Is Hoegaarden gluten free?

Hoegaarden is a wheat beer, and for anyone with coeliac disease that is most of the answer. The recipe runs on barley malt and wheat. Neither grain is removed at any point in brewing, and the label declares both as allergens in capitals. No version of Hoegaarden is safe for coeliacs, including the 0.0.

What is in Hoegaarden

The full ingredients run: water, BARLEY Malt, WHEAT, hops, coriander seeds, natural orange peel, sugar and yeast. The two grains in capitals are not a stylistic choice. They are the legal allergen declaration under UK and EU labelling rules, the clearest signal a label can give that an allergen is present.

There is no enzyme step. No gluten reduction. No certification below the 20 parts per million threshold that defines a gluten free beer in the UK. This is the key difference from a beer like Peroni Gluten Free, where the brewer starts with barley and then adds an enzyme after fermentation to break the gluten down. Hoegaarden skips that part. The gluten stays.

The wheat is the giveaway. Witbier is a style defined by unmalted wheat next to barley malt, which is what makes it cloudy and gives it the soft, slightly tart character. Take the wheat out and it is no longer a witbier, which is why no gluten free version exists. For more on why wheat beer and gluten free beer are two separate things, see our guide to gluten free beer vs wheat free beer.

What about Hoegaarden 0.0

The alcohol free version is not gluten free either, and for the same reason. Hoegaarden 0.0 is brewed on the same grain bill as the standard beer, then the alcohol is removed after fermentation. That process removes alcohol. It does nothing to gluten. The barley malt and wheat go in at the start, the gluten comes through to the finished bottle, and the can carries the same allergen declaration.

Hoegaarden Rosée 0.0 is the same story. Different flavour, same grain bill, same gluten, and the bottle explicitly states contains gluten. AB InBev does not produce a gluten free or gluten reduced version of Hoegaarden under any label.

If you are wondering why removing alcohol does not also remove gluten, our guide to naturally gluten free vs gluten reduced walks through what each process actually does.

What to drink instead

Witbier is one of the awkward corners of the gluten free beer market. There are not many cloudy, coriander and orange peel Belgian whites brewed without barley or wheat. A small handful, though, are very good.

• Mongozo Buckwheat White, 4.8%. The closest direct swap. Brewed in Belgium with buckwheat alongside barley malt, with the gluten removed at two separate stages and independently tested below 3 parts per million per batch. The coriander and orange peel sit it squarely in the Belgian witbier tradition.
• Green’s Tripel, 8.5%. A naturally gluten free Belgian tripel built from buckwheat, millet, brown rice and sorghum. Stronger and more candied than a witbier, but the Belgian yeast character and spicy aromas land in a similar register.
• Green’s Dubbel, 7.0%. Same brewery, same grain bill, darker style. Dark sugar and toffee notes for when a witbier is not quite what the evening calls for.

For more options, browse the full beer directory.