The history of gluten free beer in the UK: from coeliac hardship to craft revolution

In 2003, a UK coeliac walking into a British pub had three options: spirits, cider, or a glass of water. Beer was off the table. So was lager. So was every cask ale on the bar.

That isn’t a metaphor. Around 1 in 100 UK adults have coeliac disease, according to Coeliac UK, and only 36 per cent are diagnosed. That leaves an estimated 500,000 people unaware they have the condition. Barley malt sits inside almost every beer brewed in this country. Conventional barley beer contains gluten well above the 20ppm threshold that defines a safe drink for someone with coeliac disease. Drink the pint, pay for it later.

Then a few breweries started doing something about it.

What UK coeliacs were missing before gluten free beer existed

Before dedicated gluten free beers arrived, coeliacs in the UK had no safe option at the pub. Most beers are made with barley malt, which contains hordein, a gluten protein. For anyone with coeliac disease (an autoimmune condition that affects around one in 100 people in Britain), even small amounts of gluten cause intestinal damage.

The practical effect was social as much as medical. The pub is the centre of British leisure in a way that’s hard to overstate. A round after work. The wedding bar. The CAMRA festival. The stag do. All built around something a coeliac could only watch.

The only safe choices were cider, wine, or spirits. Some chose abstinence. Most learnt to mind a wine glass while everyone else got a pint in.

The early pioneers: the first gluten free beers in the UK

The first widely available gluten free beer in the UK is generally considered to be Green’s Discovery Amber, launched in 2004.

Green’s was founded by Derek Green after his own coeliac diagnosis. The brand worked with master brewer Dirk Naudts at De Proef Brewery in Lochristi, Belgium, and built the recipe around naturally gluten free grains: sorghum, millet, brown rice and buckwheat. No barley, no wheat, no rye. Nothing to remove because nothing went in.

A year later, in 2005, Yorkshire’s Hambleton Brewery launched GFA, the first gluten free beer brewed on British soil. Hambleton had been operating since 1991, originally at the bottom of founder Nick Stafford’s in-laws’ garden; the brewery has since been based in Melmerby, near Ripon. GFA took several years of recipe work. It went on to win Best Gluten Free Beer in Europe at the 2015 World Beer Awards. Twenty years on, it’s still in production and still in the freefrombeer directory.

So two firsts. Green’s (2004), the first gluten free beer you could buy in Britain. Hambleton GFA (2005), the first one brewed here. Both belong in the story.

In the decade that followed, the category barely moved. A handful of products, hard to find outside specialist shops. Supermarkets weren’t stocking it. Pubs weren’t pouring it. If you wanted a pint, you ordered online and waited.

The craft brewery revolution: dedicated gluten free brewing arrives

Bellfield Brewery, founded in Edinburgh in 2014, became the first UK craft brewery built entirely around gluten free beer. The founders, Alistair Brown and Giselle Dye, both came to the project through coeliac diagnoses in their own families. They launched the first two beers in March 2016: Lawless Village IPA and Bohemian Pilsner.

Within four months, Bellfield was in more than 100 bars, pubs and restaurants. A few years on, it was on Sainsbury’s shelves nationwide. The brewery is Coeliac UK certified, Vegan Society registered, and now employee-owned. Every batch tests below the 20ppm legal threshold for the gluten free label.

The significance is partly the products and partly the proof. A craft brewery whose entire identity sat on gluten free showed the trade that this could be a serious category. Other breweries took note.

Two approaches: naturally gluten free versus enzyme-treated beer

There are two routes to a gluten free beer, and the choice shapes everything that follows.

Naturally gluten free beer is brewed from grains that contain no gluten in the first place: sorghum, millet, rice, buckwheat. Nothing to remove, nothing to test for. The flavour profile is different from a traditional barley beer because the grain bill is different. Done well, it’s distinctive in its own right. Done badly, it tastes thin. UK examples include Green’s and Altgrain Brewery (the only two naturally gluten free breweries currently listed in the freefrombeer directory).

Enzyme-treated beer (often called gluten removed or gluten reduced) is brewed with conventional barley malt, with a proline-specific endo-protease added during fermentation. The most common enzyme is Brewers Clarex, which breaks down the prolamin gluten chains into peptides too small to register on the standard R5 ELISA test. The finished beer can carry a “gluten free” label if it tests below 20ppm. This is the route most UK breweries have taken, because the kit, the grain bill and the recipe stay broadly the same. You’re brewing beer with one extra ingredient.

Most certified gluten free beers in the UK directory are made this way. Bellfield, Hambleton, Brass Castle, Brightside, Birmingham Brewing Company, Bristol Beer Factory, Little Ox, Purity and Triple Point all use enzyme treatment.

There’s a long-running debate about whether enzyme-treated beers are safe for the most sensitive coeliacs. The standard test wasn’t originally designed for hydrolysed gluten, and a small number of coeliacs report reactions to beers that pass certification. Coeliac UK’s position is that any beer testing below 20ppm meets the legal definition and the charity recommends choosing products that carry its crossed grain certification. If you’d rather not have that conversation at all, naturally gluten free beer sidesteps it.

Not sure which type suits you? See our guide on gluten and wheat free beer choices in the UK.

UK labelling and regulation: what “gluten free” legally means on beer

In the UK, a beer can be labelled “gluten free” if it contains 20 parts per million (ppm) of gluten or less. The threshold is set by retained EU Regulation No 828/2014 and applies to all food and drink sold in this country.

The standard came into force in January 2012, built on the Codex Alimentarius work revised in 2008. Before then, “gluten free” had no legal meaning on a beer label. Some brewers used the phrase. Others avoided it. Coeliacs had no consistent reference point.

The 20ppm threshold is the same internationally recognised level used in the EU, the US and Australia. A “very low gluten” category also exists (between 21 and 100ppm), but no UK beer currently uses it. In practice, the only label that matters on a British shelf is “gluten free” itself.

One source of confusion persists. A barley-based beer treated with enzymes can legally carry the “gluten free” label provided it tests below 20ppm. To a coeliac reading the back of the can, that can feel counterintuitive. Some breweries voluntarily add Coeliac UK’s crossed grain certification on top of the legal minimum, which involves independent batch testing. Bellfield holds that mark, as do several others.

Post-Brexit, the UK has retained the EU standard. No divergence on this point. The 20ppm number stays.

Mainstream brewers enter the market

For roughly a decade after Bellfield arrived, most mainstream UK breweries treated gluten free as a niche they didn’t need to serve. That has shifted sharply since 2020.

A rough timeline of the shift:

• January 2022: Brightside Brewing in Greater Manchester moved its entire range to gluten free.
• January 2023: Thornbridge completed its gluten free lineup with Bayern certified on 6 January, joining AM:PM and Lukas (their Helles lager), both already certified.
• October 2024: Abbeydale Brewery in Sheffield committed to making all its beers gluten free, including cask ale, a first for the category at that scale.
• October 2025: Shepherd Neame, Britain’s oldest brewer at over 325 years old, launched its first gluten free pilsner. A house that built its reputation on traditional Kent ales adding a gluten free range is the clearest signal yet that the category has moved out of niche.

All four took the enzyme route. For a mainstream brewer with existing kit and existing recipes, the barrier to entry is much lower with Brewers Clarex than with a grain bill rebuild. Add the enzyme, test the batch, ship the beer.

Supermarket availability followed. Daura Damm, Peroni Gluten Free, San Miguel Gluten Free, Stella Artois Gluten Free, Bellfield, CELIA and Jubel all sit on multiples’ shelves now. The coeliac walking into a Tesco no longer needs an app and a 20-minute hunt.

The UK gluten free beer scene today

The freefrombeer directory currently lists 254 gluten free beers from 61 UK breweries, spanning pilsners, IPAs, lagers, pale ales, porters, NEIPAs, low-alcohol options and amber ales. Twenty years ago, that catalogue would have fit on a single sheet of A4 with room for the brewery addresses.

Of the 61 breweries, 2 brew with naturally gluten free grains (Green’s and Altgrain). The rest use enzyme treatment. Every product carrying the “gluten free” label tests below the 20ppm threshold required to do so legally.

The wider context: the UK gluten free food and drink market is estimated at USD 235 million (around £185 million) and growing at approximately 9 per cent a year, according to a 2025 forecast by commercial research firm Mordor Intelligence. Demand is driven by formal coeliac diagnosis (still only 36 per cent of estimated cases, according to Coeliac UK) alongside a much larger group choosing gluten free without a medical reason. Beer has been one of the faster-growing categories within that.

Quality has caught up with conventional craft. Bellfield’s Bohemian Pilsner has Gold at the Free From Awards, Silver at the World Beer Awards, and a Scottish Beer Awards finals appearance. Hambleton GFA still wins on the international stage. CAMRA Sheffield reported on the growing availability of gluten free cask ale across the city in 2025. Hand-pulled cask, served properly, that any coeliac in the room can drink.

What to drink next

If you’ve read this far, the practical question is what to put in the glass.

Browse the full directory of UK gluten free beers for the current selection from British breweries, or start with the Bellfield range if you want a craft brewery built around coeliac safety from day one.

Twenty years on from Green’s Discovery Amber, the coeliac walking into a British pub has more than three options. Beer, lager and a hand-pulled pint of cask ale included.