Check out this new Okanagan gluten-free brewery

Chris Neufeld might be the only brewer in the country who has never tasted craft beer.

Why you might ask? Twenty years ago, he was diagnosed with celiac disease, well before the craft beer boom put locally made beers in stores and on taps across the country.

So when he was looking to start a new business, he turned to a void he realized he could fill.

“There’s a lot of good gluten-free products out there now,” Neufeld told Kelowna10. “But a huge void in the marketplace is gluten-free beer.”

And so, Grey Fox Brewing was born.

Using grains such as rice and millet, as well as some custom-made equipment, Neufeld can brew beer completely gluten-free.

Never tasting craft beer himself, he said he relies on friends and family to provide him with flavour profiles and to compare his brews to the real deal.

And most say they can’t even tell the difference.

“It was our goal to make a product that anybody could enjoy,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of beer aficionados come in, and the reaction has been really positive from everyone.”

To fund his endeavour, Neufeld turned to Kickstarter, and was stunned at the support he received.

He said on the first day it went live, Kickstarter put it on the front page of its website, and he started to receive support from around the globe.

“We were getting donations from Germany, from China, from Australia,” Neufeld said. “It was amazing, I had a lot of interesting conversations and emails with people that were just excited about what I was doing.”

At the moment, the brewery only sells and fills growlers, but Neufeld hopes with labels coming soon, he’ll begin canning soon.