Is Bourbon Considered Gluten-Free?

To understand how this magic trick works, we need to talk about what distillation does. Distillation is the process whereby a liquid is purified through evaporation and condensation. Many modern distilleries use column stills for continuous distillation (which is distinct from triple-distillation), but we’re going to focus on pot stills because they’re easier to understand.

After the bourbon’s mash has been fermented, it’s placed in a big pot and heated up. As the liquid rises in temperature, the alcohol and water start to evaporate. This vapor rises up through a tube before being led into a second pot where the vapor is cooled down and condensed back into liquid form. This allows distillers to concentrate their product into a higher ABV.

The reason for this little science lesson is to show you why bourbon is gluten-free, and that’s because gluten doesn’t evaporate. When the distillation process is finished, all of the gluten will still be in the first pot. This is why you can distill saltwater into freshwater, since the salt similarly would not evaporate and transfer to the second pot. Although it’s not as common in bourbon, there are whiskeys that are triple distilled, which means an even purer end product, but it only takes one distillation to remove the gluten. Depending on the severity of your gluten intolerance, you may want to exhibit caution anyway as some suggest since unintentional cross-contamination is theoretically possible, but cross-contamination is an entirely different issue.

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