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'

Go West: A weekend in Bristol

Before I get into this entry, I have come to the realisation that my posts are forever going to be some time apart. I read plenty of blogs where people are writing weekly and more, some even every day. As much as I would like to be able to do this, life at the minute just isn't letting me. And to be fair, I'm not sure if I have that much to say...

I do have a list of things I want to write about, so however often this blog gets added to, there is definitely some content ready and waiting! Anyway, let's get on with it!

About a month ago now, I went to visit one of my oldest friends who at the start of 2016 moved to Bristol from our childhood county of Norfolk. We spoke about me going down to visit a few times in the first couple of months of the year, although never really set a date. So when I had a couple off weeks off over Easter, I did not need much persuasion to hop (no pun intended) on a train at Waterloo and head out of the capital for a weekend in the West Country.

The weekend was fantastic, getting to catch up with my friend and see the beautiful and vibrant city of Bristol first-hand. Another friend of ours also came up from Southampton on the Saturday so we could really make a night of it! Good company, good food and pretty good weather all came together to make this weekend a highlight of the year so far.

But of course, I know what you are thinking, where is the beer? Well, that's also the question I asked my friend on the train down. Where can we get good beer? I have always known that some good beer comes into London from out West, but where exactly has never been something I've looked much into. But a few minutes on Google showed me that the city of Bristol has breweries coming out of its ears; Moor, Arbor, Wiper and True and Bristol Beer Factory to name a few. (I have to be honest, I had guessed the final one was based in the city!)

On our first evening, after a nice, hot chilli courtesy of my host (Note: Dr Burnorium's Hot Sauce Emporium is also based in Bristol) we wandered into the city to find us some beer! Our first stop was the city's Zerodegrees brew pub. I've never been to one of these before, and there is one in London. The pub itself was stunning, situated high up on top of Bristol's Christmas Steps, sitting out in the garden can give you a view across a large part of the city. We got ourselves a Pale Ale and started off our night. To be honest, the beer wasn't the main focus and was a bit forgettable. Nothing to write home about, but a nice venue!

Next, we headed back down the steps to the conveniently named Christmas Steps! A cosy little pub that was packed full, we shared a table with a few locals as we supped our pints... something on cask from Arbor I believe, and as we both agreed the next day, the best beer of the evening! As a warning, this blog is less about naming beers... memory and alcohol have let me down on that front!

We carried on our night and took in more pubs and plenty more beer... Small Bar, Brew House and The Beer Emporium all very different but all very good, a great atmosphere throughout the city centre. Beer was pouring fresh and plentiful and it was really nice to see some very dedicated craft beer outlets making themselves accessible to all... something I think a lot of London places could learn from!

And before we knew it, it was Saturday! Over breakfast, my friend raised the point that a colleague had told him about a place that does a brewery tour on a Saturday, and it was only a short walk from his house. Little did I know, the brewery in question was Moor! As we arrived at the brewery located in the middle of an industrial estate (filling a London-based beer drinker with a sense of home) for the midday tour, we also discovered that there was a food festival happening, involving some independent retailers across the city, and Moor's Brewery would be hosting some food stalls and a DJ all afternoon!

First on our list that afternoon was So'Hop, one of Moor's many pale ales. This golden one is hopped with varieties from the Southern hemisphere. To my delight, they had this on both cask and keg, so I could not resist a 1/3 pint of both. I have had versions of the same beer from different vessels in the past, but never side by side like this. The keg obviously offers the colder temperature and with it a more pronounced sense of the zest and grapefruit in the taste. The cask offered a much smoother, more balanced version, and I got a lot more of the grass and straw notes coming through with the citrus. I genuinely still can't pick a favourite!

The brewery tour was good fun and we topped it off by enjoying the sun and the wonderful Indian food from one of the vendors in the courtyard. More drinks in the afternoon, including both Nor'Hop and Union Hop, hopped-up favourites Hoppiness and Revival and the red Confidence. A great, beery afternoon in the sun left us ready for some food as we waited for our third member to arrive.

Once he did, we spent another evening in the city at various places, including The Apple, a cider barge where we sampled the 8.4% Old Bristolian Cider and a return to the Brew House for some beer from Wiper and True. Then the less said about our takeway late night pizza, the better...

On the train back to London on Sunday afternoon I contemplated my great weekend and how it was a breath of fresh air from London. It felt like Bristol, not just with its beer culture but as a city overall, has a much more relaxed attitude to how it functions, less competition and haughtiness and more of a community. Don't get me wrong, I love the London beer scene and community, but they can sometimes, accidentally or otherwise, alienate themselves a little. Plus everything is in walking distance in Bristol, which is also nice!

Signing off now, but with some good ideas for future post. The big emphasis Moor puts on its unfiltered beer has got the cogs turning about another vegan-inspired post, and I'm also trying to piece together something about subscription boxes and my mixed feelings towards them! So whatever happens, expect something else in the next couple of weeks!

For now, enjoy the sun and speak soon!

This post was written to the sound of: Dark Necessities by the Red Hot Chili Peppers

Back at the Tap End

Hello! I think this is probably the longest I have been without blogging since I started this page about a year ago.

The past 6 or 7 months have been a bit crazy and really just flown by! My job has changed slightly, we've moved flat again (sadly to possibly the only area of Greater London without any breweries or decent pubs), Christmas, mine and my girlfriend's birthdays have happened, and the clocks have gone both backwards and forwards in the space between this post and my last.

We also took an amazing trip to Thailand back in January. And, would you believe it, stumbled upon a craft brewery! 

 It was a Chalawan Pale Ale from Full Moon Brewworks, enjoyed at Pint Factory in Phuket. It was a real find in the city and great to see how craft is present across the globe! The bar itself had a small but nice selection of American and British craft beer, along with a couple from Thai breweries. 

The beer scene in London in these few months has also gone from strength to strength, with more new breweries spouting and events happening across the city. My social media barely goes a day without someone announcing a tap takeover, meet the brewer or beer festival, and I think the London and UK beer scene is all the better for it.

I'm keeping this post short as I dip back into the mash tun of blogging, but expect to see over the next couple of weeks a look back at my recent beery trip to Bristol and something on vegan breweries, which I am in the process of writing.

That's all for now, but if you're looking for something a bit longer I'd suggest taking a look at Matt Curtis' recent articles on Total Ales about the modern beer drinker and on Good Beer Hunting about the London beer scene, accompanied by some great photos.

Liquid Culture - Modern British Beer's Ven Diagram

And the Rest Will Follow - The Evolution of London's Beer Culture

Until next time, happy drinking!

Written to the sound of: Bye Bye Bye by Scott Bradlee's Post Modern Jukebox

Something Smells Fishy: The Woes of the Vege and Vegan Drinkers

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

I am a man. I drink beer. I also like to talk about it.

However, I realised recently that everybody does. Apparently beer and its taste, look, history and innovation is just not as interesting for some people. Well, most people. Who'd have thought it?

I understand that for many, a beer is a pint of run-of-the-mill lager over lunch, a crate of the same at house party or a few jars of ale in a pub on a Friday night. And that's fine. I mean, it really is. Even the run-of-the-mill lager drinkers, unlike a lot of the die-hard beer connoisseurs I can appreciate the cheeky pints of big brewery lager you guzzle down. These bar top standards have their time and place and most importantly aren't (in general) going to leave a gaping 568ml's worth of space in your wallet.

  However, I can't deny the fact that over the past about 3 years, the ales, the craft beers and the speciality brews of our sceptred isle and beyond have tempted me and drawn me into their sweet beery embrace. I don't know if it's from being surrounded by some great bars and breweries throughout my time living in Kent, working in bars and hearing "I'll have a Fosters please" countless times every evening or just a wish to try something new as my snakebite-stained uni years fade behind me, but regardless it is something I have not once regretted. (I realise I'm almost making beer drinking sound like some kind of life-changing force... if only.)

But as I said, not everyone cares. Why should they? Even if they like the stuff I am asking them to try, what's so special that we need to start a twenty minute conversation on the subtle aromas of citrus, the type of rare hops used and the trousers that the brewer wore on the day he first casked it? The most obvious answer is, well, nothing.

Apart from it does really interest me! So rather than bore my friends, colleagues and anyone in the pub who will listen with it, I thought I'd stick my musings, reviews and other beer-related ramblings on the internet. Combining my love of all things beer and my ability to write somewhat interestingly (hey, if I can't say this after a BA nad MA in English, what other use are they?) I decided that I might as well, after years of reading some truly great blogs of friends and others from all over the interweb, I decided to make my own. So here it is, my Beer Blog!

Picture credit: alternativeberlin.com

I get to put my thoughts on what I'm drinking into written word. I get to use the phrase 'I'm working' when drinking beer at home. And maybe, I will get to entertain and even educate others on the wonders of craft, independent and small-batch beer. 

Maybe you'll even go out and try the beer I review. Or maybe you'll tell your friend. Or maybe, just maybe, you'll order a pint of something different on the next lager-lunch. 

And that can only ever be a good thing, right?

This post was written listening to: Blue Swede – Hooked on a Feeling