Growing Demand for Vegan Beer

United Kingdom newspaper The Telegraph wrote about Britain’s growing thirst for the vegan-friendly (and tastier) beers from many modern breweries. Isinglass (an ingredient made from fish bladders) is used to filter beer and is the most common reason that brews aren’t vegan-friendly. The newspaper interviewed Jemma Kington of Moor Beer Company, a nine-year-old brewery that’s been vegan since its 2007 start. The brewery was heavily inspired by Germany, where unrefined beer is standard due to a 500-year-old labeling law stating that beers can only contain water, hops, yeast, malted barley, or wheat. Isinglass-free beer, Kingston says, tastes better and is becoming increasingly popular. “Today unfined beers’ cloudy appearance is seen as a mark of quality rather than being associated with poorly-kept beer,” Kington told the newspaper. “The dramatically improved flavor of unfined beer has won over drinkers, both vegan and non-vegan, and there is definitely more of a thirst for it now.” Additionally, famously non-vegan Guinness announced late last year that it would no longer use isinglass as a clarifying ingredient at its flagship Dublin brewery.