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The fishy ingredient in beer that bothers vegetarians

bbc.co.uk

51–60 of 61 posts

Re: The fishy ingredient in beer that bothers vegetarians

#51

I hope they are OK with dead animals being used to fuel their cars, made into plastics to pack their stuff, producing the electricity to power their house and all the stuff in it. Never heard people being offended by killing plants for food, cutting trees grinding them into paper or just to have it as a decoration for holidays. I do agree, if it's only for aesthetics we could actually leave it out and not kill someth…

People making no effort to be good are ok. But people who are trying to be good but are less than perfect have giant targets on their backs for some reason.

Re: The fishy ingredient in beer that bothers vegetarians

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First of all it's free from fish bladders, because you're not consuming that. That fish might have been killed to end up on the plate of non-vegans. So the fish was already killed for other reasons in the first place. And following this thought, then vegans can go and wear clothes made out of skin. Cows, pigs, sheep aren't killed for their skin in the first place. It's just a byproduct that is used. The hypocrisy lie…

It seems you're reading a different article, since I see nobody "going mental" on the one posted, hence there's no point in discussing further.

It's not just this article. This was triggered way back where vegetarians started to boycott Guinness.

We used this technique for quite a while now and people are shocked.

What about this part: Brewery owner Tim Bosworth, a long-term vegetarian who went vegan two years ago, said he was shocked when he first learned about the ingredient.

Really? A brewery owner finds out how he makes clear beer?

And he is shocked? Just imagine how shocked he will be when he finds out how much damage he makes to the environment by brewing beer.

And this: "It's kind of disgusting to think about, even to people who eat meat, and it's something that's not talked about," he said.

It is not. I for one, think if you kill an animal you might as well utilize all of it. Skin for clothing, meat for eating, bones for tools and jewelry, swim bladder for beer cleaning. That animal shouldn't die for nothing.

But for the third time. I agree to get rid of the fish bladder, because we have substitutes for it, which might be even better. But let's not grab one particular problem with the whole brewing industry and the rising alcohol consumption issue.

I might be wrong, maybe starting the change through our beer will lead us to a balanced natural lifestyle.

Re: The fishy ingredient in beer that bothers vegetarians

#53
post #51

I hope they are OK with dead animals being used to fuel their cars, made into plastics to pack their stuff, producing the electricity to power their house and all the stuff in it. Never heard people being offended by killing plants for food, cutting trees grinding them into paper or just to have it as a decoration for holidays. I do agree, if it's only for aesthetics we could actually leave it out and not kill someth…

People making no effort to be good are ok. But people who are trying to be good but are less than perfect have giant targets on their backs for some reason.

Making no effort is not OK. Making effort with little to no insight to things wont help either.

For example that fish bladder comes from fish. That fish was probably killed for it's meat. So even if you're not using fish bladder in the beer clearing procedure, that fish will be killed and that part thrown away. Than you use some kind of substitute which has to be grown, or manufactured. That needs land, energy etc...

In short you will have a bigger impact on the environment, because the fish will be killed anyway. And now you have to produce extra filtering agents for the beer, because you will lose customers who like clear beer.

And all of this for a couple of vegan beer drinkers.

Well done.

Re: The fishy ingredient in beer that bothers vegetarians

#54
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I said "a handful of breweries" to you, how many would you take that to mean? Words like these can skew meaning greatly, and are inaccurate. I'm criticising because it wouldn't take much effort to indicate with more skill exactly what the state of things is. It's a careless use of words, in my opinion, which I don't expect from a writer of a factual news article. I'd be ok with it in casual usage. It's also a sham…

Perhaps your claim of fact is being ignored due to its highly dubious nature. That's a list of beers, not of brewers, and even on the first page we see multiple products from a single brewery in a few different cases. The list also appears to be somewhere between 126 and 150 items in length, unless they're making that annoying pagination mistake where you don't give any clue to the true length. So what you've cited i…

It's why I said that it's not a full list. It's only 'approved' beers. There's loads that I could name off the top of my head not in that list.

This is a better list, which puts the number at closer to 50% if you use the filter 'England' and then toggle between Vegan and Everything: http://www.barnivore.com/beer?vfilter=All

Re: The fishy ingredient in beer that bothers vegetarians

#55
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Vegetarians do need to be careful with beer. Vegetarians may wish to be careful with beer. Some vegetarians aren't ideological/religious about it, and some that are draw lines in different places.

Quite right, people are vegetarian for a variety of reasons, and draw the line in different place! It's worth noting that good results can be achieved with proper temperature control and irish moss, isinglass is not always needed. Also many/most keg beers are filtered rather than fined.

Vegans, on the other hand, draw a very simple line, with very simple (and powerful) rationale.

Re: The fishy ingredient in beer that bothers vegetarians

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems you're reading a different article, since I see nobody "going mental" on the one posted, hence there's no point in discussing further.

It's not just this article. This was triggered way back where vegetarians started to boycott Guinness. We used this technique for quite a while now and people are shocked. What about this part: Brewery owner Tim Bosworth, a long-term vegetarian who went vegan two years ago, said he was shocked when he first learned about the ingredient. Really? A brewery owner finds out how he makes clear beer? And he is shocked? Jus…

Really? A brewery owner finds out how he makes clear beer?

Nobody said he firstly learned about it after becoming a brewery owner.

The rest of your points are just disagreements, which are certainly valid, but don't point to hypocrisy or "people going mental".

Re: The fishy ingredient in beer that bothers vegetarians

#57
post #45
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of the language in the article is a bit strange: "Its stance means Marble is one of a handful of breweries to be approved by the Vegetarian Society, something that's earned it a loyal following." 'Handful' is completely meaningless in this context. How can a brewery fit into a hand? The actual list is also quite long and by no means exhaustive: http://www.vegsocapproved.com/ProductCategory/Details/126?pa... Espe…

You link to a list of all the approved beers, not the approved breweries. Each brewery is responsible for multiple beers.

There are a lots and lots of beers that are vegan friendly as evidenced by this much better list: http://www.barnivore.com/beer?vfilter=All

I think people reading this article will come away with a view that only 5 or 6 breweries in the UK are producing vegan friendly beer, and that' clearly not the case. Lots of breweries are doing it. It's probably fairer to say 1 in 2 beers are vegan friendly

Re: The fishy ingredient in beer that bothers vegetarians

#58
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite right, people are vegetarian for a variety of reasons, and draw the line in different place! It's worth noting that good results can be achieved with proper temperature control and irish moss, isinglass is not always needed. Also many/most keg beers are filtered rather than fined.

Vegans, on the other hand, draw a very simple line, with very simple (and powerful) rationale.

Yes, Vegans have the moral highground and none of their dietary choices are detrimental to cute little animals.

Re: The fishy ingredient in beer that bothers vegetarians

#59
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite right, people are vegetarian for a variety of reasons, and draw the line in different place! It's worth noting that good results can be achieved with proper temperature control and irish moss, isinglass is not always needed. Also many/most keg beers are filtered rather than fined.

Vegans, on the other hand, draw a very simple line, with very simple (and powerful) rationale.

Well, maybe simple, but their rationale is nowhere near powerful in a lot of people's minds.
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