At the World Beer Cup in San Diego in April 2012, out of fifteen total entries, Glutenberg Blonde, Pale Ale, and Rousse swept the gluten-free beer category, taking bronze, silver, and gold, respectively. Now with a new brewery, greater capacity, and distribution, Montreal’s Brasseurs Sans Gluten is determined to produce the best gluten-free beer in North America and beyond. I spoke to David Cayer, who co-founded Brasseurs sans Gluten with Julien Niquet, about their approach to gluten-free beer and what the medals meant to them—and I’ll be watching to see if they can sweep again at the upcoming World Beer Cup in Denver this April.
How did the brewery come together?
"We launched the brewery in 2011, almost a year after we had the idea. Julien is gluten-sensitive, which is one of the reasons why we had this idea. We studied business; we’re not homebrewers, but we have good business skills. We had to find a brewer because without Gabriel [Charbonneau], our brewer, the company wouldn’t exist today. We started to do R&D in 2010, and a little bit more than a year after we launched a blonde in Quebec, and five or six months after we launched a pale ale and a red because the market was asking for more products.
In April 2012, we participated in the World Beer Cup and swept the gluten-free category. It changed everything for us. If we are able to sell to ten states today, it’s a bit because of that, because we have credibility.
We kept going. We’re not afraid to reach out to distributors in the United States, in Canada, in Europe. We have no limits—we don’t want to have limits when it comes to distribution or product development, and I think it explains where we are today."
I read that it took a year and a half to develop a recipe. When did you know you had it finalized?
"We were ready to take off, and the final recipe was ready the week before we were ready to launch the brewery. And I think that that recipe was not the final final—we kept making changes. It was really good, and it is still the same beer, but as we are doing with the other styles, we’re working on the recipe and trying to make it better year after year and month after month.
The blonde is the most difficult to make. When you make a hoppy beer, it’s so easy to hide when it’s not perfect. But the blonde was very difficult to make because you see right away when there is a problem with the beer because it’s so simple."
What was the process like for tweaking the recipe?
"We read a bit about gluten-free brewing, but that’s why it took sixty, seventy, eighty batches before we had our recipe—because we tried everything. We tried every possible gluten-free grain, combination of grains, different temperatures. The only possible way to get a good result was to try everything, but it takes time and willingness."
What did it mean to you to sweep the gluten-free category at the World Beer Cup?
"Distribution is number one. Credibility. Confidence. I was there in San Diego and being there on the stage, in front of 2,000 people in the industry in the United States—I was like a young kid coming from Montreal and no one knew who I was or who Brasseurs Sans Gluten is, and we swept a category like that—it gives you that energy.
It’s important because we are entrepreneurs, and we are putting gas in the machine. We trust ourselves, our company—it’s so important that you believe in what you’re doing. I was not in the business before; I’m not a born entrepreneur at all, and to live things like that it gives us a lot of self-confidence. Now I feel like anything is possible. It sounds cheesy, but it’s the truth."