No, Not Every Beer Is Vegan-Friendly

The world of alcohol is plagued with myths, and it can be hard to know which claims are true. Some misconceptions don't make much of a difference, like thinking darker beers are necessarily stronger. After all, you're probably going to drink what tastes good. Others, however, can affect people's lives, like the widely accepted idea that all beer is vegan. We hate to be the bearers of bad news, but this is not true. In its simplest form, beer contains hops, yeast, water and a grain (like wheat or barley), so the drink should technically be vegan. But industrialization has brought about the need for techniques to speed up certain processes. Companies also try to come up with new profiles that can outshine the competition, and to experiment with ingredients. And to achieve these things, animal products can sometimes offer the easiest solutions. 

What kind of animal products can you find in beer? Many companies use isinglass, which is made from fish bladders, to clarify the beer faster. Other common ingredients derived from animals include bone char, gelatin, and lactose. Some ingredients, like the honey in honey ales and the oysters in oyster stouts, are obviously not vegan. Since most people are used to thinking of beer as vegan, however, they may not even stop to think about it.

There's not really an easy way to tell if a beer is vegan-friendly. Looking at the ingredient list may help in some cases, but you'd need to memorize every single animal-derived ingredient that may appear in beer. That's hardly practical. Don't panic yet, though! There are many famous and high-quality beers that have publicly gone vegan. Guinness, for instance, has been completely vegan since 2018 to the rejoice of vegetarians and vegans everywhere. Pabst Blue Ribbon told The Takeout in a statement that it has sworn off anything that comes from animals since 1998, which is pretty impressive considering that a meat-free lifestyle wasn't necessarily in vogue at the time.

Some more well-known brands safe for non-meat eaters include Bud Light, Budweiser, Carlsberg, Corona, Dos Equis, Miller, Stella Artois, and Yuengling. Others, like Blue Moon and Heineken, produce vegan-friendly beers, but not all of their options are animal-free. Still, you won't have a problem finding something suitable when you go out. If you love one beer in particular, you can look it up on Barnivore, a handy tool that tells you whether an alcohol brand fits a vegan diet. The cool thing about the site is that it includes brands for beer, liquor, and wine, which is handy considering that wine is also not always vegan. We know it's very frustrating, but at least you'll always have your tried-and-true vegan recipes to comfort you.