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Matt Wastradowski
Matt Wastradowski is an Oregon-based travel writer who loves writing about the great outdoors, craft beer, and regional history.
Your Guide to Gluten-Free Beers in Portland
A growing number of gluten-free breweries in Portland bolster the city’s craft beer cred with innovative, celiac-friendly offerings.
Matt Wastradowski
Matt Wastradowski is an Oregon-based travel writer who loves writing about the great outdoors, craft beer, and regional history.
In 2007, Mutantis Cult Brewery founder Deja Indigo Yerger was diagnosed with celiac disease and told by her doctor, at the age of 25, that she could never again enjoy beer. “I was super bummed,” she says. “Back then, I think Redbridge was the only gluten-free beer that I could find — and that was a far cry from the great craft beers I was drinking.”
Not content to drink mass-produced imitations of the beer she’d come to know and love (Redbridge Lager is a product of multinational Anheuser-Busch), Yerger decided to make her own. She started home brewing and eventually found an online community dedicated to cracking the code behind crafting tasty gluten-free beers. “I just fixated … on learning everything I could about brewing,” she says.
After brewing countless 3-gallon batches, Yerger started a blog that eventually caught the attention of a nascent brewery in Seattle. She left her home in the Bay Area and spent some time there before moving to Portland and, in November 2020, opening the entirely gluten-free Mutantis Cult Brewery in the Woodlawn neighborhood.
In doing so, Yerger joined a growing movement of craft breweries that eschew traditional ingredients for gluten-free options. And unlike their corporate counterparts, these intrepid brewers are doing so without sacrificing taste. Here’s a look at Portland gluten-free beer: how innovative craft breweries are reaching new customers, what they offer and what’s different about the ales and lagers they produce.
Gluten-Free Beer, Explained
Before getting into who makes gluten-free beer and where to find it around Portland, it’s helpful to explain what gluten-free beer actually is.
Almost every beer you’ve ever enjoyed, from small-batch brews to chilly tallboys, was crafted with (among other ingredients) wheat or barley — both of which contain the gluten protein. But those with gluten sensitivities and full-blown celiac disease typically can’t drink those beers, since doing so will cause their immune system to attack the small intestine and stop the body from absorbing essential nutrients. According to the Celiac Disease Foundation, roughly 3 million people in the United States — many undiagnosed — suffer from the disease.
In response, a small but growing number of breweries across the country has started crafting gluten-free beers — typically with sorghum, millet, rice, buckwheat and other grains that don’t contain the problematic protein. For the most part, these brews are produced in facilities where gluten is banned altogether — meaning the brewer isn’t eating sandwiches in the brewhouse for lunch or brewing beers with gluten on the same equipment.
Note that some producers make what they call gluten-reduced or gluten-removed beer, which may still contain trace amounts of the protein; each of the Portland breweries mentioned in this piece brew with gluten-free ingredients in gluten-free facilities, and none serve food that contains gluten.
Gluten-Free Breweries in the Portland Area
Today, roughly two dozen breweries craft exclusively gluten-free beer in the United States; three of those are in Portland. Here’s a bit more about what each offers.
Ground Breaker Brewing
James Neumeister founded Ground Breaker Brewing in 2011 as the first dedicated gluten-free brewery in the United States; in the years since, Ground Breaker has won awards at the prestigious Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup. Find Ground Breaker cans at bottle shops around Portland, or enjoy a mix of small-batch releases and year-round offerings at its pub in Southeast Portland, which also serves gluten-free pupusas from Salvi PDX.
Mutantis Brewing & Bottle Shop
On any given visit, you’ll find nearly a dozen house-made beers (as well as two ciders) on tap at Northeast Portland’s Mutantis Cult Brewery tasting room. A few conventional styles abound, but Yerger enjoys producing less-heralded offerings — like a cream ale brewed with 22 pounds of gluten-free funnel cakes. It all pairs well with snacks from Honey Butter Country Fare, an on-site food cart dishing a menu of gluten-free takes on classic comfort fare like corn dogs and fried chicken.
Gluten-Free Beers at Portland Bottle Shops
Whether you want to grab a few cans for a sunny day at your vacation rental or pick up some bottles to enjoy back home, several Portland-area bottle shops sell gluten-free beers to-go. Note that selections rotate regularly, so it can’t hurt to call ahead to see what’s available.
Belmont Station
As one of Portland’s most celebrated bars and bottle shops, Belmont Station routinely stocks more than 1,400 craft beers from around the world — including cans from Ground Breaker and Mutantis.
John’s Marketplace
The venerated John’s Marketplace is beloved for selling a curated selection of cans and bottles of gluten-free beer from regional producers, cider and more at locations in Southeast Portland, Multnomah Village and Beaverton. Shoppers will even find shelves dedicated solely to gluten-free and gluten-reduced beers.
The BeerMongers
The long-running bottle shop and taproom in Southeast Portland is best known for pouring excellent beers on tap, but The BeerMongers also stocks a few coolers with a thorough selection of craft beer and cider, which typically includes gluten-free offerings from Portland-area producers.
Where to Find Gluten-Free Beers
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