Hello and welcome back, it's been a while!
So once again I feel like opening with an apology, predominantly to myself, about my lack of blog writing over the past couple of months. Again. I have been busy, but also in this time I've been struggling to actually think of some genuinely interesting topics, both for readers and for myself.
It's not even like I haven't been doing anything in this time though... I've been once again to the London Brewers Market in Shoreditch, been to a few Meet the Brewer events at We Brought Beer in Balham and spent a brilliant day enjoying the beery delights of Gipsy Hill. Two taprooms, a brewery bar and a pub with an excellent craft beer range just outside my door is never going to get old! But I have recognised recently that a lot of my blogs, if not all of them, have essentially been only descriptions of my own comings and goings. Hopefully some people find these interesting, but there is only so much I can write about pubs I went to and beers I have drank before the posts are just variations on a theme. I will always enjoy writing about these things, and I am sure there will be more posts about them in the future, but I also want to try and find some new and interesting topics to discuss. There are some great beer blogs out there so this could take some doing to get something genuinely original! But I'll give it a go...
The Problem
Recently, I have been taking a lot more note of not only what goes into the beer I drink, but also how it is made. Podcasts, articles and visits to breweries all tickle my curiosity at what is a really intricate science and I take great pleasure in actually knowing what a mash tun is, or what fermentation means, or why you would want to dry-hop something. But I have also come to realise that a lot of the been I drink, or at least used to drink, is not vegetarian friendly. A year ago, this wouldn't have made a difference to how I feel about beer or how I drink it.
But just over a year ago, I decided to take the plunge and become a vegetarian. I'd been essentially living as a vege for some time before this, as my girlfriend was a vegetarian and about eighteen months ago became a vegan. I really only ate meat at work or when at a restaurant, and decided it was time to actually engage my moral compass and stop eating meat.
I know, big whoop right? Today, being vegetarian is not difficult, I am not going to kid myself otherwise. Veganism on the other hand IS harder, as I experience daily living with my girlfriend. Alternatives are often harder to find, generally a bit more expensive and most frustratingly of all, vegans are barely catered for in most restaurants, small or large. It is not surprising when having dinner out to see the only vegan option on a menu being a very sad and uninspiring-looking salad, or having to pick a mixture of sides instead of a main. That's not to say there aren't people out there who do cater excellently for vegans, and we have found some great places, but more often than not it is a struggle, especially when visiting a new area or going on holiday.
I fully recognise that the cruelty inherent in the meat business can and does translate into the trade in milk, eggs and obviously leather too, but like many vegetarians I think veganism is a step I currently don't feel able to take yet. Yes, I've made the odd cock-up since starting (accidentally eating a meat pizza in a drunken new year party haze, buying pick'n'mix at the cinema) but generally it has not been much of a challenge. I don't even really miss meat, and apart from the odd craving for an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet or battered cod from the chippy, I am perfectly happy. I imagine that someday I will become a vegan (even our dog is almost vegan), but that's not really the point of this article. I've gone rather off-topic...
So to come back to my main point; beer. What a lot of people don't realise is that a lot of the beer they drink isn't vegetarian. They also probably don't care, as much of the time will be quaffing down their pint alongside a burger, steak or chicken madras. But for the veges and vegans out there, particularly those who love beer, this is an issue.
The Facts
This is where my vegetarianism fell down without me even knowing it. Particularly in relation to cask beer. As a lot of people know, beer if filtered and fined at two or three points in the production process. One of these processes uses a substance called is Isinglass. And although it sounds like a castle in Middle Earth, it is in fact a protein made from the swim bladders of certain tropical fish. Mmm, tasty!
It is added to cask-conditioned and often bottle-conditioned beer in order to reduce the yeasty haze that a lot of traditional ale drinkers would complain about. "It looks off", "it hasn't settled" and "it must be the bottom of the barrel" are all common complaints when served a hazy beer. Traditionally, cloudy beer meant infected beer, and this has stuck with the product to this day, even though it is generally not true any longer. But, in order for these complaints to be avoided, Isinglass is added to bind to the yeast particles, dropping them to the bottom during stillaging and resulting in a bright, clear pint at the bar.
Yes, excess yeast can cause changes to a beer's flavour as well, but as Adnams Head Brewer Fergus Fitzgerald says, it is the drinker's expectations that are the main reason for the fining. And for a brewery such as Adnams, you can kind of understand why. It would be hard to change the perceptions of every Adnams drinker in every pub across the country, who at the end of the day couldn't really care less if it was filtered through fish guts or a cow hide. Maybe they'd care if it was filtered through Cecil the lion's pelt though (look at me, doing satire!) Beer will always eventually clear as the yeast drops to the bottle of the barrel, tank or bottle, so Isinglass merely speeds this up. But a slow-clearing beer is going to take up space in pub cellars and add time to the already 3-day long stillaging process.
I was actually at a Cellar and Cask Beer qualification session recently via work and I brought up the question of are the brewery's beers vege friendly? I won't go into detail on who the brewery are who ran that session, but the answer was a very clear no. Again, fine; this would be too difficult to change for a national brewer and distributor. But the almost more pressing issue here is that it is essentially hidden. Very few pump clips are going to tell you if your beer is vegetarian, and at the end of the day there are probably a lot of vegetarians still sitting drinking their beers with no understanding of the facts. I should know, as until recently I too was doing it too.
The Solution
Sadly, there isn't much of an alternative around at the moment. Gelatin has been suggested, but again doesn't really change anything for the vegans and veges Simply leaving the beer unfiltered or unfined is also becoming more common. This might work for smaller breweries whose customers are more likely to read their information and understand the reason for a cloudy beer, but will struggle to be rolled out on a large scale.
The best option for anyone worried about what they are drinking is to do their research. It's become the norm to trawl through menus or Google after each new suggestion of a restaurant or food stuff is suggested as the next meal for anyone living a meat-free diet, even more so for Vegans, so this won't come as a big shock. As a general rule of thumb, cask beer is a no, keg beer is a yes. This is because keg beers are usually pasteurised instead of being fined. Although Vegans, it might sound obvious but be aware of anything with 'Milk' or 'Cream' in the name. Canned beers are generally fine, whereas bottled beers are dependent on where they are conditioned - brewery-conditioned is usually fine, bottle-conditioned may or may not be (easy, right?) However, these are just guidelines; some keg beers are fined before being kegged, while some bottled-conditioned beers are left cloudy and are therefore okay. Essentially, it's a bit of a minefield. There are some breweries out there who do make specifically vegan and vege-friendly products, and others who only make vegan beers, but it all comes down to research.
Hopefully with time, someone out there will come up with a new way of fining that is both vege-friendly for the drinkers and cost-effective for the brewers. In these days of experimental brewing and meat-free alternatives to just about any animal products, it doesn't take much of an imagination stretch to see it happening. I bet there are already people working on it now! I suppose we will just have to wait and see.
For now, just keep your eyes open and as always, happy drinking!
Cheers.
This blog post has been written to the sound of: Public Service Broadcasting – Theme from PSB
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