Stella Artois is the best-selling beer in Belgium (its home country) and pretty popular around the world. It has mixed reviews on the beer market – from those who think it’s high-class import, to those who give it a reputation of getting people drunk to the point of rowdy. Either way, it’s a pale lager in a pretty green bottle.
No, Stella-Artois original lagers are not gluten-free. The main ingredient is barley which contains gluten. While some beers are known to use enzymes to reduce gluten levels, Stella Artois makes no such claims. Stella Artois Cider is made from gluten-free ingredients. The best gluten-free alternatives to Stella-Artois are Green’s Beers Discovery Amber Ale, Estrella Damm Daura, and Glutenberg Beers.
Stella Artois had a Gluten-Free version launched in 2018 in the UK, but I confirmed with Anheuser-Busch that Stella Artois does not currently have a gluten-free beer. We’ll talk about the beers and ciders listed on the Stella Artois website and finally present some gluten-free options. With over 100 gluten-free options on the market, there is no shortage of alternatives. Let’s dig in!
Contents
History
The Den Hoorn Brewery began back in 1366 and was a local tavern and brewery until 1708. Sebastian Artois became the head brewer and a short time later renamed it to Brouwerij Artois. In 1926, Stella was introduced around Christmastime. Its name was appropriately named after the Christmas Star. Its popularity rose and soon the company was marketing it year-round. With a brief halt to production around World War II, it soon was thriving with operation expansion into the UK.
In 1988, it took a bigger turn when it was involved with a merger creating a company called Interbrew, along with new packaging and bottle designs. In 2004, Interbrew merged with InBev to join one of the biggest beverage companies in the world. In 2008, InBev also merged with Anheuser Busch to create a conglomerate.
Today, Stella Artois is brewed in Belgium, the UK, and a few other countries. In the United States, it is distributed under the Anheuser Busch umbrella, which gives it even more visibility.
Gluten in Beer
Gluten is natural in traditional grains used in the brewing process. Stella Artois uses barley which is a gluten grain. Other beers use wheat, rye, or oats. Beer makers can create gluten-free beers in a couple of ways. The first is by using their original recipe and incorporating enzymes that essentially eat away at the gluten proteins, resulting in a beer with less than 20 parts per million. This is within the limits of the FDA standards, but since the ingredients list still contains a gluten ingredient, they are labeled as gluten-reduced or gluten-removed.
Other beers are created with non-gluten grains such as sorghum, millet, rice, buckwheat, or corn. These beers can be labeled gluten-free. If you are very sensitive, you might want to try these options.
Note about Ingredients and Nutrition Facts
Alcohol is not regulated by the FDA and therefore manufacturers are not required to place ingredient and nutrition labels on their products. Sometimes outside sources will perform an analysis to provide this information, but more often, there is limited information due to proprietary recipes.
Stella Artois Varieties
As of the writing of this article, these four options are listed on Stella Artois’ website. There is no mention of a gluten-free beer.
- Stella Artois Lager
- Stella Artois Solstice Lager
- Stella Artois Petite Lager
- Stella Artois Midnight Lager
- Stella Artois Cidre
Stella Artois Lager
Ingredients:
- Water
- Barley
- Hops
Nutrition Facts (per 11.2 fl oz):
- 5% Alcohol by Volume
- 141 Calories
- 9g Carbohydrates (0g Sugar)
Stella Artois Petite Lager
Ingredients:
- Water
- Barley
- Hops
Nutrition Facts (per 7 fl oz):
- 5% Alcohol by Volume
- 94 Calories
- 9g Carbohydrates (0g Sugar)
Stella Artois Solstice Lager
Ingredients:
- Water
- Barley
- Hop Extract
Nutrition Facts (per 11.2 fl oz):
- 5% Alcohol by Volume
- 105 Calories
- 5g Carbohydrates
Stella Artois Midnight Lager
Ingredients:
- Water
- Barley
- Hop Extract
Nutrition Facts (per 11.2 fl oz):
- 4% Alcohol by Volume
- 179 Calories
- 18g Carbohydrates
Stella Artois Cidre
A European-style cider that is gluten-free.
Ingredients:
- Hard Cider
- Water
- Apple Juice Concentrate
- Dextrose
- Water
- Sucrose
- Natural Flavor
- Malic Acid
- Sodium Citrate
- Natural Colors
- Citric Acid
Nutrition (per 12 fl oz):
- 5% Alcohol by Volume
- 180 Calories
- 22g Carbohydrates (16g Sugars)
- 65mg Sodium
Stella Artois Liberte
A non-alcoholic beer option. Non-alcoholic beer is manufactured the same way as regular beer. At the end of the process, the alcohol is removed through a variety of processes. In the United States, alcohol levels can be 0.5% by volume and still be technically alcohol-free. If any alcohol is still in the process, it is sometimes labeled light beer (not to be confused with higher content light beers that reduce carbs and calories), small beer, or near bear
Ingredients:
- Water
- Barley
- Hop Extract
Nutrition Facts:
- 0% Alcohol by Volume
Alternatives
Green’s Beers
Created by a founder who suffered from celiac disease, Green’s Amber Ale is a Belgian beer made from gluten-free ingredients.
There are several varieties:
- Discovery Amber Ale
- Quest Tripel Ale
- Endeavour Dubbel Ale
- Enterprise Dry-Hopped Lager
- India Pale Ale
Discovery Amber Ale
Ingredients:
- Water
- Millet
- Buckwheat (soba)
- Brown Rice
- Sorghum
- Hops
- Yeast (a class strain of Belgian ale yeast)
Nutrition Facts (per 8.45 oz):
- 6% Alcohol by Volume
- 113 Calories
- 0g Fat
- 10mg Sodium
- 35g Carbohydrates (0g Sugar)
- 25g Protein
Estrella Damm Daura
From Grupo Damm, which has been brewing beer since 1876, this gluten-free option from Spain is made from barley malt and a process that removes the gluten. Gluten levels are less than 3 parts per million, which is well below the FDA standards. This beer has won tons of awards for taste.
Ingredients:
- Barley-malt
Nutrition Facts:
- 4% Alcohol by Volume
Glutenberg Beers
Glutenberg has a whole line of beers that are gluten-free. Their grains are harvested from a farm that only grows gluten-free grains. They do not allow any gluten ingredients in their factories to reduce risk of cross-contamination. Beers range from 4.5% to 6.5% alcohol per volume.
Varieties:
- Blonde
- IPA
- Pale Ale
- Red
- White
- Stout
- Session IPA
- Gose
- Double IPA
Ingredients (specific ingredients for each beer are not listed, but these are the grains used in their processes):
- Millet
- Buckwheat
- Cor
- Quinoa
- Amaranth
- Hops
- Water
- Sugar
- Yeast
Nutrition Facts (in Glutenberg IPA):
- 235 Calories
- 0g Fat
- 18g Carbohydrates
- 0g Protein
Ipswich Ale’s Celia Saison
Created by Ipswich Ale out of Massachusetts, this beer is made from non-gluten ingredients. They do produce other beers so beware of cross-contamination.
Ingredients:
- Sorghum
- Hops
- Curacao orange peel
- Yeast
- Irish moss
Nutrition Facts:
- 5% Alcohol by Volume
Evasion Brewing
Out of Oregon, this brewery boasts gluten-free options, in a dedicated gluten-free facility. Their barrel-aged specialties reach alcohol by volume content of 13.9% and are in very limited supply.
I bring up this brewery to show you that there are smaller independent companies all over the world that are leaping into gluten-free beer production. It helps to check out local options.
Varieties:
- Hophoria IPA
- Blond Ale
- Tantamount Stout
- Seasonal beers
- Blood Orange IPA
- Barrel-Aged Selections
- Yamhill Punch Barrel Aged American Wild Ale
- Coastal Colossus Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
- Batch 2 Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
- Grandpa’s Nap Barrel-Aged Millet Wine
Hophoria IPA
Ingredients in Hophoria IPA:
- Water
- Millet
- Rice
- Buckwheat
- Oats
- Hops
- Yeast
Nutrition Facts:
- 1% Alcohol by Volume
Alt Brew
Created in Madison, Wisconsin, this beer is made from gluten-free ingredients in a gluten-free facility. The owner was inspired to manufacture the beers after finding out that his wife was gluten intolerant.
Varieties:
- Hollywood Nights IPA
- Rustic Badger Farmhouse Ale
- Ripped Jeans & Wolf Shirts DDH Hazy IPA
- Holy Hop Grenade Double IPA
- Hefeweissbier
- Igneous IPA
- Sunset Belgian Tripel
- Kickback Kolsch
- Copperhead Copper Ale
- 1808 Robust Porter
- Hiking Boots Blonde Sale
- No Supervision Stout
- Greenview Juicy Pale Ale
- Blackwater Scotch Ale
- Ravenswood Imperial Brown Ale
Hollywood Nights IPA
Ingredients in Hollywood Nights IPA:
- Sorghum
- Rice
- Millet
- Honey
- Corn derived product(s)
- Water
- Yeast
- Hops
Anheuser Busch Red Bridge Beer
We’d be remiss not to mention this gluten-free beer made by the same parent company as Stella Artois.
Ingredients:
- Water
- Fermented Sorghum
- Sorghum
- Corn Syrup
- Hops
- Yeast
Nutrition Facts (per 12 fl oz):
- 8% Alcohol by Volume
- 130 Calories
- 0g Fat
- 50mg Sodium
- 12g Carbohydrates (1g Sugar)
- 0g Protein
Related Questions
What is a lager?
Stella Artois is a lager, but what does that mean? Beers come is a variety of textures including pale ale, blonde, stout, pilsner, and lager. Lagers are defined as effervescent, light in color, and body. It can have a bitter taste with pine, floral and grassy hints. Brewmasters can add notes of other flavors such as caramel, coffee, and chocolate. It’s all about appealing to the consumer’s tastes.
Does Stella Artois have a bad reputation in the UK?
Stella Artois has an association with binge drinking and aggressive behavior in the UK. It stems from the higher alcohol by volume content, and popularity among binge drinkers. Over the years this content has dropped slowly (another slight controversy). An alternative story is that the name Stella is used by a character in “A Streetcar Named Desire,” and it has kind of stuck just because of the name. It’s tried hard over the years to reverse this stereotype, but this is a story that keeps appearing.
What is the Belgian Pouring Ritual?
Stella Artois has a ritual for pouring their beers that starts with chilling the beer, rinsing the glass, opening the bottle, pouring the beer at a precise angle to get the right amount of head (foam), and cleaning the glass before drinking.