A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about gluten free beer after a conversation with a friend of mine. Before today, I had only tried Redbridge, so I didn’t have much experience with wheat-less beers. This morning I was checking out the beer selection and noticed a gluten free beer, Green’s tripel blonde ale (named Quest), and figured I’d try it out for a review.
First of all, I have to take into consideration that this beer doesn’t contain wheat or barley (or even crustaceans or fish which the bottle made sure to let me know). Since this is a Belgian beer, I still was expecting a somewhat Belgian flavor.
I poured the beer and it was a pretty cloudy amber/orange color with a lot of foam. I like to pour down the middle, which caused half of the glass to be foam. There was also a lot of bubbles, so I knew I was in for a lot of carbonation.
The smell of this beer was like smelling a cider. It has a strong green apple aroma with some slight citrus and pear undertones. It was almost like smelling Martinelli’s sparkling cider, which wasn’t bad, but I was in the mood for a beer, not juice.
My first reaction to tasting it was, “holy crap, this is sweet.” My next reaction was, “dang, I should have bought something else.” This was like a mix of cheap champagne, apple cider, warm bud light, and dollar store fruit hand soap.
The carbonation wasn’t as strong as it looked and the beer had a pretty dry taste to it. Not satisfying at all. The warmer the beer got, the worse it tasted. I guess if you are on a gluten free diet and want to drink this beer, serve it as cold as possible to mask as much of the flavor as you can.
My Green’s Quest Grade: D-
Here are the details:
ABV: 8.5%
Bottom line is that if you’re on a gluten free diet, you’re screwed if this is what gluten free beer tastes like.
What are your thoughts on Quest or any gluten free beers?
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You should try Bard’s. Bard’s is the only gluten-free beer that malts the sorghum in its recipe for tradtional flavor and aroma. Just like barley is malted in traditional beer, we malt the sorghum that replaces barley to make our beer gluten-free.
I happen to enjoy the flavor of dollar store fruit hand soap. Makes me glad I can have all the gluten I want.
Logan, I am a Gluten free Beer drinker. My first taste of a Greens triple blonde ale was in Florida. They served it to me cold and yes it tasted bad on first try. As it warmed up it got better and better. So now I drink the Amber and Triple Blonde just below room temperature to cool. I believe that is the way it was brewed, to be served warmer than we are used to in the States. I love their beers compared to the rest. The flavor really comes out when it’s served at a more comfortable temp. Europeans like warmer beer than over here.
Tom