<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
 
>I foolishly tried the Sapporo beer last week, I have not been that ill for
>many years.
 
To make beer you need a fermentable sugar. In cereals these sugars are not
present by nature. They may be formed however by a starch splitting enzyme.
In most cereals this enzyme is formed during germination (which is also the
first stage of malting). Almost any cereal can be malted. During the
brewing process many other cereals are sometimes added, e.g. to modify the
taste, as the starch splitting activity of the malt is quite sufficient to
split the starch in these cereals too. Perhaps the Sapphoro beer is
produced with malted barley or wheat as a base with a large amount of rice
added.
 
Though the proteins co-extracted during brewing are usually removed by
splitting them with proteolytical enzymes (to prevent chill haze) the
(toxic) peptides still may be present. As Dr Kasarda mentioned in a
previous posting it is very difficult to establish whether these peptides
are still toxicl. There are however immunoreactive proteins and peptides
present in many types of beer (especially in the wheat based beers like the
Belgian Gueuzes and the German Weizenbier) which suggest that it might be
safe  to avoid any beer unless it can be made sure that it is produced
exclusively form non toxic cereals.
 
Frederik Willem Janssen, Zutphen, The Netherlands