Discover Portland’s first gluten-free brewery, Orange Bike Brewing Company. Enjoy their unique and delicious craft beers without any gluten worries.
Portland’s Pioneer Gluten-Free Brewery: Orange Bike Brewing Company
Orange Bike Brewing Company is a unique brewery and taproom in Portland that has been serving beer for about eight months. What makes them stand out is the fact that they are one of only 19 dedicated gluten free breweries in the U.S. and one of only two in Maine. Owner Ton Ruff and master brewer Alan Pugsley talk about the brand and the brew, highlighting the innovation and dedication that goes into creating their gluten free beer.
With an increasing demand for gluten free options, Orange Bike Brewing Company is at the forefront of providing delicious and high-quality beer for those with dietary restrictions. Their commitment to crafting gluten free brews sets them apart in the industry, appealing to a growing market of consumers looking for tasty alternatives without compromising on taste or quality.
Pedaling to Perfection: Portland’s Pioneering Gluten-Free Brewery
welcome back unique Brewery and tasting room in Portland has been serving up beer for about eight months now and there’s something that makes them very unique uh so orange bike Brewing Company is one of only 19 dedicated gluten-free breweries in the US and one of only two in May joining us now live right now to.
Talk about the brand and the Brew is the owner Tom ruff and also we’re talking about the master Brewer Alan Pugsley you guys thanks for coming on we appreciate it yeah thank you first of all what was the inspiration to open up a gluten-free Brewery and tasting room and were there any concerns at all about opening up one when it comes to gluten-free and how’s.
Business been going yeah so uh I had 54 years of a very glutenous lifestyle and at age 54 like the wheels came off with my body I started having all sorts of health issues started small upset stomach um but then arthritis inflammation massive inflammation my throat was swelling up food was getting bread was getting lodged in my throat.
Eyelid swollen shut and uh the doctors actually thought I had Lyme disease autoimmune disease Chrome disease I had so much IBS my nutritionist friend in Los Angeles who’s known me 40 years within 3 to 5 minutes she knew immediately that it was the gluten So within 7 months of removing gluten strictly from my diet.
Every single symptom went away like changed my life um used to be a big crap beer lover and at the time there weren’t many gluten-free beers at all Redbridge uh is a sorghum based Budweiser uh gluten-free beer um but compared to the crap beers I was used to drinking it just tasted so different um so I set out to find a good gluten-free beer couldn’t.
Find one thankfully I got connected with Alan Pugsley in my opinion one of the best Brewers in the world thanks to Shan Sullivan who was the ex Ive director of the main Brewers guild at the time um and we’re Allen’s 100th Brewery that he’s helped to open so we’re very fortunate um to have him on our team and he led all of the original recipe.
Development so what was your reaction you know when you get this pitch let’s make some gluten-free beer is it something you had you heard about had you played around with it and how do you go about Brewing gluten-free beer yeah so no it wasn’t something I’d played with or dabbled in before and Tom called me just over three years ago uh but it.
Sounds intriguing to me and um so you know we after we met and uh decided we had a path forward uh we started doing a lot of research and so forth talking to the Brewers on the west coast grous molting who make uh the molts that we use such as here and um we decided to do pilots uh Brewing of it and uh I tasted all the grains and they the the grains.
Tasted great I just didn’t quite know the the mashing regime the temperatures and everything else uh where that would come in addition of enzymes is important it’s like a science experiment right it really was so we did the first Brew which is the pilsner which is really the flagship of the brewery at this point and um and we.
Actually did it at gear is which is a gluten Brewery but we did it in a little pilot system so it was pretty much removed and um anyway it came through and other than the grains everything else I designed like I would a regular beer regarding the yeast and the Hops and so forth uh to make it into a hopefully a fantastic product so I.
Remember tasting it when it was ready and little I was a little Intrepid cuz I wasn’t quite quite sure how the grains would come out and I tasted like wow this is a fantastic pills so then Tom came in about a day later and I didn’t tell him my thoughts and he’s standing at the tank there tasting it and wow pretty good I have chills and.
Hair standing from that day tell us about the beers you do offer along with the pills there there so we have a rotating tap list at the brewery um anywhere from 6 to 12 beers on tap so the classics the loggers the pills ners um Caroline who’s with us uh offset um she developed a sour program for us so we have several sours that are extremely.
Popular um and I also want to mention Jason Kissinger is our head Brewer so uh Jason was trained by Allan by another Brewery in New York Davidson brothers and then moved to Maine and now he’s our head Brewer as well we wouldn’t have any of this without Allan but also Jason now leading the charge and was your Piller also recently recognized did he get a.
Special honor can you tell us about that yeah so we um we’re getting a lot of government support and University support the state of Maine invested in our Brewery uh the main Venture fund so we have 11 universities 54 college students one of the universities we partnered with Yale School of Management they had 22 of their Master students do.
A case study on our project and they looked at our um sustainability initiatives our social justice initiatives but part of it was a blind taste test and our pillner beat one of the top three psers in the state of Connecticut in a blind taste test theirs has gluten ours doesn’t the thing for us that was even bigger validation the.
Judges couldn’t tell which one was the gluten-free product and which one was the regular so for us that was validation yeah and and Alan let’s talk about the big news for orange bike you guys are going to be releasing uh a non-alcoholic the first non-alcoholic gluten-free beer yes uh we did uh the first Brew of uh an American pale L.
Non-alcoholic 4 weeks ago and it went on top a couple of weeks ago and it uh it you know it turned out fantastically the customer consumers have have great responses to it um online and everything else so it’s um exciting new potential segue there’s a lot more complication in dealing with uh non-alcoholic regarding packaging and so forth because it’s not.
Protected by alcohol and that but uh there’s a pathway forward for that down the road so that’s exciting too very exciting and real quick we’re hearing there’s more to come when it comes to food at the brewery too is that true yeah yeah so we were very fortunate we’re at 31 Diamond Street in East Bayside and in our building we have.
Freedom Zed cider just opened their tasting room um toaden company a sustainable clothing company out of Santa Barbara but also um bite into Maine just open their Flagship brick and mortar Cafe in our building they have built out a completely gluten-free menu just for our orange bike customers and they have one of the top five lobster.
Rolls in the state of Maine so you can order bite in to Main in our tasting room with a special QR code and bring the tray in and dine in our dining room or buy four packs Bob in their Cafe and drink our beer in the restaurant that is absolutely awesome and before we go to commercial quick website um it’s orange bike brewing.com thank you both so much.
For being here
