Is Madrí gluten free?

Madrí is one of the easier ones for me to call. It is a barley and wheat beer, which makes it a clear no for anyone with coeliac disease. Marketed as a smooth, Spanish style lager, its premium positioning leads some people to assume a lighter or simpler grain bill. In fact it uses two gluten grains rather than one.

What is actually in the can

Madrí Excepcional is brewed with barley malt and wheat, along with the usual hops, water, yeast and a little glucose syrup. Both barley and wheat contain gluten, so the beer carries allergen declarations for both cereals. There is no enzyme treatment, no gluten reduction, and no gluten free certification.

That puts Madrí in the same bracket as standard Guinness, Corona and any other untreated barley beer: not safe for people with coeliac disease.

Premium does not mean lighter

It is easy to read a smooth, refined lager as somehow simpler or cleaner than a heavier beer, and to assume that means less gluten. It does not work that way. The character of Madrí comes from how it is brewed and conditioned, not from leaving out the grain. If anything, using both barley and wheat means two gluten sources rather than one. The only thing that makes a barley or wheat beer safe for coeliacs is removing the gluten and testing it below 20 parts per million, and Madrí does not do that.

What to drink instead

If you want that smooth, easy drinking lager without the gluten, the answer is a lager brewed gluten free from the start, or made gluten reduced and tested below 20ppm. A few from our directory worth trying:

• Celia Organic Lager, 4.5%. A clean, crisp organic lager.
• Bellfield Craft Lager, 5.2%. A pale, easy drinking lager from a fully gluten free brewery.
• Hambleton GFL Gluten Free Lager, 5.2%. A straightforward, sessionable gluten free lager.

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