I'm working on a opengl-based gui system. I'm now trying to draw text. I realize there is a ** about this in the faq, but my approach is a bit different. I have my own custom buffer of glyphs(GL_BYTE *) that I want to use. I have considered using glDrawPixels for this, but the problem is that, according to the opengl reference, if I use GL_ALPHA it sets the R,G and B components to 0.0. I want this to be a custom color.

I think you should take a look at GL_RGBA, instead of GL_ALPHA.

GL_LUMINANCE_ALPHA is what you need IMHO. See this http://www.opengl.org/resources/code/rendering/mjktips/TexFont/TexFont.html