Ingredients and Additives Unsuitable for Vegetarians and Vegans:
– Finings used in beer production to clear yeast include silicon dioxide, gelatin, polyclar, and isinglass.
– Isinglass, made from fish swim bladders, is commonly used in cask ale and is not suitable for vegetarians.
– Glycerol monostearate may be used in beer processing to create foam and is an animal product.
– Honey added to beer for flavoring and sweetness is not suitable for vegans.
– Lactose found in some beers like milk stouts is derived from milk and not suitable for those avoiding dairy.
Packaged Beers:
– Most packaged beers are filtered in some form, either pasteurized or cold-filtered.
– Animal finings may be used on batches that are too hazy to be cleared easily by regular filtering methods.
Vegetarian Breweries:
– Some breweries like Bartlebys Brewery, Samuel Smith, Anheuser-Busch, and others have disclosed which beers contain animal products.
– Guinness made their beer vegan-friendly by opening a new filtration plant in 2016.
See Also:
– Beer portal
– Vegetarianism and wine
References:
– Various sources such as Vegetarian Times, The Complete Idiots Guide to Being Vegetarian, BBC News, CNN Money, and others provide information on vegetarianism and beer production.
Beer is often made from barley malt, water, hops and yeast and so is often suitable for vegans and vegetarians. Some beer brewers add finings to clarify the beer when racking into a barrel. Finings can include plant-derived products, like Irish moss, or animal-derived products, like isinglass and gelatin.
Most breweries do not reveal if they do or do not use animal products in the processing of their beers; some exceptions are Samuel Smith, Heineken, Harp Lager, Anheuser-Busch, the Marble Brewery in Manchester, the Black Isle Brewery, and Black Sheep Brewery, all of whom have declared they make vegetarian and/or vegan beer.