<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

This message is presented in laymen’s terms so you do not need a scientific
background to understand it.

1. What is gluten?

Gluten is a huge protein molecule held together by smaller molecules called
amino acids that are linked together like beads on a string. A small part of
the gluten molecule can initiate a response in a gluten-sensitive person. If
each amino acid that makes up gluten is represented as a single letter that
small part would be: SGQGSFQPSQQ. There are other sequences of amino acids
that cause a reaction in gluten sensitive individuals, but the point is, as
small as this fragment is with respect to the entire gluten protein, it is
still HUGE with respect to the size of ethanol (the stuff that intoxicates
you when you drink it).

2. What is alcohol?

The alcohol you drink is ethanol. Ethanol is smaller than the size of the
smallest amino acid in the smallest fragment of gluten that has been shown
to initiate an autoimmune reaction. More specifically, ethanol is about 10
atomic mass units smaller than just the G in the sequence shown above.  For
more information about ethanol go here:
http://www.ethanolrfa.org/resource/education/

3. What are amino acids?

The G is glycine and each of these amino acids (represented by letters) by
themselves is safe, and sold at most health food stores. For example Q =
glutamine (yes, “L-glutamine,” the same amino acid mentioned in a recent
post and used to heal intestinal damage). If the protein is viewed as beads
on a string, then one of those beads might be good for you, but certain
sequences strung together can initiate an allergic reaction of many types
from acute peanut allergy to less-than-obvious gluten sensitivity.

4. What is distillation?

When a distillation is performed, pure ethanol is 100% separated away from
all of the other “stuff” that forms as a result of fermentation. This is
because ethanol is volatile (meaning it becomes a gas in the distillation
process). Imagine a vat of fermentation products, you heat it, and only the
volatile molecules like ethanol enter a tube attached to the vat. This tube
is not just any tube - it is a curved condensation tube! Here is what it
does: While the heated gas form of ethanol floats into it (because that is
what gases do), the molecules are cooled and condense back into a liquid,
and fall into a new sparkling clean vessel containing the stuff that
intoxicates you and any other "volatiles." So the fancier distillation
columns that are actually used industrially also purify the ethanol away
from other volatiles. Gluten does not stand a chance of “crossing over”
because it is not even volatile.

Here is a simplified analogy. If you take the spout off your tea kettle, and
attach a condensing tube to the opening (a curved tube would be the simplest
type of condensing tube but there are many elaborate types), you could
distill your water away from sand. The condensing tube would be curved so as
to open into a new clean pot. Let us pretend that the sand is gluten and the
water is ethanol. You start with a mixture of sand and water in your tea
kettle. When you heat to the boiling point, the liquid becomes gas so it
travels into the condenser, cools and becomes liquid, then falls into the
clean pot.

Now having read that, is there ANY way that the new clean pot would contain
any sand? No, and distilled alcohol (ethanol) does not contain any gluten.
It doesn’t even contain one “bead” on the gluten string, because amino acids
are not volatile. Another non-volatile compound is table salt. So you could
perform a distillation at home, with salt water. Has anyone ever
inadvertently done this? Boiled a pot of salt water, perhaps to make some
Tinkyada pasta, and walked away to do something else. You came back to find
your pot almost empty with white crusty stuff (salt) all inside the pot.

So the gluten is left behind in a distillation process. If malt is added to
the distilled product it should be disclosed on the ingredients label.

5. What is vinegar?

So vinegar is formed by fermentation in a similar way that ethanol is formed
by fermentation. The process is to take ethanol and ferment it with
bacteria. The ethanol turns into acetic acid. Later, there is a filtration
to remove the bacteria and particulate. Rarely, vinegar is fermented from
wheat-based alcohol. “Distilled vinegar,” gets its name from the fact that
it was fermented from distilled alcohol.

6. Why is vinegar still questioned?

As of late, I think the answer is because so many people "react" to it and
vinegar-based products. The reaction may be non-gluten based. However, the
never-ending fear is that cross-contamination during the fermentation
process is leading to barely detectable amounts of gluten in the finished
product (by barely detectable, I mean in terms of commercially available
tests). Since the vinegar is rarely distilled post fermentation from the
ethanol, the “messy” nature of the second fermentation step could pose a
problem, especially for highly sensitive individuals. If the ethanol gets
all used up by the bacteria, the bacteria go on to form carbon dioxide and
water from the vinegar. So alcohol is periodically added in the fermentation
process. Conceivably, one “shortcut” would be to just add beer at this
juncture. Adding beer or some other form of cheap malted alcohol would keep
the culture alive, and increase the “quality” and yield of the vinegar.
Another fear is that the "mother" (mixture of yeast and bacteria and alcohol
among other things) contains trace gluten through cross-contamination. Those
people who have spent much time on this issue, bless their hearts, and have
scrutinized big name manufacturers about their policies and practices have
been led to the conclusion that we should have no fear of
cross-contamination in the processing of vinegar and vinegar-based products.


7. Why are distilled spirits still questioned?

I do not know, especially since some of them are double or even triple
distilled using very elaborate columns (condensing tubes). When malt is
added, as in many wine coolers, the ingredients will indicate.


Cheers,

Megan

* Please remember some posters may be WHEAT-FREE, but not GLUTEN-FREE *
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