Glutards on parade

It's not as bad as being blind or deaf, but I think having Celiacs Disease or in any way allergic to gluten would suck. Because beer is glutenous.

One in 133 Americans are in some way gluten-intolerant. Drink normal beer and they will surely get sick. As such, there is a growing market for gluten-free beers. Instead of traditional cereals like barley, they’re generally made from sorghum and/or buckwheat. Tragically for the glutarded, most are unpalatable. I've tried several styles of GF beer on tap at the Deschutes pub, and I wouldn't offer a pint to my worst enemy.

So naturally, I balked when I just got a press release from Craft Brew Alliance (the umbrella under which Widmer Bros. falls, at which the Omission brand of GF beers is brewed), announcing:

Mayor Sam Adams will declare May 16 to be Gluten-Free Beer Day in Portland, Ore. The official ceremony will be held at City Hall, and we invite you to witness Adams deliver the proclamation to supporters of gluten-free beer, including the latest addition to Portland’s established gluten-free beer scene, Omission Beer.

Now, Portland’s first and only entirely gluten-free brewery, Harvester, adds chestnut flour and tons of hops to make their GF beers genuinely tasty. The just-launched Omission brand of authentic flavored beers (they're made from real barley malt but filtered to the point it features less than 20 parts per million making it as gluten-free as N/A beers that are 0.5% ABV or less) are also entirely quaffable. But do we really need a Gluten-Free Beer Day?? I always say that PDX has 53 beer festivals, meaning you're sure to find some c-ale-abration more than once a week. But GFBD? C'mon, Sam Adams, hasn't that already been lampooned by Portlandia?