Boxer Gluten Free
Minhas Craft Brewery

 

First of all, I will say that not all reviews are created equally. Nor are reviewers...

The experience of the reviewer may have a lot to do with how they judge the beer. There are several favourable reviews, and there are several non-favourable reviews. I have to say that for me, I am somewhat divided. I am essentially One, divided. (jab in the side, fellow music fans!) between favourable and less favourable. You see, my experience as a beer drinker came very late in my life, as did everything else except building shit in the basement. So my first beer, I still rememeber, was a Corona at my drummer buddie's place on a September evening. Not bad. Had another one maybe a few weeks later. Two Coronas. In my life (oops, there's another music ref!). Problem is, not too long after, I was (diagnosed*) gluten-intolerant. I gave up everything gluten (sadly). So, my experience was two beers. Also sadly my experience was far more pitiful than that, but I'm not here to be poetically lamentable, or else lamentable becomes the same word, except without "ntable".
Back to the beer, if you'Re still reading, and you most likely are if you're interested in buying this beer and have all the reviews so far. Congratulations to you. OK, my gluten -free beer drinking experience is rather well plenished, I have tried all varieties of GF available in Canada, this is: all flavours of Glutenberg (there four iirc), all flavours of Brasserie Nouvelle-France (2) and all flavours of Lakefront Brewery Co of Michigan. being 1: New Grist. That was my favourite. And then I asked the guy at the beer store what they had and he said Boxer Gluten-free. Not knowing about Boxer beer in the first place, I had NO IDEA what to expect. And then I tasted it and was surprised! Although my surprise was not all good, I did find something a bit funny tasting about it, but I don't know what!? All the other gluten-fee beers were hard to tell apart. Then this one, magically stands out, in ots own special way. I can't say I'm in love with it, I do prefer the other types of GF beers I mentioned, but this one has its own thing that the others don't, and for ME, as I outlined my experience, well I found it quite amusing. I cracked two open with a bowl a corn chips and watched an AC/DC show until midnight on Friday.
Made me feel like I was a teenager. Finally!
(Now all I need is another Friday night watching a Frank Zappa show with a voluptuous chick. anyone wanna fill in that reference for me ? LOL)

Can: Poured a super pale clear yellow lager with a small foamy head with no retention. Aroma of light adjunct notes with some sweet notes. Taste is a grainy mix of cereal with some light notes of cider. Body is super light with medium carbonation. Horrible stuff that makes you want to drink gin and tonic if you are gluten intolerant.

Gluten free was a hard adaptation!
The first 2 boxers were odd tasting like having a rice beer compared to blue and molson, the more I drank boxer the more I like it! It is now my favourite beer !!! 2 Thumbs up for canned gluten free boxer

I love this beer! I am very grateful that there is a gluten free beer made for those with celiac disease. It tastes great and is somewhat inexpensive. Can't ask for anything more! 5 stars!

Credit for making an affordable GF beer. If only the taste were better. Others have managed to do it so hope Minhas can improve.

This is hands down the worst beer I have ever had. I honestly never thought I would ever be able to announce this and be completely decisive about this judgement considering the amount of different beers from around he world I have had but yes this the worst. It has a water yellow colour with little smell and a weird fruity sugar taste. I have had some really good gluten free beers then there is. I have had other Minas products and for the most part they have been ok... but this beer is just plain terrible.

This beer is actually extremely impressive for a number of reasons. First of all - it is very drinkable, and lacks the sickeningly sweet taste and alcohol flavors that a lot of other extremely cheap beers have. It beat out the normal boxer, and I would even say the Canadian Coors Banquet beer in drinkability. Secondly it is gluten free - currently in Canada there are not a lot of gluten free options and the drinkable ones come in at over 14 dollars a six pack. I was turned on to this product by my friend who loves to drink watery beer all day long while he works outside (his old standby was Lucky lager), but his recent celiac diagnosis was running him up quite a tab as he was forced to drink Estrella at over 14 dollars a four pack.

Yes - it is lacking in flavor and complexity, but almost every other competitor in this category is also lacking in flavor and complexity so thats a non issue. In fact the lack of flavor is excellent - it is like drinking sparkling water that smells like your dads budweiser.

Overall this is a really exciting offering, and I say that because I firmly beleive that not only is it one of the cheapest beers (or THE cheapest beer) in Canada, but it is more drinkable that most other lagers that cost 20-100% more.

The only strange thing about the beer is the strange chalky mouthfeel that you get from it. Its not unpleasant, but its definitely different than anything else I have tried.

I don't have any gluten allergies, but i will be buying this beer in the summer, and laughing at all the other people who paid twice as much for other flavorless lagers like Canadian Budweiser, and Coors.

I was unfortunate enough to try this at a recent beer tasting near my house sponsored by Minhas. I knew what I was getting myself into, being a former liquor store worker myself, I am very familiar with Minhas and their infamous products. Still, it was a free tasting and barbecue... how could I say no?

Well, I really should have. They were demoing, among other things, their new gluten-free boxer lager. Regular boxer lager is terrible enough, but I thought "hey, maybe if they take out the barley it will taste better!" No, it really didn't. It pours pale yellow, almost as pale as my face when I took a sip. The aroma was non-existent, although maybe that is a good thing. The taste was just gnarly. I'm not a big fan of gluten-free beers in general, but this one just tastes like boxer. except not as sweet. I was the first one to have a sample of it too! They were running for over 2 hours by the time I arrived, and the kind demo girl cracked open the first can for me. If I can give Minhas any credit, it is that their demo girls are both attractive and very friendly.

Don't buy this. Even if you're gluten intolerant, buy Mongozo or Damm Daura or something.

I don't profess to be connoisseur, I just know what I like. I like this beer. Is it the best tasting gluten free beer, no, Greens is the best as far as I'm concerned.

I've been forced to drink gluten free beer for the past 4 years and have tried several different brands. Until recently Bards was my go to beer but $19 a six pack is a little hard to swallow here in Alberta, Canada. Then along came Boxer gluten free at $9 a six pack, taxes included.

Before I had to drink gluten free my favorite beer was Molson Canadian. I find Boxer Gluten free very similar. It's not a strong dark beer but when it's hot out and you're on the deck it tastes just fine.

Bottom line, it's not the best gluten free beer but right now it's the cheapest and it tastes like real beer.

355ml can, a single from the Pizza Brew in Calgary. Oh my dear lord - take a shitty lager, and give it the further dumbing down of the gluten free treatment.

This beer pours a slightly hazy pale golden yellow colour, with two fingers of weakly foamy, and bubbly dirty white head, which leaves some sparse archipelago lace in spots around the glass as it quickly bleeds away.

It smells of musty cardboard, stale sour apple, polluted water, and a bland vegetal astringency. The taste is hard water, wet paper, the pot after you've drained the vegetables, and watered-down cider. Not the worst I've had, I suppose, for this pseudo-style.

The bubbles are pretty sedate, just a faint frothiness arises as we quickly go along, the body well on the light side, and smooth like another quaffing beverage we're all familiar with. It finishes, well, I'll say it again - watery - any mock graininess fading further into that good night, and any off-flavours equally keeping it dialed down.

Speaking of keeping it down, this is way, way, way easier to drink than the Lazy Mutt GF variant - I guess making a lager vs. an ale with alternative grains is just easier? It would have to be for this brewery to get it, um, 'righter' with this one. Right, as in, inoffensive, and somewhat drinkable, if you don't care about the existence of that thing called flavour.