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Dr. Samantha July 5, 2015

Weekly Round Up: Gluten-free PDX 7/5/15

gluten-free PDXPlease let me know via our contact form if you have any news or events you’d like us to consider sharing!

News  & Interest Round Up

Facebook Group. Did you know that we have a Gluten Free Portland facebook group with over 1700 members? It’s an incredibly supportive place to get your questions answered about eating GF in PDX. I review member requests weekly.

For Many Gluten isn’t the Villian. In Time. There are some parts of this piece that make me really frustrated but worth a read.

The Myth of Big Bad Gluten. In the NYT. An opinion piece. Food for thought.

Spouses and Relatives of Celiac Patients at Greater Risk of Autoimmune Disease.

Brooklyn House Fire. Please jump over and donate to the gofundme for the Brooklyn House. They had a fire and are trying to rebuild. Let’s rally for our community here!

Recipes (repeats from last week…)

Rosemary Chard Frittata. From My Blog.

Nicoise-ish Salad. From Rubies and Radishes.

Spicy Cashew Beef with Sweet Potato Noodles. From Everyday Paleo.

Events

PDX GIG Meeting Saturday July 11, 2015. Ongoing Gluten-free Support group.

GF Meetup after the GIG Meeting Saturday July 11, 2015 at Costello’s Travel Caffe (Meetup organizer states that contamination risk is ‘medium.)

Gluten-free Food and Allergy Fest September 26-27 by Gluten-free & More Magazine. I’ll be presenting here as well, along with a number of other local folks: Laura B Russell, Kyra Bussanich, Nadine the Gluten-free RN and more…we’ll keep you posted as more info comes in.

Yours in Health,

Dr Samantha Signature siggy

Filed Under: Classes & Events, News Tagged With: gf pdx, gluten-free, Gluten-Free Beer, gluten-free pdx

Dr. Samantha February 10, 2015

Brewers Dinner at Zach’s Bistro in Newport (with Ground Breaker)

zachs banner (1)The third this winter of Zach’s Bistro (Newport) winemakers, brewers and distillers dinners series is GF and coming up next weekend! When they were searching for a good gluten free beer to offer in the restaurant they didn’t have to look far. Guess who? Our own gluten-free PDX Ground Breaker Brewing. James Neumeister will be joining in for the meal and festivities.

Please support James and check out Zach’s Bistro’s 6-course gluten free dinner paired with Ground Breaker Beer on SUNDAY FEBRUARY 15TH

GROUND BREAKER BREWERS DINNER
Sunday February 15th 2014 5:30pm

fried willamette valley cheese curds: cascade fresh hop pale ale

seared ling cod, pale ale beurre blanc, candied lemon, swiss chard croquettes: pale ale

 open faced elk burger, capicola, caramelized onion, roasted tomato jam, wilted spinach: ipa no. 5

arugula salad, hazelnut black pepper vinaigrette, avocado, bell pepper, cucumber, toasted hazelnut: olallie

denny dubbel, fig, shallot, marjoram braised duck leg, wild rice risotto cake, green bean sla: denny dubbel

roasted pear and walnut clafoutis, maple crème fraiche, rosemary: coffee pale ale

$55 per person inclusive without gratuity.

IMG_7011

 

**Reservations online only: www.groundbreaker.ezregister.com

 

***Attendees of the brewers dinner will get 20% off their stay when they book their lodging at Elizabeth Street Inn.  Not valid on Thursday, February 12th, Friday February 13th, or Saturday, February 14th.What a great reason to book a getaway to the coast!
For Reservations call 1-877-265-9400

PS I inquired about cross-contamination and the owner of the bistro responded as follows:

“We are not a dedicated gluten free facility and can’t guarantee 100% gluten free, though we take precautions to reduce cross contamination.  We have a few regular customers (as well as who are both gluten free and celiac and have never had problems.)  This whole dinner is gluten free and that is only thing the kitchen will be doing that night.  Since this dinner is gluten free we are taking extra steps for this dinner.  We will be stopping all raw flour production Friday morning to allow the flour to settle.  We will deep clean all equipment Saturday night.  All prep for the dinner will be done on Sunday. Any prep will be stored in deep cleaned metal containers not plastic. The cutting board and silicone spatulas used for dinner prep, that night will be brand new to reduce cross contamination. All ingredients for the dinner will be bought that day (including sugar and salt.)”

Filed Under: Classes & Events, Local Products, Travel Tagged With: beer, Gluten-Free Beer, gluten-free pdx

Dr. Samantha April 10, 2013

Harvester Brewing Releases St. Denny Dubbel Style Ale April 12th

We just got the following notice. I’m not a beer drinker so I can’t weigh in personally but I know that we’ve got lots of beer lovers in our GF community! I’ll be there to check it out anyway, I mean a dedicated GF brewerly? Gotta.

In Health,

Dr. Samantha

 

 

Harvester Brewing is pleased to announce the latest release out of their dedicated gluten-free brewery in the Experiment Ale series, a Dubbel style ale made with Belgian candi syrup.

Similar to Harvester’s other beers, the Dubbel is made using roasted chestnuts but is differentiated by the addition of dark Belgian candi syrup. It’s lightly hopped with Styrian Goldings, and fermented with a blend of two gluten-free Belgian yeast strains.

When Harvester founder James Neumeister was starting out as a homebrewer, he contacted homebrewing legend Denny Conn and asked him where he could learn to brew using the batch-sparge method that Denny advocates when homebrewing. Denny invited James over that weekend and after a day of brewing under Denny’s tutelage, his word quickly became the rule when James was homebrewing, prompting his other brewing partners to start referring to Mr. Conn as ‘Saint’ Denny. This background, combined with the common practice of Belgian style beers having ‘Saint’ names, led to the name St. Denny for this beer.

St. Denny Dubbel style ale will be released at Harvester Brewing this Friday, April 12th at an event from 3:30 to 7pm.  A very limited amount of the St. Denny Dubbel will be available on draft, only at the brewery.  Bottles will roll out to store shelves next week and are available to order through Harvester’s online store now for shipment starting April 15th.
About Harvester Brewing
Harvester Brewing is a dedicated gluten-free craft brewery founded in 2011. Harvester Brewing’s facility is entirely gluten-free; no gluten is allowed on the premises. Their beers are distributed in OR, VT, WA, Northern ID, and online at http://store.harvesterbrewing.com/

Filed Under: Classes & Events Tagged With: beer, gluten-free, Gluten-Free Beer

Dave April 3, 2012

Omission Beer Event

Omission Lager from Event

It is admittedly infrequent that the paths of a beer maker and gluten-free blogger cross. I do get invited to events here and there, and the first of 2012 happens to be the press event for Omission beer. Omission beer is made by Widmer Brothers, a division of Craft Brew Alliance, both of which are Portland-based. The event was hosted by Saraveza, which, judging from the menu, is definitely not a gluten-free friendly place, but which has a great little spot around the corner for events like this.

The event was made up of PR people, local bloggers, local media, and some folks from Widmer. I brought along the Gluten Free Portland official beer correspondant, Heather Marsh. Pictured above are Mieke from Tula Baking (who provided some of the treats for the event), Widmer brewmaster Joe Casey, and the CEO of Craft Brew Alliance, Terry Michaelson. Casey’s wife is celiac, as is Michaelson. We spent some time talking with both of them, swapping stories about trying to find places to eat while travelling, and comparing notes on favorite restaurants and bakeries in town.

Omission in the Case

It’s nice to walk into an event where the first thing that happens after introductions is that someone puts a beer in your hand. I was really curious to see what the beer tasted like, and had one of those “oh yeah, that’s what that tastes like, I had forgotten” kind of moments when I had a drink of the Omission Pale Ale. It had literally been years since I’d had a real pale ale, but I could have told you what I was drinking without having to check the label.

About the Brewing Process

The company notes that Omission was six years in the making. It’s unique in that the beer is brewed with normal beer-making ingredients like malted barley and hops, and the gluten is removed during the process. Then the beer is batch-tested by an independent lab to make sure that it falls below the international standard of 20 ppm of gluten (the company claims that they go further and test to 6 ppm). Neither Casey nor Michaelson were willing to go into the nitty gritty details of how they remove the gluten, but would say that “it’s complicated”.

Omission Brewing Process

One of the posters at the event went into further details, saying “Throughout the brewhouse process, proteins in Omission beers are degraded and/or removed entirely via precipitation, denaturation, and sedimentation.” And later, “After fermentation, yeasts, solids, and proteins are removed using a centrifuge and DE filter…” (I’m thinking that it’s pretty safe to take the words “proteins” in these two sentences and substitute “gluten and other proteins.”) Before they bottle it, the beer is “rapid tested” for gluten in the bright beer tanks. The beer is then bottled and sample bottles are sent out for independent gluten testing using an R5 Competitive ELISA test.

Omission Testing Results

One very interesting thing that they’ve done is that you can go online and check the test results of the batch you’re drinking. To do so, you go to omissiontests.com and enter the date stamp information from the bottle. Here are the test results from the bottle I had last night.

Moving Forward

Omission is not yet available outside of Oregon. Widmer plans to begin distributing the beer nationwide as soon as the necessary details are worked out with the TTB (the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau of the U.S. Dept of the Treasury). As many of our readers know, the FDA is still getting its act together about all things gluten-free, so there’s not much going on there. With any luck, people outside of Oregon will be drinking gluten-free lager sooner rather than later.

Also mentioned at the event, Widmer is working to expand their gluten-free offerings to include more varieties of beer. They don’t seem to have any plans to supply the beer in draft form, which makes sense because of the risk of cross-contamination from the lines.

How Does it Taste?

With Omission, I think that Widmer is going to have a hit on their hands. Both Heather and I thought that the Omission Lager was good, but both of us preferred the Pale Ale. I asked a bunch of the beer bloggers in the room what they thought, and everyone agreed that the beer was good. One person noted that the pale ale was just a little sweet. Nobody I talked to thought that there was anything funny or strange about the taste.

In this case, saying that “it didn’t taste funny” is akin to attending a Cirque du Soleil show and declaring that the performers “somehow managed to totter across the stage with their crutches.” But considering that we’re talking about gluten-free beer, it needed to be said. As I mentioned above, I had one of those moments where I tasted the Omission Pale Ale, and remembered drinking other pale ales years ago. I’m not an expert, but to me Omission tasted crisp, flavorful, and well-balanced. We were given lots of samples on our way out the door, so hopefully soon we’ll have a more thorough report from Heather and her cohorts.

Look for Omission at your local retailer. You can also go to the source, the Widmer Gasthaus on North Russell. They have recently expanded their menu to include plenty of gluten-free items. We plan to visit soon and will certainly post the results here. Thanks to Widmer for the free beer!

Filed Under: Classes & Events Tagged With: Beer and Wine, Classes & Events, Gluten-Free Beer, Information, Portland

Dave March 12, 2012

Omission Beer – New Gluten-Free Beer Coming to Oregon?

Omission Beer Website

We received a mysterious invite to an event this Thursday, where we’re kind of expecting a new gluten-free beer to be unveiled. The folks who invited us aren’t saying anything about it being gluten-free, only that they expect us to be interested. A visit to the Omission website reveals only a few hints of what it’s about, along with a place to sign up for updates (once you’ve verified that you’re age-appropriate). Look here for more information after the date.

Filed Under: Classes & Events Tagged With: Beer and Wine, Classes & Events, Gluten-Free Beer

Dave April 28, 2009

Restaurant Review: Virgo and Pisces

We’ve been really excited over the past couple of months about how many places here in Portland Oregon now offer gluten-free pizza! It’s really amazing, and would appear to mostly be thanks to one company, Nugrain Foods. Virgo and Pisces is one of the few places that make their own gluten-free pizza crust. Unfortunately, that’s about all I can say about their pizza right now because I didn’t try it during our visit to Virgo and Pisces.

Virgo and Pisces is located on NW 21st Street at Glisan, so it’s located in quite a hot-spot. They’re just a half a block away from the New Cascadia Traditional Bakery and Trader Joe’s. We went there at 7:00 PM on a Friday night.

Virgo and Pisces Gluten Free Pizza Sign

Being in such at hot-spot at 7:00 PM on a Friday night, we were worried that we would have to wait before we could sit down. On the plus side, that was not the case. On the minus side, the place was practically empty, which I never take as a good omen.

Virgo and Pisces is a bar and restaurant. One room is the bar and the other the restaurant. On one end of the restaurant room there is a small area where bands play. It looks like they have live music there on a regular basis, and as we ate, a band was setting up. We left before they started up, though (not because we weren’t interested – we usually love live music. We had a prior commitment.)

The space is nice. Our waitress was extremely helpful and the food came out promptly. Our one big complaint with the atmosphere was the music. The music playing in the bar was different from the music in the restaurant. That wouldn’t normally be a problem except that the music in the bar was turned up a lot louder, so we were treated to both at the same time. I find listening to two different pieces of music simultaneously to be jarring and annoyingly distracting.

Sienna got a hamburger (which was not gluten-free) and I ordered the fish and chips. I’ve been on quite the fish and chips jag (what with our recent review of the Starfish Gluten Free Battered Cod, the gluten free fish and chips at Hugo’s Restaurant in Los Angeles, and the gluten free fish and chips at the Hawthorne Fish House, we’ve been looking really seriously at battered and breaded fish. So I figured it would be worth doing. (By the way, Gina over at Gluten Free Gourmand has an excellent review of the Starfish Battered Halibut and Haddock.) At one point we had the idea that Virgo and Pisces had gluten-free pasta, but that is not the case. Virgo and Pisces also has gluten free beer. We’ll have to go back for their pizza sometime too.

Gluten Free Fish and Chips at Virgo and Pisces

So how was the food? The food was good. It was pretty standard bar food kind of fare. If I had to come up with a word to describe the food it would be “functional.” The thing with bar food is very often you’re really there for something else, like some live music, or to knock back some drinks with your friends. Very often bar food is just background filler, even at bars that are known for their food. The food at Virgo and Pisces is like that. The fish was tilapia. I usually love tilapia, but in this case it was a little tasteless. The fries were a hair too mushy. The coleslaw didn’t turn me on, but I’m not really a coleslaw fan. Sienna’s burger was good.

And that, dear reader, is about all I have to say about this place. I am curious about their pizza, but considering the place was empty on a Friday night, I don’t have big dreams about it. Maybe the place fills up once the music starts?

We want to know: Have you had the pizza at Virgo and Pisces? Let us know in the comments!

Times we have visited: 1 (So your mileage may vary.)
Overall rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: Same

Virgo & Pisces
500 NW 21st Ave, Portland, Oregon 97209 / 503.517.8855
www.virgoandpisces.com

Filed Under: Restaurant Review Tagged With: Bars, Beer and Wine, Fish, Full Bar, Gluten-Free Beer, Live Music, NorthWest, Pizza, Portland, Restaurant, Review

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Dr. Samantha Brody is a licensed Naturopathic Physician and acupuncturist and the owner and founder of Evergreen Natural Health Center in Portland, Oregon. She is both a health educator and coach who can help introduce patients to new ways of caring for themselves. Read More…

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