FISH IN MY PINT?!?!?

Not if you don't know

(Is it normal?) Yes, most beers are treated with fish baldder finings, it coagulates the yeast and protein particles and forces them to sink to the bottom of the barrel, resulting in clear beer. You don't normally get to drink this residue though :)

That's right, some finings are made from the swim bladders of fish, but I think there are some vegan finings available but I don't know which beers use them.

In message , Simon Mason writes

A very small selection I'm afraid ;( The Vegetarian Society web site should have a list.

My beer supplier claims all Belgian beers are vegetarian, pretty surprising for a country that seems not to understand the concept! Though I'd bet some enterprising brewer is selling a fermented meat beer, probably to accompany the various mustard beers ;)

Surprisingly this is not easy information to track down, unless someone here knows better. We need care on the terms vegetarian or vegan too. I wonder why some beers are show as 'vegetarian' as I thought the fish was the only animal product used, so if that is not there the beer ought to be vegan.

Alas from what data I can find, the collators are uneducated in beer matters and would recommend a fizzy lager from a chemical factory (although vegan) rather than quality beer from a micro.

Zerodegrees beers spring to mind as vegan. And they are excellent.

Thumbing through GBG will show more.

-- David Replace diesel with steam to reply.

Vegie/vegan friends of mine use

Cheers Toby

--o > (Is it normal?)

--o

IIRC, Sam Smiths use seaweed based finings (Agar) for all their brews, thus are Veggy friendly. The use of Isinglass finings (swim bladder) has always been a good way to wind herbivores up - I have heard of one who ended up with some marital discord after a brewery tour when the guide explained something he kept secret from his wife...

To everyone who has contributed to my question, thank you! I just had visions of fish heads floating around in casks, that was all :)

It makes sense now, thanks again.

Simon

Isinglass is made from the swim bladders of fish.

I was told by people who should know (i.e. finings manufacturers) that real fishy finings are only used by very few breweries these days (muttering something about the lack of cod in the North Sea).

I'd be much more inclined to worry about other beers who don't see fit to include such information on their bottles.

In message , David Thornhill writes

...indeed we do because...

...vegetarians don't eat flesh, be it animal, *fish* or even insect, swim bladders are flesh...

...vegans also avoid animal products (dairy, eggs, leather etc.)

Vegetarian beers happen to be vegan in all cases I've ever seen, its only the fish bladder causing a problem for vegetarians.

Beer drinkers don't drink finings. What vegetarians are in the habit of doing is another thing...

Fact? I ask because a few years ago, someone said the same of Donningtons. So I rang Claude Arkell who told me it was rubbish and that anything other than Isinglas is basically as waste of time.

More finings here:

In message , Brett... writes

If there's ever enough customer pressure brewers will quickly find ways to improve the performance of veggie friendly alternatives up to the level of isinglass. There just doesn't seem to be much customer pressure ;(

I have to wonder if, some time in the future, the same thing that happened to cheese making happens: cheese makers fought long and hard to denigrate the use of veggie friendly enzymes over rennet. Now substantial numbers of them claim the enzyme makes better cheese.

Some have used seaweed, but it's crap.

Most of them use seaweed (irish moss, not Irish, not moss, but never mind) during the boiling phase of brewing as a protein coagulate. This is in addition to the use of isinglas (fish bladder product) in the barreling phase. The two are *not* interchangeable.

FAO Paul Shirley, I understand there are several brewers now using chemical(?) alternatives to isinglas, but don't ask me who they are. Perhaps if you write to your favourite brewers they may be able to advise, or at least be made aware that isinglas causes problems for vegetarians.

In message , KeithS writes

There is always the fiction that no trace of isinglass remains in the beer to fall back on... not a totally convincing fiction which sort of misses the point anyway but brewers seem fond of trotting it out.

What's needed is a viable alternative suitable for industrial scale brewing, probably with a serious cost incentive thrown in.

Though some fundamentalist would invariably start campaigning to keep fish in beer ;)

At the Kingston Beer Festival this year, I saw them adding finings to some of the beers during one of the sessions. They poured some beer into a plastic container, then added the contents of a small plastic bottle into it, stirred it into the beer then poured the contents back into the barrel with a funnel into the hole at the top. I've never seen it done elsewhere.

David

Fair enough, there's likely to be some minute trace.

But then I suppose it matches the fiction that humans can survive without any trace of animal derived protein in their diets.

You see there are certain proteins that are required that can only be derived from animals and we can't make them.