Is Kronenbourg gluten free?

Kronenbourg 1664 is brewed with barley and wheat, and that is the answer, however much I would like a French premium lager to be back on the table for anyone with coeliac disease. The standard 1664 lager is built on malted barley, malted wheat and wheat, with glucose syrup and hops finishing the recipe, and gluten is declared on the allergens. There is no enzyme treatment, no published below 20ppm test, and no gluten free certification. Coeliac UK puts it plainly: beers, lagers, stouts and ales contain varying amounts of gluten and are not suitable for a gluten free diet unless they have specifically been brewed or treated to remove it. Kronenbourg has not been.

What is in the can

Standard Kronenbourg 1664 is brewed with malted barley, malted wheat and wheat. Glucose syrup softens it, hops carry the bitterness, hop extract tidies things up at the end. Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company has produced 1664 for the UK market since 2024, when the brewing contract moved over from HEINEKEN UK. None of that changes the gluten picture. The grain bill includes both barley and wheat, and both grains contribute gluten.

To be labelled gluten free in the UK, a beer has to test at or below 20 parts per million of gluten in the finished product. Kronenbourg publishes no such test and makes no such claim. The allergens line declares gluten outright.

What about 1664 Blanc?

If anything, 1664 Blanc is further from gluten free than the standard lager. The official 1664 Blanc site calls it “a playfully elegant wheat beer from France”, which is the giveaway. A wheat beer is brewed from wheat as well as barley malt. Both grains contain gluten. There is no enzyme treatment and no gluten free version of Blanc.

If you have seen Blanc filed under gluten free anywhere online, treat that listing as wrong rather than as a second opinion. A Greek brewery catalogue has it in the wrong category, and an app or two has called a yes off a casual label scan. The brand’s own description is the one that counts. It is a wheat beer. Wheat beers are not for coeliacs.

Gluten free versus gluten reduced

A handful of mainstream lagers are now safe for coeliacs because the brewer adds an enzyme called Clarity-Ferm, sometimes sold as Brewer’s Clarex, late in fermentation. The enzyme cuts the gluten protein into pieces small enough that the finished beer tests below 20ppm. Stella Artois Gluten Free is made this way. Peroni Gluten Free uses a similar enzyme treatment, and Daura uses its own patented process of enzymatic hydrolysis and filtration, batch tested by Spain’s CSIC. Kronenbourg is not. It uses no enzyme, no gluten reduction step, and carries no gluten free badge.

The grain still matters even when an enzyme is involved. A gluten reduced beer made from barley has to declare “contains barley” on the label by law, and some coeliacs choose to avoid them on that basis. Naturally gluten free beers, brewed from sorghum, rice, buckwheat or millet from the start, sidestep that question entirely.

What to drink instead

A few from our directory that sit in the same French and European premium lager territory:

• Daura Lager, 5.4%. Spanish, barley brewed, enzyme treated to below 3ppm. The closest direct swap for a 1664 sized premium lager, and well under the 20ppm legal bar.
• Celia Organic Lager, 4.5%. Czech style pilsner, organic, tested to below 3ppm. Crisper and lighter than Daura.
• Brightside Helles Lager, 4.8%. Certified gluten free, brewed in Manchester, sits in the same premium continental territory.
• Daura 0.0% if you want the same Spanish lager character without the alcohol.

For more in this style, see our guide to gluten free lagers, or browse the full beer directory.