This New Gluten-Free Beer Is Made From 100% Quinoa

Samara Oster never liked beer. She found it too heavy, too bitter, and not worth acquiring a taste for. However, during a 2019 trip to Peru, everything changed. Oster tasted a light, crisp beer brewed partially with quinoa — and that single sip sparked a question: What if beer could be reimagined for people like her?

Fast forward to 2025, and Oster is now the founder of Meli, the first 100% quinoa-based beer produced in the United States. Naturally gluten-free, brewed without added sugar, and clocking in at a balanced 4.4% ABV, Meli is designed with wellness-minded drinkers in mind. It launched earlier this spring and has already begun carving out a lane in the beer aisle for those who’ve felt left out of it entirely.

“When I came up with the idea for Meli, I wasn’t even a beer drinker,” Oster shared with Food & Wine. “I was traveling in Peru and came across a beer made from barley and quinoa. The quinoa part caught my eye, so I took a chance and ordered it. It tasted great — crisp and light, without the typical maltiness or bitterness I associated with beer.”

That moment of curiosity followed her back to Boston, where Oster — who holds degrees from both Harvard and MIT — began experimenting with quinoa fermentation alongside a team of MIT food scientists. The process wasn’t simple. Quinoa, she explained, behaves very differently than traditional brewing grains like barley or wheat.

“Quinoa is extremely small compared to traditional grains, and that posed significant challenges — both in terms of accessing the sugars needed for fermentation and in avoiding clogs in equipment that wasn’t built for a grain like this,” Oster said. “We had to rethink the entire brewing process, from milling to mashing to lautering. It took over three years and more than 100 formulations before we had a recipe that worked — and scaled.”

As an ingredient, quinoa brought its own learning curve. Different varieties produced different results, and Oster’s team had to fine-tune every part of the process to get the beer just right.

“Every quinoa variety is different depending on where it’s grown — its protein and carbohydrate levels, its mineral content, everything,” she said. “We did a lot of trial and error to figure out which types made the best beer and how to translate a small-batch process to a commercial scale without compromising flavor.”

Quinoa has a long agricultural and cultural history in the Andes, and it’s been used in fermented drinks like chicha for centuries. More recently, brewers in Latin America and beyond have explored quinoa in craft beer — often blended with barley or other grains. A 2022 study published in the Revista Peruana de Biología examines how Andean pseudocereals — non-grass seeds like quinoa and kañiwa — are being explored in craft beer for their nutritional value and brewing potential. Meli builds on that tradition but pushes it further by developing a 100% quinoa-based recipe scaled for commercial production in the U.S.

The result is an easy-drinking, functional beer made with ethically sourced organic quinoa. It offers a light sweetness, essential nutrients, and 7% of your daily potassium. But Meli isn’t just for people avoiding gluten or cutting sugar — it’s for anyone looking for a beer that feels as good as it tastes.

“Our ‘ideal’ drinker is someone who values wellness and balance,” Oster said. “They probably read nutrition labels. They might not drink often, but when they do, they want something clean and intentional.”

She hopes Meli offers something that’s been missing from the beer aisle: a way to indulge thoughtfully without the baggage.

“In a world where alcohol has become a bad word, I hope Meli shows that there’s a way to thoughtfully indulge,” she said. “So many people I’ve met want to be mindful of their health, but they also want to enjoy themselves. My goal is to offer something that doesn’t leave you feeling gross afterward — no gluten, no sugar, no unnecessary additives. Just clean ingredients and a beer that feels as good as it tastes.”

Meli is currently available at select retailers in Massachusetts and can also be purchased online at drinkmeli.com.