Are your spirits gluten free?
March 24, 2018We’re often asked: are your spirits gluten free? Well, its a bit complicated and a difficult question for us to answer definitively, thanks in part to some regulatory quirks governing gluten statements. For those who have concerns regarding gluten in our products, we encourage you to read this article, which does an excellent job of explaining how gluten proteins interact with the distillation process and contains links to additional resources to help you make an informed decision.
Generally, distilled spirits are considered gluten-free; even spirits produced from grain or from ingredients containing grain. It is nearly impossible for gluten proteins to convey through the distillation process, and any gluten present in a spirit comes from post-distillation additives or through exposure to airborne gluten.
However, government regulations prohibit any product made using ingredients containing gluten to state that they are gluten free, regardless of the gluten content of the final product. This means that distilled spirits made from grains or other ingredients containing gluten cannot claim to be gluten free, even though gluten proteins are nearly impossible to convey through the distillation process. Spirits such as our whiskeys, gins, and other spirits containing a “distilled from grain” label statement fall into this regulatory snafu. We also process grain in-house, so there is a small risk of cross-contamination.