The fishy ingredient in beer that bothers vegetarians
1–10 of 61 posts
Re: The fishy ingredient in beer that bothers vegetarians
#2In the UK there's a definite sentiment that a cloudy pint is a bad or off pint. I've seen a few breweries that specifically label their beer as "unfined" to make sure people know what to expect.
I do find the slight distaste of fish bladders in this article a bit baffling though.
Re: The fishy ingredient in beer that bothers vegetarians
#3Is this something unique to British-brewed beers? According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isinglass "Isinglass finings are widely used as a processing aid in the British brewing industry to accelerate the fining, or clarification, of beer". I cannot recall ever seeing anything like this on the ingredients lists of cans from other countries (e.g. French or Spanish beers), but maybe it doesn't count as an ingredients for some reason or maybe other countries use something worse to clear the beer.
Re: The fishy ingredient in beer that bothers vegetarians
#4The skewed view given in the article is hilarious.
"Nobody really wants to advertise that they filter their beer through dead fish"
Well that would be because they don't. Isinglass has a long history of use in beer and wine, and is a refined collagen. If you don't want animal products in beer, awesome, go for it. The slightly hysterical language is unnecessary though.
-- edit -- Another technique sometimes used is to fine with beef gelatin... Not sure how widespread this is commercially, but it seems relatively popular with homebrewers. Vegetarians do need to be careful with beer.
Re: The fishy ingredient in beer that bothers vegetarians
#5Is this something unique to British-brewed beers? According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isinglass "Isinglass finings are widely used as a processing aid in the British brewing industry to accelerate the fining, or clarification, of beer". I cannot recall ever seeing anything like this on the ingredients lists of cans from other countries (e.g. French or Spanish beers), but maybe it doesn't count as an ingredient…
It's used in champagne and all sorts of other products, but as it's used in processing and not considered an ingredient, it can probably be left off in a lot of places.
Re: The fishy ingredient in beer that bothers vegetarians
#6Is this something unique to British-brewed beers? According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isinglass "Isinglass finings are widely used as a processing aid in the British brewing industry to accelerate the fining, or clarification, of beer". I cannot recall ever seeing anything like this on the ingredients lists of cans from other countries (e.g. French or Spanish beers), but maybe it doesn't count as an ingredient…
Apparently in Germany it fell out of use – mechanical filtration systems are better and cheaper nowadays –, and is only used for some traditional wines (and possibly beers).
However, it is not considered an ingredient, and so does not need to be listed on the bottles.
Re: The fishy ingredient in beer that bothers vegetarians
#7The skewed view given in the article is hilarious. "Nobody really wants to advertise that they filter their beer through dead fish" Well that would be because they don't. Isinglass has a long history of use in beer and wine, and is a refined collagen. If you don't want animal products in beer, awesome, go for it. The slightly hysterical language is unnecessary though. -- edit -- Another technique sometimes used is to…
>Isinglass has a long history of use in beer and wine, and is a refined collagen.
A long history before modern manufacture of crappy commercial beers?
Re: The fishy ingredient in beer that bothers vegetarians
#8The skewed view given in the article is hilarious. "Nobody really wants to advertise that they filter their beer through dead fish" Well that would be because they don't. Isinglass has a long history of use in beer and wine, and is a refined collagen. If you don't want animal products in beer, awesome, go for it. The slightly hysterical language is unnecessary though. -- edit -- Another technique sometimes used is to…
> Isinglass has a long history of use in beer and wine, and is a refined collagen. A long history before modern manufacture of crappy commercial beers?
I believe that it's likely to be too expensive for use in most crappy commercial beers, which are likely to be heavily filtered instead.
Re: The fishy ingredient in beer that bothers vegetarians
#9Is this something unique to British-brewed beers? According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isinglass "Isinglass finings are widely used as a processing aid in the British brewing industry to accelerate the fining, or clarification, of beer". I cannot recall ever seeing anything like this on the ingredients lists of cans from other countries (e.g. French or Spanish beers), but maybe it doesn't count as an ingredient…
It's used in champagne and all sorts of other products, but as it's used in processing and not considered an ingredient, it can probably be left off in a lot of places.
And when I lived in Australia I noticed a bottle of pink champagne (I think it was veuve cliquot rose?) had a notice about fish parts on the side, which I've never seen in the UK. Labelling laws may be different in different places.
Re: The fishy ingredient in beer that bothers vegetarians
#10There was lots of new recently about Guinness moving away from isinglass so that should be vegan friendly soon too!
In wine they also use egg whites to filter it, my dad get some kind of allergic reaction from these too so we stick to vegan wines in our house.