Guinness Recipe Is Going Vegan After More Than 200 Years
by
Alexander Frane on Nov 11, 2015 in
Beer
Guinness, the centuries old Irish stout, is going vegan, and it’s doing so by losing the fish bladder.
Yes, Guinness has traces, albeit very faint traces, of isinglass, an aspect of an air-bladder that provides fish with buoyancy. The isinglass is a gelatinous substance that attracts and removes dead yeast and other particles in the beer, helping to clarify it. It is removed before bottling, but remaining traces of it mean that the beer cannot be labeled as vegetarian. This technique has been used by Guinness since at least the 19th century, but probably longer than that. The Smithsonian’s site, in response to the announcement, has documented how the process works.
Now, the brewery plans on switching to a vegan technique to filter its beer, having purchased a state of the art filtration system at its location in Dublin, Ireland. Guinness has been brewed at this location ever since its founder, Arthur Guinness, purchased it with a 9,000 year lease.
For more on this, check out what Stephen Colbert has to say about the switch:
Tags: Beer
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