Vegan Alcohol Ultimate Guide (2024)

Why aren't some beers, wines and co*cktails vegan?

Beer, wine and cider can be non-vegan due to the products used in the filtration process, such as isinglass, gelatine and casein. Additionally, some non-vegan flavourings such as honey may be added, and some co*cktails rely on milk and eggs. More unusually, some drinks use castoreum, a musky flavouring derived from the castor sacs (next to the anal glands) of dead beavers. Drink anyone?

What is isinglass? Isinglass is obtained from the dried swim bladder of fish. Originally, it was taken from sturgeon, then cod, and more recently from tropical fish. Isinglass is a form of collagen which has previously been used to produce fruit jellies, before the commercialisation of gelatin (boiled bones). Now it is used for the filtration and fining of some alcoholic drinks, to produce a less-cloudy looking finish and to speed up the clarification process.

Some producers may also use egg whites, known as albumin, or chitin, made from the shells of crustaceans, to filter their alcoholic drinks instead of isinglass. Some modern craft beers also use lactose, honey and pretty much anything you could think of to create new flavours. The most infamous of these has to be co*ck-ale; popular in the 17th and 18th centuries, this beer had an entire chicken carcass added during the brewing process.

What are the vegan alternatives?

Beer

Cask ale: Isinglass is most commonly used in cask ale as it accelerates the fining and clarification process during production. This essentially means it causes the yeast in beer to settle to the bottom of the cask quicker. Fining is an entirely optional process as if the beer is left undisturbed, the clarification process will occur naturally. In fact, many modern brewers boast of greater flavours and mouth-feel being achieved with their natural hazy and unfined beers.

Most German beer has been vegan since the 16th century due to the German Beer Purity Law (or the Reinheitsgebot) which limits the ingredients to water, barley, malt, yeast and hops. This means there’s no icky fish swim bladders in sight! So, if you’re drinking traditional German beer (i.e. with no added flavourings) it is almost certainly vegan. Just take care as some modern brands no longer follow the law, as it is now just a best practice guideline.

Other beer: You’re more likely to find vegan non-cask beer, as beers which are intended for kegs, bottles and cans are often pasteurised or filtered without isinglass as the yeast settles to the bottom of storage tanks naturally. Some producers will still use isinglass to speed up the fining process, but increasingly more non-cask beers are vegan.

Barnivore: The beer drinkers’ best friend. This is an amazing online resource, which lists over 44,000 different vegan-friendly alcoholic drinks. The directory is crowdsourced, meaning vegans all over the world contact producers to ask if a drink is vegan and post the response on Barnivore. It’s so easy to search for vegan drinks, in the time it takes to pour a pint.

There are loads of vegan beers, where do we even begin! Here are some of our favourite widely available vegan beers. But we really would recommend checking out your local craft breweries too!

Top tip: If you’re at a bar with no signal and need to order in a hurry, avoid hand pump beers as these are cask and therefore often non-vegan. Opt for bottles, cans and kegs (metal taps) instead. See below for some exciting exceptions to the cask ale rule.

Wine

Wine is also sometimes not vegan due to the fining process. As with beer, wine will naturally go through the fining process and achieve the same clear finish. But producers sometimes speed up the process with fining agents, like albumin which is derived from egg whites. Although these agents are removed from the final product, there will still be traces absorbed into the wine.

Tesco, Co-op, Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s all label which of their own-brand wines are vegan. M&S have a particularly wide range – over 70 vegan wines.

Cider

Spirits and Liqueurs

Fortunately for all you G&T lovers, nearly every type of spirit and liqueur — vodka, gin, whisky, rum etc — is vegan! This comes down to the production process. Spirits are distilled by taking a grain or sugar and fermenting it to make alcohol. It is then distilled to remove excess water and create a much stronger drink. So no fining agent needed!

As with the other types of alcohol, some producers will add in flavourings such as honey (especially to bourbon and whisky) and this is usually included on the label. Some other liqueur, like Bailey’s Irish Cream Liqueur, has of course got milk in. Which leads me nicely into our first vegan liqueur, Baileys Almande!

co*cktails