Gluten free beer at M&S: what is actually on the shelf

M&S has built a strong free from reputation. The food halls are full of carefully labelled alternatives, and the brand is trusted by shoppers who need to know exactly what is in their food. So it is reasonable to walk into an M&S and expect the same care applied to gluten free beer.

The reality, as of June 2026, is narrower than that reputation suggests. M&S sells gluten free beer. Just three lines. All own-label. All gluten removed from barley. No independently branded beers. No naturally gluten free options at all.

That is not necessarily a failing. It is just useful to know before you trust the label.

What M&S actually stocks

Three beers, all own-label, all in 330ml bottles.

Beer	ABV	Pack	Price (approx June 2026)	How it is made gluten free
Gluten Free Kent IPA	5.0%	330ml bottle	n/a (could not verify current price)	Gluten removed from barley
Gluten Free Belgian Golden Ale	4.8%	330ml bottle	around £2.00 (historical; check in store)	Gluten removed from barley
Gluten Free Belgian Premium Pilsner	4.8%	330ml bottle	around £2.00 (historical; check in store)	Gluten removed from barley

The Kent IPA is brewed for M&S by Westerham Brewery in Kent. It is described on pack as “made by removing the gluten from a conventional ale.” Untappd records a check-in from May 2026, which is the strongest evidence it is still in stock.

The Belgian Golden Ale and Pilsner are both brewed by Brouwerij De Brabandere in Belgium. The label states: “Barley gluten is removed during the brewing process to leave a great tasting gluten free beer.” The last confirmed check-in for the Golden Ale was January 2025. The Pilsner has no confirmed recent availability beyond that.

M&S previously offered a case of 12 containing four of each beer. That product page showed as no longer available online at the time of research, though individual bottles may remain in stores.

None of these beers appear in our directory. They are M&S exclusives and are not sold under these names elsewhere.

Our verdict on the range

Honest label. Thin range.

What M&S does well here is disclosure. The gluten removal process is stated clearly on pack, which is more than some mainstream supermarket own-label beers manage. You know what you are buying.

What it does not do is offer variety. Three beers. Two styles (IPA and Belgian ale or pilsner). No session pale. No stout. No porter. No low or no alcohol option. No naturally gluten free choice of any kind. For a retailer that positions itself at the quality end of food and drink, and that has a meaningful number of coeliac and free from shoppers, the beer range is a footnote rather than a statement.

The most interesting detail in the range is the Belgian pair. Brouwerij De Brabandere is a well-regarded Belgian family brewer with a long history. A Belgian golden ale and a premium pilsner are reasonable style choices for an own-label range, and Belgian brewing has genuine craft credentials. Whether they are worth seeking out over what you can buy elsewhere is a different question, and one the range’s limited availability makes hard to answer with confidence.

The Kent IPA has the most recent evidence of being in stock. If you are in an M&S and want gluten free beer, that is the one to look for first.

The thing the shelf will not tell you

Every single gluten free beer in the M&S range is gluten removed. Not one is naturally gluten free.

That is a sharper version of the issue than you find at most supermarkets, where at least some naturally gluten free options sit alongside the gluten removed ones. At M&S, for beer, there is no such choice.

Gluten removed beer starts as ordinary barley beer. An enzyme breaks down the gluten proteins until the product tests below the legal 20ppm threshold. The beer carries a gluten free label and meets the legal definition. For many coeliacs that is enough.

For some it is not. The standard test used to measure gluten in beer has a known limitation with the broken down fragments left after fermentation, and a real number of coeliacs report symptoms from gluten removed beer that passes the test. This is not fringe concern. It is why the distinction between gluten removed and naturally gluten free exists in the first place.

We explain the full picture in our guide to gluten removed versus naturally gluten free. If you are coeliac and you have not thought about this distinction before, it is worth reading before you make decisions based on a free from label alone.

What we would actually buy, and where

From the M&S range itself: the Kent IPA if it is in stock and gluten removed beer works for you. The Belgian options are worth trying if you can find them. But there is no naturally gluten free choice here, and the range does not stretch far enough to be a destination.

The broader point is that a supermarket with three own-label beers is the wrong place to judge what gluten free beer can be. The best of it, the naturally gluten free IPAs, the proper gluten free pilsners from dedicated brewers, the craft beers that happen to be free from because of how they are brewed rather than because the gluten was removed afterwards, none of that reaches an M&S shelf.

That is what our beer directory is for. More than 250 beers from independent breweries, including options that are naturally gluten free and available to order direct. Use M&S for a bottle of something while you are doing the food shop. Use the directory when you actually want to drink well.

If you know the style you want to start with, our gluten free pale ale and gluten free lager pages are a reasonable place to begin, or browse the full breweries list for the independents doing this properly.