Is your beer vegan?

Being a vegan is tough enough as the best of times.

Making the conscious decision to give up meat and diary on moral grounds in an incredibly admirable thing to do. However, while food normally dominates the conversation when it comes to veganism, people often fail to consider non vegan-friendly drinks in their diets

Sure, drinking milk is an obvious no no, but how about alcohol – and more specifically beer? Surely that’s OK?

Why isn’t all beer vegan?

While you might not necessarily associate meat with booze, some of the most popular beers in the UK aren’t vegan friendly. In fact, there’s every chance that the average beer drinker regularly sups on non-vegan products without ever realising it.

Most beers are just a combination of water, malted barley, yeast and hops. No problems there. However, there’s an ingredient used in some brewing processes called isinglass, and most of the time it’s the inclusion of this component which determines the vegan/non-vegan nature of the beer.

‘Fraid not. Sorry guys, but many beers aren’t suitable for vegans. As Veganuary shapes up as one of the biggest diet trends of the year, not enough people know the facts about their drink of choice.

So, here’s everything you need to know about vegan and non vegan-friendly beer.


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