since I discovered I had a gluten intolerance two years ago. I was so disappointed with the other gluten free beers on the market that I had given up drinking beer, which made me very sad! A friend gave me a four pack of Daura for my birthday last week and I am so happy that I am able to drink beer again this summer! Thank you, thank you for making a beer that I can drink and that tastes great! Sincerely, Sandy Law
I tried this beer today. It was very good! But, I did have a negative reaction to it. I didn’t think I was overly sensitive, but this beer caused distress for me. May-be I will try it againe, because it was great, but may-be not.
Thanks for supplying another gluten free beer!!!
Janet, there are now so many other options, I would suggest if you had a reaction to stick with truly gluten free beers and not deglutenized beers. These are great for some folks but NOT for the sensitive like my wife or apparently you. It is what it is and we have to learn to live within ourselves and our bodies means, we WILL be happier!!! 🙂
I’ve been looking for your beer around my area and can only find the Estrella Damm, not the Daura. I’ve been trying to find online if this is gluten free, but can’t seem to find a clear answer. Is only the Daura gluten free? Thank you!!
Ryan, unfortunately, only the Estrella Damm Daura is low gluten. Keep in mind this is a reduced gluten beer and cannot be labeled as a gluten free beer since they remove the gluten during the brewing process but use gluten containing grains.
Great ice cold… I’ve missed a nice beer when kicking back, grilling and hot tubbing… love it… I am very sensitive… does not bother me at all…
I’d like to add… I don’t think it’s the gluten, in this, that affects most gluten intolerant folks… Many gluten intolerant folks are sensitive to other things (corn, etc)…I “think” it’s that sensitivity that they are seeing. It’s funny…I’m intolerant of sorghum…found that out with 2 days of hell…ugh…
Though it is certainly true that many Celiac’s are sensitive to other things (GMO’s for instance which I believe is the much bigger problem than corn itself), many misunderstand that just because they don’t ‘feel’ bad means something doesn’t bother them. There are cases of diagnosed Celiac’s that have not had even one outward symptom. You can’t always feel your intestines being destroyed. That is why I always recommend for ANY diagnosed Celiac to stick with truly gluten free beer! If you are sensitive to sorghum (my wife is sensitive to US sorghum but not sorghum from other countries), then try a rice based beer. I will do a post on sorghum and our findings for my wife. 🙂 Don’t be fooled into thinking that just because you don’t feel bad that foods aren’t affecting you!
Hi,
Congratulations on producing an excellent gluten free beer. People have asked about other allergens. On a UK supermarket website it says the ‘stabiliser’ (preservative?) in Daura lager is E405 – propane-1,2-diol alginate.
It would seem it doesn’t have sulphites or sorbates as additives which are the common preservatives responsible for some people’s adverse reactions to food and drink. It is possible some people would react to E405 but I am guessing.
I hope this helps
This beer should NOT be labelled as gluten-free. It does contain 3mg of gluten and should be CLEARLY labelled so that people, like myself, a celiac can be aware. Your product doesn’t have a list of ingredients anywhere on the product itself. Why is that? If your company truly cares about sufferers of celiac disease then full discloser should be readily available and clearly stated on the product. I bought this beer at a grocery listed as gluten free. I had one beer, tastes great but as usual, when I ingest gluten became very ill. I cannot afford to have these “accidents”! Your product should state clearly, on the packaging, that it contains the 3mg of gluten that I only discovered through research!!!! Shame on you…
Hi Dina,
I certainly understand your frustration. I have not seen the packaging for Estrella Damm Daura in almost 2 years but the packing used to clearly state that it was less than 6 ppm and in my post I mention that the company states 3ppm. I will see what I can do about getting a representative from the company to respond to your comments. With your comments I did add an update to this 2 year old post. I would not recommend a deglutenized beer to any Celiac since there are more and more pure gluten free options out there for you to choose from. Thank you for your comment. You do realize that our FDA has seen fit to allow anything that is nonalcoholic to be labeled “Gluten Free” that is less that 20 ppm, which if they controlled alcohol would allow this product to be labeled as gluten free. Watch out when you choose other “Gluten Free” products off the grocery store shelves; be sure to read your labels!
Finally!! My husband cannot have gluten of any kind and had to give up beer as well. Like most other folks, he has tried every gluten free beer out there, and he still had a reaction. We went on a cruise 2 weeks ago, and he tried one of your beers on the boat! YAY! No reaction!! He has been ever so excited and bought it as soon as we hit the ground back home! Thanks for giving him his man-hood back with letting enjoy a beer or two! Keep up the great work!!!
Well! I have read all the reviews and have bought my first four pack for my wife. She is Gluten sensitive. I will let you know how it goes and what our thoughts are. Thanks for working to produce yet another option for those that love beer and cannot tolerate Gluten!
We hope it goes well Jim and we look forward to hearing her review. 🙂
Outstanding Beer!!! My wife loved it with no adverse reactions! 🙂 Thank you!
My son tried the “Daura Damm” today (August 2014) for the first time and has now a severe allergic reaction (itchy skin rash, swellings, circulatory difficulties etc.). He is not a celiac, but has a systemic allergy against gluten. He does not have an allergy against anything else. Apparently the 3 ppm of gluten that are left in the beer as stated on the label are definitely too much for anybody with a real allergy to gluten.
My son does not react to food that is labelled “may contain traces of gluten”. We understand that this usually means that the same factory also produces food containing gluten, and that the product itself contains no gluten but may get contaminated by accident. These companies do not write “gluten free”, but have less gluten in their products than “Daura Damm”!
To the company: Please remove the writing “Gluten-free” from the label, and also the gluten-free symbol. It is wrong and misleading and leads to suffering and possibly life-threatening circumstances. Write “low gluten” and then specify. Take into account that gluten sensitivity can be of very differing seriousness. I am astonished that you have not removed “Gluten free” long ago. Your product does contain gluten, and contains definitely more gluten than those that write “may contain traces of gluten”.
Anybody with a real gluten allergy, be very careful with “Daura Damm”!
Dominika,
I am very sorry to hear about your son’s reaction to the Estrella beer. In the US, this beer cannot be labeled as gluten free but in the EU, any product containing less than 20 ppm can be labeled as gluten free. Food products in the US are different than alcohol, they now have the same rule as the EU, less then 20 ppm can be labeled as gluten free. I have always and continue to hold that even 1 ppm is 1 too many for people that have Celiac disease and apparently also for your son.
In Nova Scotia, Canada, you can buy Estrella Damm beer, but the label does not say Estrella Damm Daura. Are these the same beer, just with different labels? I had the Estrella Damm Daura beer in Maine, and had no reaction. Just want to know if the beer labelled Damm is the same as Damm Daura. Thanks in advance for any help…
Hey Dwayne,
I checked to make sure before I answered your question. Yes, it appears that the Estrella Damm is the same as Estrella Damm Daura we have here in the US. You can check this on the DAMM website at http://bit.ly/1t6vxR6. You can find from this site that it is apparently also called Daura Damm in some places. This is one of the challenges with a beer that is sold globally and conforming to the laws of each jurisdiction. In your case, you should be good to go with the Estrella Damm. Cheers and I am glad you checked first. 🙂
I’ve been looking for a good beer. Not just one with reduced gluten, but that is a plus. I really like this beer. It will become my go to beer for the weekend
Exactly what process is used to remove the gluten, is it a chemical process? Tried this beer for the first time, excellent!
Hi Tony,
They us a proprietary process but my understanding is that it is an enzymatic process, not a chemical process. Hope that helps.
Hi
I have been reading all comments and there seems to be contradicting advice! We live in the U.K. & have bought Estella damn in a bar that stated it was gluten free (with the wheat sign that’s crossed out) we usually buy daura from the supermarket as it’s the only one labelled gluten free! I saw estrella damn Barcelona recently so purchased them although they don’t state gluten free yet the ingredients (with the exception of maize) are exactly the same!!! So is estrella damn Barcelona as safe as daura ?????
Hi Sue,
No, Estrella Damm has been making beer for over a hundred years and not all their beer is gluten free. In the UK, gluten free means less than 20 ppm which is now the same for food in the US. If you are Celiac, no gluten is good for you.
I have pretty severe celiacs. I had a single sip of this beer and had a reaction. It’s ridiculous that it’s “gluten free” but there’s a “may contain gluten” foot note…
Hi Lyn,
Estrella is a gluten removed beer, not a gluten free beer. Their are those that would tell us there is no difference, for those who are very sensitive like you and several in my family, we know differently.
is the Barcelona edition of your beer also gluten free?
This is the website of the Gluten Free Beer Assoc. in the US. That being said, no, the Barcelona beer is not the same as the gluten free and is not labeled as a gluten free beer. Estrella is all gluten removed, not gluten free. I hope that helps.
I am wheat and gluten and dairy intolerant, my worry is barley malt in the ingredients
Hi Lin,
The thing to remember with Estrella is that it is gluten removed, not gluten free. You have to determine for you if gluten removed is good enough, for my family it is not.
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