Is Guinness gluten free?

Guinness is the one I most wish I could give a different answer on, but it is a barley beer, and for anyone with coeliac disease that is what settles it. It is brewed from barley malt and roasted barley, the roasted grain being what gives the stout its near-black colour and dry, coffee-like finish. Gluten lives in the barley protein, so unless a brewer takes a deliberate step to remove it, a barley beer contains gluten. Guinness does not take that step.

What is actually in the pint

The grain bill is malted barley and roasted barley, with hops, water and yeast. There is no enzyme treatment, no gluten reduction, and no gluten free certification. The packaging carries the standard contains barley allergen statement, which is the clearest signal you can read off a label: if it says contains barley, the beer has gluten in it.

This is different from a gluten reduced beer such as Peroni Gluten Free, where the brewer starts with barley and then uses an enzyme to break the gluten protein down below the legal 20 parts per million limit. Guinness skips that process, so the gluten stays in the pint.

The dark colour is a red herring

A common assumption is that the roasting process burns off the gluten, or that a dark stout is somehow different from a normal barley beer. It is not. Roasted barley is still barley and still full of gluten. The colour comes from how the grain is kilned, which has no effect on the gluten protein. Dark, red and black beers are no safer for coeliacs than pale ones.

The same applies to Guinness 0.0. It is brewed exactly like regular Guinness and then has the alcohol removed by cold filtration. That process takes out the alcohol and nothing else, so the alcohol free version carries the same gluten as the original. See is Guinness 0.0 gluten free for the full answer.

What to drink instead

If you are coeliac and you miss that creamy, roasted stout, the answer is a stout brewed gluten free from the start, or made gluten reduced and tested below 20ppm. A few from our directory worth trying:

• St Peter’s Gluten Free Cream Stout, 6.5%. A full, smooth cream stout and one of the most Guinness-like gluten free options.
• Bristol Beer Factory Milk Stout, 4.5%. A lower strength, easy drinking stout with a soft, milky body.
• Big Drop Galactic Milk Stout, 0.5%. The natural alcohol free swap for a pint of Guinness 0.0.

For more, see our guide to gluten free stouts and porters, or browse the full beer directory.