Gluten goes ghost

There’s now another option for folks who love beer, but don’t get along with gluten – if you don’t mind driving a few hundred miles, anyway.

Ghostfish Brewing, Seattle’s first gluten-free brewery, opened last week. Unlike many gluten-free operations that use sorghum for fermentables, Ghostfish beers are made from actual malted grains such as millet, buckwheat and brown rice.

The opening lineup shows an impressive variety: wit, blonde, pale, India pale, India session ale, brown and stout. The Washington Beer Blog deemed them “clean, refined, thoughtful and richly flavored,” singling out the Pinefruit IPA and Watchstander Stout in particular.

Ghostfish plans to can its beers, but only for distribution in the Seattle area.

Bottled gluten-free offerings from another regional player, Portland’s Ground Breaker (formerly Harvester), are available at specialty stores around here.

Ground Breaker makes several styles from such ingredients as chestnuts, lentils and sorghum syrup, including a pale, dark and a pair of IPAs, as well as assorted seasonals and specialties.

The Spokane area hasn’t had a locally produced gluten-free beer since Beljica in Chewelah closed a couple of years ago following a relatively brief run. Newly opened Black Label in downtown Spokane plans to make a gluten-free selection at some point.