In our quest to find beer that tastes like beer and happens to be “gluten free,” we are now batting .667.

The latest? Omission Pale Ale, from the folks at Widmer. It’s the second of three that passes – and it passes with flying colors.

Quick refresher: Acupuncture doc suggests I cut back on the dairy and cut OUT gluten. I love me some gluten. This is gonna be bad, right?

Well, in addition to all the other things I can drink, there’s always wine (which has been on equal footing with beer in my book, and with my stomach, for a long time). Yes, it’s possible to be a beer snob and a wine aficionado. Or at least that’s what I tell people.

Anyway, here goes nothing: or, something, actually…the review!

Omission Pale Ale Review

Taste

Why I prefer pale ales to IPAs in about one word: malt.

Or at least what tastes like malty caramelly sweetness. Not too sweet, but it’s gotta be there.

With most IPAs, there’s almost too much bitterness for me – but that’s okay every once in awhile. Just not now, while I’m still recovering from the gluten-free diagnosis.

This Omission Pale Ale has the malty richness up front. Mildly sweet. There’s some hop to it, but it’s not crazy. But really clean on the finish. Definitely nice work.

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The website – which you can visit here – says it’s a “hop forward American pale ale.” But again, and I can’t emphasize this enough, it is NOT OVERLY HOPPY. 33 IBUs. 5.8% ABV. Four different malts may do something to offset the impact of the Cascade hops.

It is – like the Prairie Path we reviewed yesterday – crafted to remove gluten. So they can’t guarantee that it has removed all the gluten, but it’s close enough that they share the test results.

Value

Probably $9.99 – I don’t think I picked up my receipt, because I paid cash and was in a hurry and also got a 12-pack of Leninenkugel’s Summer Shandy to go with and got out of there for $26 with tax and most of the other craft beers are around $9.99 at this store and sorry about the run-on sentence.

Metasip Grade: A-

I think this is on par with the Prairie Path from yesterday. It’s beer – not just gluten-free beer, this actually tastes like beer. Worth a try.

First of two reviews on beer consumed by a newly crowned, gluten-free beer snob.

I feel that I’m going to need to address two subjects in this review of the New Planet Off Grid Pale Ale. Subject 1: Why am I becoming a “gluten-free beer snob?” Subject 2: Why is a beer that I call “awful” getting a low, but passing, grade?

Subject 1 is pretty simple, really. A couple trips to the Minute Clinic, then the doctor, then the acupuncturist…lo and behold, I may have gluten intolerance. So, doctors’ orders, down with all gluten.

This may impact my work here on the Metasip site.

Most of my favorite beers have some of the gluten. Darnit! Gonna have to do quite a bit of trial-and-error. (You can recommend cider if you’d like – not sure it’s really my thing yet. For some, though, cider can be really hip.

Subject 2: Grading on a curve, or not. Our theory at HQ is this: if it’s in a store, it has passed some series of tests. Some distributor finds it worthy enough to get it into a store near us, and, therefore, it HAS to be passable. I’m not going to give something an “F,” nor will I plan to go into the “D” range very often. “C-,” for now, is going to be the lowest grade. Bringing us to the review…

New Planet Off Grid Pale Ale Review

Taste

If “sorghum” and “brown rice” are your thing, I’m going to recommend you stay away from beer and go find a vegan restaurant that will fry up a little of both with some garlic and shallots. Neither belong in beer.

Aftertaste like a bad shopping mall Chinese restaurant buffet.

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I think it said 5% ABV. Frankly, I don’t want to pull the bottle out of recycling to find out.

Value

I once read a column from the legendary movie reviewer Gene Siskel who said something along the lines of “if the movie is bad, walk out. Your time is more valuable.” So the price – $7.99 – is irrelevant; three sips, followed by mouthwash, and I had to move on to something else.

Metasip Grade: C-

We’ll find “Beer” not “Beer…that isn’t bad for gluten-free.” This doesn’t even qualify as the latter.