Ran into two people yesterday who claim they cannot drink beer due to an allergy to hops. One person gets an asthma attack and the other has digestive issues. I recommended gruit beer, gueuze, lambics, and Berliner Weiss. Any other thoughts on beers without hops? If so, what is your favorite?
Withdraw your recommendation of anything except Gruit. The others are all brewed with hops. Even though they don't emphasize hop flavors hop flavors are used in the brewing. Also, IIRC, to be sold as beer in the US there has to be a minimum level of hops so the available Gruits may not be 100% authentic (i.e., without hops at all). Recommend they switch to wine to avoid the problem entirely.
Agreeing with @drtth here. If someone has a medical condition that would make them sensitive to hops, then you should not recommend any beer at all and follow up with those people. Chances are that if it says "beer" on the label, then it has hops. Gruit beers might still contain hops if they are sold as beer. Lambics can be heavily hopped.
Yeah, those all contain hops... While Gruit traditionally goes back to a time before hops were used to brew beer, I think you will probably find it very hard to find a traditionally brewed Gruit these days. I'm fairly sure that most modern Gruit beers, not that there would be a lot of them, contain some level as hops as well.
Unity Vibration makes some kombucha with alcohol in the beer range and I did recommend my friends try their stuff.
I wonder when people say they are allergic to hops or something like that. My brother in law says that but then he drinks like a fish without any problem. Although also for at least some time he wouldn't eat eggs because he said he was allergic to dairy.
I would recommend they stay away from all beer then. If they get asthma attacks or digestive issues then the best bet is consult their doctor and ask for safe alternates. I would try wine or mixed drinks or cider etc. Just not worth it to risk getting ill. Cheers and good luck.
If they really love beer they could attempt to home brew without using hops. (Maybe they could use cannabis instead, they come from the same family of plant I believe) I don't have any earthly clue how/if that would work out as I'm not a brewer. Other than that, I'd agree with the others when they say drink other things.
This is silly. Have they been to a doctor? Yeast seems the likely culprit to beer allergies. Yeast and penicillin are both fungi. Anyone in their right mind would just avoid beer at all costs, especially in the case of an asthmatic reaction. I mean, seriously? Really? C'mon. Beer isn't that important.
A very, very long time ago during a period now covered by the statute of limitations some friends of mine and I tried to brew beer with pot instead of hops. It sucked. Also at one time found a beer from either the Netherlands or Belgium brewed with pot. It also sucked.
Traditional sahti does not use hops, opting instead for juniper branches and herbs to impart bitterness. I do not know whether any modern versions stick to the traditional recipe. I also do not know if traditionally brewed sahti tastes like shit, but I suspect it probably does.
