Vegan and Vegetarian Beer - Round Two

Hi there... it's been a while! A really, really long while.

I've been away from the blogging for pretty much a year now, to my shame. It's been a funny old three-hundred-and-sixty-five days to be honest, and one that has seen quite a few changes for me personally. But I won't go into those details here, mainly because I actually want you to keep reading!

Almost two years ago, I posted a blog about the woes of being a vegetarian or vegan beer drinker. In our current climate, so many people are starting to take into consideration what it means to move away from some/all animal products. Of course, moral and ethical concerns for animal welfare are still the biggest priority when it comes to moving away from a meat-based diet, and rightly so, but more and more people are turning to veganism and vegetarianism for environmental, agricultural and health reasons. As a vegetarian living in London, I am in a privileged position to be able to be able to eat as well as (I would argue better than) my meat-eating friends when we go out for dinner. Obviously at home, the options are endless! And although I know not everyone across the UK is in such a nice position, when visiting friends in places including Southampton, Bristol, Leeds and back home in Norwich, the options for someone choosing not to eat animal products are constantly improving.

But, I hear you cry, what about my beer? In my last post, I spoke of how difficult it was to know if your beer is vegetarian or vegan-friendly, and that has not completely changed. But it is definitely getting better. It is becoming more and more important amongst craft brewers (big and small) to ensure that they are fair and ethical, in fact I would say that is one of the many factors that sits in the 'what is craft?' discussion. And for many brewers it also means that, where possible, their beer is suitable to be drunk by all.

Note: For anyone not wanting to revisit the old post, the reason a lot of traditional cask or craft beer wasn't vegan was due to isinglass being used in the filtration process.)

Last time I wrote on this topic, I made myself a list of the breweries that I knew off the top of my head were vegan-friendly. Even then, I only knew these due to having attended a vege food festival, a vegan beer festival and through my own experiences at work. At the time, that list was:

Clarkshaws, Brixton
Pitfield's Brewery, Essex
Brixton Brewery, Brixton
Moor Beer Company, Bristol
Freedom, Staffordshire
Moncada, Notting Hill

As you can see, not exactly an extensive list by any means. They might do vegan beer, and do it well, but were clearly at the time amongst the minority, no matter good their beer was or how loud they shouted.

But in the words of Nobel prize laureate Bob Dylan, the times they are a changin'...

Since I wrote my first post, Brewdog announced they were registered with the Vegan Society, and everything they make (apart from a few beers that contain honey or milk) are all cruelty free. There was still some outcry over their use of taxidermy roadkill, but apart from that, top marks! Having the leading craft brewer in the UK step up to the mark in that way was a pretty big move. More recently, northern powerhouse Magic Rock announced they were now registered as vegan, again with the exception of any beer that contains non-vegan ingredients. London's Beavertown and Manchester's Marble Brewery are also on this growing list.

In order to achieve this, breweries are moving away from traditional methods of filtration using isinglass via innovations in the modern brewing process. A centrifuge is the most common filtering method in the modern process, essentially 'spinning' the beer at high speed to remove anything that could negatively impact the beer, whilst retaining the flavour and taste profiles that a traditional filtering might strip away. A centrifuge negates the need for vegan-unfriendly isinglass whilst still allowing a brewery to pre-determine the 'haze' level of the beer.

This is great for anyone who drinks mainly kegged or canned beer, along with most bottles, particularly those from any brewery registered as vegan. Cask, however, is still a different story. There is still a myth around cask beer that a hazy beer is bad or not ready to drink, making breweries ask themselves the question whether to traditionally filter. Filtering might leave a nice clear pint and avoid any drawn out debate over quality, which gives everyone an easy life. On the other hand, not filtering will, in the best cases, result in repeated reassurances that 'it's actually meant to look like that', and in a worst cases, could negatively impact the brewery's and the pub's reputations. And with 2016's big debate on the long term sustainability of cask beer still fresh in the mind, with its tight margins and unpredictable quality at the point of serve, most brewer's just can't afford that. Even Magic Rock concede that 'to satisfy local preference for super clarity', their cask beer has to be their vegan-exception.

Overall, it is still absolutely brilliant that so many players in the craft beer world are embracing the importance of vegan beer. After all, if craft beer is the community that we all want to believe it is, it should doubtlessly make efforts to be inclusive. There is still still a way to go and some myths to extinguish, but to all the work so far, we should be thankful!

So let's raise a (vegan) beer and say, 'Yes please!'

This blog post has been written to the sound of: Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin'