Ground Breaker Brewing, the Great American Beer Festival® and World Beer Cup® winning dedicated gluten-free brewery, released their latest seasonal beer this week. At 5.1% alcohol by volume Luella is a Belgian Pale Ale with pleasantly complex notes of bread, toast, biscuit, and caramel. Fruit and spice characters provided by Belgian yeast round out this sessionable ale.

Luella is a namesake for Luella Love of Love Farm. Love Farm is a family-owned community-supported agricultural farm nestled in the foothills of the Oregon Coast Range. Luella Love founded Love Farm in 1905 with her husband John where for over 100 years the Love family has been dedicated to growing fresh produce and berries. Ground Breaker Brewing’s Gastropub at 2030 SE 7th Avenue in Portland is a drop off location for Love Farm CSA members.

“Most of the beers we produce at Ground Breaker start with ‘what do I want to drink right now?’” said James Neumeister, Founder and Head of Research and Development at Ground Breaker Brewing. “A Belgian pale ale is an any time of the year beer but with a lower ABV and its fruity-spicy yeast character, it is well suited for a late summer to fall transition beer.”

Luella was first released by the brewery in early 2015. “With the many new ingredients available to us, it is very exciting to revisit a style like Belgian pale,” remarked Head Brewer Tyler Kueber. “We’re really happy with how it came out.”

Luella is currently available on draft and in 16 ounce cans at Ground Breaker Brewing and Gastropub. It will begin shipping to distribution partners in the coming weeks.

Front Loader IPA, a 7.4% West Coast style IPA, is the latest release from the 100% gluten-free craft brewery. Brewed with rice, millet, buckwheat, flaked quinoa and over two pounds of hops per barrel. Ground Breaker is billing Front Loader IPA as a spiritual successor to IPA No. 4, a beer whose production ceased when the brewery made line up changes in 2015.

“People ask about IPA No. 4 constantly,” said Founder and Head of R&D James Neumeister. “It was a beer with a small but dedicated following.” Neumeister pointed out that Front Loader is not simply a carbon copy. “We’re always learning new techniques, honing our craft, experimenting with new ingredients. It’s really an improved No. 4 with a new identity.”

“We’ve been overwhelmed with hype beer the last few years, for lack of a better term,” remarked Head Brewer Tyler Kueber. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had a classic Northwest style, high IBU IPA. There is a growing nostalgia for this style right now.”

Front Loader IPA will be available in a 16 ounce can package and on draft at the Ground Breaker Gastropub. It will be distributed to Ground Breaker territories in the coming weeks.

(Portland, OR) – The popular single hop IPA returns to the 100% dedicated gluten-free brewery’s lineup. Ground Breaker Brewing’s Route 20 IPA is named after the longest continuous road in the United States, U.S. Route 20. This gluten-free IPA clocks in at 6% alcohol by volume. The 2020 release of Route 20 has been “New Englandized,” making it the third hazy or juicy IPA from the seven time Great American Beer Festival® medal winning brewery.

“Route 20 has always been the beer where we feel free to play with new ingredients and techniques,” said Head Brewer Tyler Kueber. “We’ve learned a lot over the past year using these new ingredients. It’s exciting to use them to bring newer styles of beer to the gluten-free community.”

Ground Breaker isn’t done pushing the limits with Route 20. “We plan on releasing a fresh hop version of this beer in the coming weeks so people will be able to taste the New Englandized and a fresh hop New Englandized side by side,” revealed Kueber.

Route 20 New Englandized IPA is currently available in 16 ounce cans and on draft at the Ground Breaker Gastropub. It will be distributed to Ground Breaker territories in the coming weeks.

Dad’s Red Ale, the grand prize winner of the 2018 Pacific Northwest Gluten-Free Homebrewing Competition, is being released by Ground Breaker Brewing in a 12 ounce can package. Dad’s Red Ale was created by gluten-free homebrewing club Zero Tolerance’s founder Joe Morris and adapted for release by the Portland, Oregon-based gluten-free craft brewery.

A balanced American Amber ale that comes in at 6% ABV. It is set to be released on Wednesday, March 13th and will be available at the Ground Breaker Gastropub.

Ground Breaker Brewing sponsored and hosted the PNW Gluten-Free Homebrewing Competition in April of 2018. It was an idea that Ground Breaker founder James Neumeister had wanted to bring to life for some time. “Countless home brewers have traveled from near and far over the years to visit us, to pick our brains,” said Neumeister. “We’re always happy to oblige, but it became clear early on that there was a huge desire and need for gluten-free homebrewing information and feedback.”

When Ground Breaker made the announcement, Morris was the first to sign up. “I entered the competition because there are currently no dedicated gluten-free categories or subcategories in the BJCP,” said Morris. “I saw this as an opportunity to compete with the best gluten-free home brewers on a level playing field.” Having founded Zero Tolerance months before the competition, Morris knew there were others in the same position.

To judge the competition Ground Breaker assembled a diverse group of seasoned competition judges, many with top-level BJCP certification. With judges and a competition space secured, Ground Breaker needed help getting the word out.

“It was very fortunate that Joe founded Zero Tolerance right before we announced the competition, it really helped us get the word out. We had entrants from all over the US and even Canada,” recalled Neumeister.

Ground Breaker will announce details about the second year of the competition in the coming weeks. In the meantime, gluten-free beer drinkers will have the opportunity to try what the best of the gluten-free homebrewing community has to offer.

Ground Breaker Brewing, the first 100% dedicated gluten-free brewery in the United States, has debuted a new logo, new packaging, and a new line of merchandise. Ground Breaker opened in 2011, packaging exclusively into 22 ounce bottles.

In 2015 the brewery introduced a 12 ounce can package for their flagship product, IPA No. 5, as well as the then-new Olallie, a blackberry and rosehip ale. Now the most medal winning gluten-free craft brewery has announced the move to 16 ounce cans for much of their line up.

“We’re now packaging most of our year-round, seasonal and limited-release beers in a 16 ounce can package,” announced James Neumeister, founder and head of R&D at the brewery.

“We tested the waters in 2015 with 12 ounce cans after our successful Yes We Can! Kickstarter campaign,” Neumeister continued. “We knew customers wanted cans because they invested with us in the Kickstarter campaign, and the response from our distribution and retail partners over the last two-and-a-half years has been just as enthusiastic.”

IPA No. 5 and Olallie will continue to be offered in a 12 ounce package. Ground Breaker will also release future Experiment Ale and Roll-Up Door series beers in 16 ounce cans. Their new 16 ounce 4-packs will begin shipping to distribution partners on September 12.

Merchandise featuring Ground Breaker’s new logo is now available for purchase in the Gastropub as well as on their website.  

Neumeister also announced that their award-winning dry-hopped pale ale would be rebranded as Inclusion. “We try to provide a craft beer experience that everyone can enjoy. Inclusion is a name that captures that spirit and conviction which we founded the brewery with. It's a great name for our first beer. It's also the beer we won our first GABF medal with."

The first Experiment Ale Series beers to see the can switch will be fresh hop ales Epoch and Gayle. Epoch features Strata hops which debuted last year out of Oregon State University’s Aroma Hop Breeding Program and were commercialized with the help of Indie Hops, an Oregon-based hop merchant. Gayle features Crystal hops that are grown and harvested locally at Goschie Farms out of Silverton, Oregon.