With Love for Lagers, Ground Breaker Brewing Releases Two New Beers

From Ground Breaker:

There are few things that the people behind the scenes at Ground Breaker Brewing love more than light and crisp gluten-free beers. For decades, craft beer consumers have shied away from fizzy light lagers and instead preferred hoppy ales. Now, the demand for craft lager beer is catching up with the desire of brewers to produce them. The Portland, Oregon-based gluten-free craft brewery is determined to meet that demand with the release of two new seasonal lager beers.

On March 8th, the SheBrew Festival celebrated ten years, and Ground Breaker’s head brewer, Gloria Zeiger, submitted Love Your Body Mexican Lager for the event. It was the third beer and the second lager that Zeiger has brewed for the event, submitting a West Coast Pilsner in 2024. Love Your Body is 4.8% alcohol by volume and lightly hopped, a “clara” style Mexican Lager.

“I was inspired by Baerlic Brewing’s Cason’s SheBrew entree in 2024, which was a Mexican Lager that my friends and family could not stop raving about,” said Zeiger. “As a gluten-free drinker and brewer, I often draw inspiration from the Portland Pink Boots community. It’s a challenge to recreate styles and beers that, personally, I want to try but cannot because I have celiac disease.”

With a firm belief that there is a lager beer for everybody, Ground Breaker released a second lager beer just a week later on March 15th. Czechia Later is a Bohemian Style Pilsner, the brewery’s nod to the first pale lager style, believed to have been first brewed in 1842.

“Craft beer drinkers love the stories behind beer as much as they love beer itself,” said Jesse Bufton, Head of Operations. “When we have our new beer releases, we like to hand out a little history lesson along with a taster glass. People always ask questions, and we find that many are more willing and interested to try a style of beer they perhaps don’t typically care for if there is a little context to it.”

At 4.6 percent alcohol by volume, Czechia Later carries with it the complex, grainy maltiness as well as the spicy and floral hop bouquet associated with the style.

To create both of these beers, Ground Breaker leaned into the latest malts available from their gluten-free maltster partners. Eckert Malting in California specializes in malted rice, while Grouse Malt House in Colorado specializes in malted millet and buckwheat.

“The availability of Grouse’s Pilsner millet malt in particular has really allowed us to push forward with pale lagers,” remarked Bufton. “Pairing Pilsner malt from Grouse with some of the Biscuit malts from Eckert really dials in the complex profiles we try to create with these styles.”

Love Your Body Mexican Lager and Czechia Later Bohemian Pilsner are now available in 16oz cans and in kegs at the Ground Breaker Brewing pub. The beers are also available through Ground Breaker’s many distribution partners across the country.

About Ground Breaker Brewing

Ground Breaker Brewing is a gluten-free craft brewery and gastropub founded in 2011. Ground Breaker is dedicated to crafting 100% gluten-free beer; using ingredients that are naturally gluten-free and allowing no gluten in their facility. Ground Breaker has won seven medals in the gluten-free category at the Great American Beer Festival® and one award at the World Beer Cup™. The gastropub is located at 2030 SE 7th Ave. in Portland, OR. Ground Breaker’s beers are distributed in the following territories: OR, WA, CA, CO, MI, IL, VT, MA, RI, NY, NJ, CT, AB, MB, YT, SK and BC Canada.
https://www.groundbreakerbrewing.com/