If beer were healthy, I’d have my own weight loss program. You’d buy the Alex Delany Guide to Losing 50 Pounds, listen to some motivational tapes, drink a million beers, and wake up a new person. It would be the most beautiful diet in the history of the human race. But sadly, beer isn’t a health food, and when it tries to be, it ends up as a flavorless, watery failure. Trust me. I’ve done the research.

For the sake of this research, I recently tried a new beer from Omission Brewing Co.. It’s labeled as a light beer, and it also happens to be gluten-free. On paper, this beer was not going to win a fight. The only reason I was interested in it was because Omission brews their beers differently than typical gluten-free ales.

Unfamiliar with the brewing process? Brad has your back.

Instead of starting with a gluten-free base, like millet or sorghum, head brewer Joe Casey (whose wife has celiac disease) uses malted barley, the same starting base for most beers these days. When the beer is brewed, there’s gluten, but Casey introduces an enzyme to the beer that eats up all of the gluten in the liquid, removing it entirely. He introduced a similar enzyme to Ultimate Light to break down the carbohydrates in the beer, lowering the carb and calorie count. Science, guys. It’s a wonderful thing.

Still, I wasn’t expecting much when I first tasted Ultimate Light. What I got was a hell of a lot more than that. There was noticeable malt flavor (you know, the stuff that makes beer taste like beer) that carried through the whole beer. The flavor didn’t turn water-like after the initial sip. It didn’t feel as thin as I thought it would, like most light and gluten-free beers do. There was a slight hoppiness, bringing along the taste and smell of grapefruit and fresh-cut grass. Not IPA level, but enough to make a subtle statement. That statement was: light beers don't have to be single-noted. And it was drinkable. Very drinkable. I drained my pint immediately and cracked another bottle.

Now I’m talking about Ultimate Light like it’s the greatest beer I’ve ever tasted. It’s not. It doesn’t stand up to the flavor of the saisons and double IPAs I drink so frequently, but the fact that it exists and tastes the way it does is downright impressive. Honestly, it’s one of the more impressive beers I’ve had in a while. And the numbers justify it. Zero gluten. Five carbohydrates. 99 calories. You could drink a six pack of the stuff and ingest less calories than your Sweetgreen salad. It’s a beer you could sip at the beach or a cookout or a concert without feeling weighed down. You could convince all of your CrossFit-obsessed friends to drink three of these on a sweltering day.

So I'll take this time to thank science and those little gluten-eating enzymes. You're going to make my summer significantly better. A low-carb, gluten-free beer has no business tasting as good as this one does. In terms of light beers, it’s a true hero. It’s called Ultimate Light for a reason. 🙏

Updated: Omission acknowledges that the beer has been crafted to remove gluten, and each batch is tested both internally and by an independent lab for gluten content. According to Omission, "every batch has measured at levels less than 10ppm, the lowest level detectable with the best test available." Those levels are stamped on the bottles. There can be trace levels, which is why Omission is required to note that the beer may contain gluten.

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