Is Cruzcampo gluten free?

The honest answer is that it depends which Cruzcampo you mean. The standard lager, the one pouring in most Spanish style bars and now stacked in UK supermarkets, is brewed from barley and is not safe for coeliacs. There is a second product, Cruzcampo Especial Sin Gluten, that is a genuinely different beer, certified gluten free and suitable for coeliacs. The trouble is that both carry the Cruzcampo name, so the only safe move is to read the can.

The standard lager is not safe

Cruzcampo is a Seville lager, founded in 1904 and now part of Heineken, and like most lagers it is built on barley malt. Gluten lives in the barley protein, and the standard beer goes through no step to remove it. There is no enzyme treatment, no gluten reduction, no gluten free claim on the pack. It is an ordinary barley lager, which means it is off limits for anyone with coeliac disease.

This matters more than it used to. Cruzcampo has gone from a holiday beer to a UK pub and supermarket fixture in a couple of years. If you have only ever seen the Sin Gluten version in a Spanish bar, it is easy to assume the pint in front of you back home is the same drink. It is not. The draught and the standard packs are full gluten beer.

Cruzcampo Especial Sin Gluten is certified

The gluten free version is its own product, called Cruzcampo Especial Sin Gluten. It starts from barley malt, the same as the standard beer, then an enzyme is used to break the gluten protein chain down below 20 parts per million. That is enzymatic hydrolysis, the same method behind Estrella Galicia, San Miguel and Daura. Under 20 parts per million is the legal threshold for gluten free in the UK, and the Sin Gluten meets it.

It also carries certification from FACE, the Spanish coeliac federation, which is the same body that certifies Estrella Galicia’s gluten free lager. A national coeliac association does not put its mark on a beer it considers unsafe. For a coeliac, that certification is the thing to trust.

The barley label is not a warning to ignore the certification

Here is where people get caught out, and a fair number have. Because the Sin Gluten is still brewed from barley, the label has to say it contains barley, even after the gluten has been reduced. That has led to honest confusion: the Spanish ingredients read malta de cebada, sin gluten, barley malt, no gluten, which looks like a contradiction if you do not know how these beers are made.

It is not a contradiction. Contains barley is an allergen line for people with a barley allergy, which is a different condition from coeliac disease. The gluten free certification covers the coeliac question separately, and it is the line that matters to you. Plenty of certified gluten free lagers made this way carry the same barley declaration. If you want the full picture, our guide to naturally gluten free versus gluten reduced beer walks through it.

What to look for, and what to drink instead

At a bar, do not take a nod for an answer. Ask to see the bottle and look for Especial Sin Gluten on the front. The standard product just says Cruzcampo or Cruzcampo Especial with no gluten free claim. In a shop, same rule: the Sin Gluten wording and a certification mark are what you are checking for. In the UK the gluten free version is still hard to find outside Spanish food importers and specialist beer sellers, so it is worth getting comfortable reading the label rather than relying on availability.

If you want a certified gluten free lager you can actually get hold of here, a few we cover in the directory:

• Daura Lager, 5.4%. The closest like for like: a Spanish lager from Estrella Damm, tested under 3 parts per million, and easier to find in the UK than the Cruzcampo version. We couldn’t confirm this beer’s gluten status from our directory data, so check our full take on whether Daura is gluten free before buying.
• Bellfield Bohemian Pilsner, 4.5%. A certified gluten free Czech style pils from Edinburgh, crisp and dry in the same easy drinking territory.
• Celia Organic Lager, 4.5%. A clean organic lager tested below 3 parts per million. We couldn’t confirm this beer’s gluten status from our directory data, so check the listing for the full picture before buying.

For more in this style, see our guide to gluten free lager, or browse the full beer directory. The parallel case is worth a read too, since Estrella Galicia follows the exact same two product pattern.