sufferfest
noun – A workout or race in the arena of endurance sports that involves prolonged suffering on the part of all who participate.

At first blush the name “Sufferfest” doesn’t seem like a brand of beer you’d want to drink. But, digging into the definition and the concept a bit, as it pertains to endurance athletics and beer drinkers, it does make a certain sense—hence Sufferfest Beer Company and its beer targeting athletes and athletic lifestyles.

Sufferfest Beer is pretty high-concept, as beer and branding go. The beer is brewed with athletes in mind, and recipes are designed accordingly. The company is located in San Francisco, but the beer itself is contract brewed by Sleeping Giant Brewing Company in Denver. It is all gluten-reduced (the process by which enzymes are added post-fermentation to reduce the gluten content in the finished beer). You can read the about page on the website for some background but I like this version the PR agency shared with me better, as it gives (ironically) a less “marketing” sense of the motivation behind it all:

At the time, Caitlin was Director of Marketing at Strava and an avid trail runner. She discovered at 33 that she was intolerant to gluten due to an autoimmune condition. The culture of the trail running community invites a post-run brew and this element of her favorite hobby became unbearable. She’d choke down a gluten-free beer with her teammates, but found them very unappealing.

Her husband signed her up for a home brewing class so she could start to craft her own bearable (and let’s be honest, delicious) beers to be enjoyed along with the rest of her running community. It was through her research on UC Davis where she became aware of the gluten-removed process. This process changed her home brew into something else and this is where she made her leap into her next career: Sufferfest.

I’m delving into the company because I was sent two of its beers: FKT Pale Ale and Shakeout Blonde. As I’ve been drinking through them (a six-pack of FKT, and a four-pack of Shakeout), I’ve been thinking about the intent behind the beers as part of my assessment of them, and what makes an “athlete” beer.

Shakeout Blonde

Stats:

• 5.7% ABV
• 50.5 IBUs
• Gluten: less than 5 ppm (parts per million)
• Calories: 176 per 12 ounces
• Carbs: 14 grams per 12 ounces
• Protein: 1.7 grams per 12 ounces

This is a pretty standard American blonde ale, designed to be appealing and drinkable to a wide audience. It’s also light and crisp which strikes me as being a good “refresher” beer after a workout. There are no bells and whistles here, though I will note that it has less gluten listed than FKT. The site says:

Bright and hop-forward, our Shakeout Blonde is your own private island, sporting bright citrus and mango notes and a crisp, smooth finish. This beer tastes like summer, but drinks like a vacation year-round.

Appearance: Fluffy white pile of foamy head, fine, creamy, and dense. Brilliant golden color and striking clarity. Top notch appearance, there’s not much more to say.

Smell: Neutral; lightly grainy with some minerality. No hop character to my nose, it’s quite mellow.

Taste: Some grassy hop bitterness that’s a touch earthy, bordering on astringent towards the back. Husky graininess, slightly tannic, wheaty. That earthy bitterness rolls through into the finish and it’s dry at the back of the tongue.

Mouthfeel: Crisp, light body, with a nice snap at the end. A lingering husky/earthy bitterness persists through the light body.

Overall: It’s a fairly standard light golden ale though that earthy, husky almost-astringency makes me wonder if that is a side effect of the gluten removal process. But in general, if you were to hand me this beer blind, I wouldn’t know it was supposed to be low in gluten or anything other than a lightly minerally, crisp American blonde ale. As a post-workout thirst quencher? I can see it fitting that bill; it’s got a lawnmower beer quality to it.

FKT Pale Ale

Stats:

• 5.1% ABV
• 40.5 IBUs
• Gluten: less than 10 ppm
• Calories: 165 per 12 ounces
• Carbs: 12.5 grams per 12 ounces
• Protein: 1.7 grams per 12 ounces
• Sodium: 96.53 mg per 12 ounces

Now this beer is much more of a concept beer:

Our FKT (Fastest Known Time) gives you the flavor and richness you deserve, with an edge. Brewed with salt and black currant, these outstanding ingredients kick up the flavor so you can get back out there.

And from the press release:

Inspired by athletes but brewed for anyone, the FKT contains blackcurrant to bolster gut and kidney health, along with immunity-fighting support — each serving brings over 80mg of sodium to aid recovery after any good effort.

So to my mind, the additives in this beer are designed to act like something of a sports drink, restoring electrolytes lost during an intense workout. Does that work? I don’t know, but when I hear “fruit” and “salt” I immediately think of gose—which this isn’t.

Appearance: Orange with a pinkish tinge to it, and hazy—sediment or fruit haze or both. The head is finely bubbled, creamy, also I think with a slightly pinkish tinge to it.

Smell: Kind of odd; it’s salty/minerally with a sweaty (tart) fruit note. Woody astringency, presumably from the black currant fruit. No hops. It goes back and forth between the fruit astringency and salty/sweaty.

Taste: Also odd; it’s strangely phenolic-like but I think it’s the interplay with the salt and the tart currants expressing that. The malt is neutral if slightly sweet. It’s not overtly salty but has a salty mineral edge to it, and the fruit is tannic. I understand what the company is going for with these additions, and I can pick out those flavors (it’s hard not to), but it’s an odd combination and not terribly balanced. It doesn’t taste bad, just… odd.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with a bit of a salty aftertaste, otherwise a relatively clean finish. Light woody astringency at the back that lingers a bit.

Overall: Kind of a tough one to judge because on the one hand, I can taste the (intentional) additions and I understand their purpose, but on the other hand there should still be a balance in how those are handled to aid drinkability. Going back to my comment about gose above, I think that would have been an excellent vehicle for these ingredients and would also be more “sports drink” in character as well as more refreshing.

It’s definitely an interesting beer, but needs some tinkering. That being said, I see no reason to doubt that this does indeed deliver the electrolytes you’d need after a workout, and in that regard I would have to say that this beer—as much in concept as execution—probably does hit the mark as a “beer for athletes.” At least it couldn’t hurt (drink in moderation, of course).

Does the low gluten levels in these beers help in athletics? I don’t know. But if you’re going to design a beer for athletic lifestyles, if you aren’t planning to go the Michelob Ultra route, the beers of Sufferfest are probably the direction you would take.

One note about “gluten reduced” — that does not mean “gluten free.” While crafted to be below the FDA-required threshold for measurable gluten levels, there is still a trace amount of gluten in all of these beers. (As well as any other “gluten reduced” beer that uses this enzyme or similar process to reduce the gluten content.) That means if you are Celiac or otherwise have a low gluten tolerance, drinking these beers could still affect you. Something to be aware of.