You can buy Bentonite here:
http://www.healthleadsuk.com/main.ph...FSh4EgodzHSa3A
They advertise it as an enema but I'm pretty sure this is the stuff my Dad uses in his winery. I'll ask him next time I see him.
Ratty,
are you a brewer or something? Just wondering as beer is one of my favourite pastimes (drinking, very occasionally brewing it and in days gone by, writing about it.)
Any beer that I make - small volumes obviously - is bottle conditioned so you don't have to fine it. Obvioulsy, you have to be very careful about how you pour the stuff into a glass
Born to Lose - Live to Win!
I don't know about Ratty, but I was a brewer for about 30 years in a 'previous existence' (before I became a vegan).
Finings are added to fermented beer to make the yeast cells flocculate - i.e. stick together into large clumps. These large clumps settle many times more quickly than individual yeast cells, leaving clear beer. (The action is caused by electrical charges on the particles.) Clarification by settling does depend to a large extent on the variety of yeast used; some yeasts will settle fairly quickly at the end of fermentation without any fining at all, whereas others don't completely settle even after many months, and the deposit that does form is easily disturbed.
Of course, cloudy beer is no problem to some consumers; the yeast is in any case very nutritious - surplus yeast from breweries is used to make yeast extracts such as Marmite. The cloudiness is a desired feature of some wheat beers - you may see the word "Hefe" (yeast) in the name of some Geman beers.
However, there is an effect on the appearance and also the taste, and clear beers are more popular. Most German beers (at least for home consumption!) follow the old Bavarian "Reinheitsgebot" (Purity Law) and finings are not permitted. Traditionally, extended periods of cold storage (lagering) are used, allowing the yeast to settle. These days centrifuges are often used to speed things up. By spinning the beer at high speed it is subjected to an artificial gravity much higher than normal, and the distance through which the yeast has to settle is much less.
Isinglass (made from the swim bladder of various species of fish) is the common finings used in British 'Real Ale' - obviously not acceptable to vegans!
However, there are other finings widely used commercially in beer. The most used are made from seaweed , and can be highly effective, depending on the recipe, temperature and yeast strain. These are marketed as "Auxiliary Finings". Many British brewers use them just as that, to reduce the amount of yeast in suspension before centrifuging or adding isinglass. However, they can be used on their own, perhaps allowing an extra day or two.
A common problem is that the beer is too 'thick' with yeast when the finings (of any type) are added. Even if most of the yeast has already settled naturally, it gets stirred up when the finings are mixed in. The best way is to decant the beer into another container, leaving most of the sediment behind and to do the fining in this second container.
Before fining, though, the fermentation must have virtually stopped and the beer should be as cold as possible. This is the origin of the 'beer cellar'. Hygiene is also important, or certain types of bacteria (harmless to humans) or 'wild yeasts' can grow in the beer. Apart from affecting the flavour (they may make it sour or vinegary for example), they are reluctant to settle out and so are another cause of cloudiness. You should also avoid getting air into the beer after fermentation had finished.
Good vegan brewing!
Last edited by Mzee; Oct 13th, 2007 at 08:45 PM. Reason: typo
thanks for the info mzee!
i knew german beers were usually not fined, but i had no clue that hefe meant yeast!
must be why its my favorite!
the aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, dunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.
-henry miller
Wow, Mzee, thanks. Learned a lot. So what beers/ales do you recommend? Let me rephrase that. What beer do you think I might be able to buy in an American store or restaurant that you consider at least acceptable and wouldn't laugh at me knowing I drink it. Thanks.
I used to drink Bass (until I found out it's not vegan). I had heard that Grolsch (sp?) was OK but only if in a certain container yet not others. Why on earth would the kind of container dictate the use of a different process making one Grolsch vegan and another not-vegan?
Mahk... see Corum's post above - in his experience, because the bottle acts as secondary fermentation vessel, the yeast gets left at the bottom, but if you shake the bottle too much, the yeast gets mixed in with the beer.
Quite a lot of British Real Ales do use non-sturgeon-based finings now.
Corum's also been thinking of updating various lists that have been flying about now, especially with the number of microbreweries that have appeared recently.
Silent but deadly :p
http://www.btinternet.com/~p.g.h/vegan_beer_list.htm is a good place to start! Most of my favourite breweries - Fullers, Pitfield, Sam Smiths for a start, label their brews as being suitable for vegans - you'll definitely find Sam Smiths and Fullers beers in the US.
Born to Lose - Live to Win!
Mahk, I wouldn't laugh at your choice, whatever it was. Due perhaps to the lasting Bavarian influence, there is legislation about beer in a number of countries. In general beer is much more free of additives than many foods and drinks. I was once given a tour around a plant making shandy... The only beers I know of that are not vegan are those that use isinglass finings. In the US I would guess that these would be the ones trying to imitate British-style ales or stouts. Most lagers are OK. The last brewery I worked in got the British contract to brew Miller Genuine Draft under licence, and we never used isinglass in that. There was nothing wrong with the quality of that beer, but it was a bit low in hops for my taste.
As far as I know, the story of Grolsch is that a few years ago they had a fire in their Dutch brewery and they had to totally rebuild the place. They'd already gained export markets which they didn't want to lose. So I believe they did deals to allow their beer to be brewed in other countries. Perhaps they allowed these countries to use materials that were in common use for other beers in those countries, or perhaps they were just too busy with their own problems to worry. In the absence of an explanation from Grolsch themselves, I have to speculate.
In many countries the breweries don't have the equipment to use swing-top bottles, so I would guess that any Grolsch in these bottles would still be coming from Holland and therefore use the original recipe.
Hemlock, unfortunately the number of sturgeon in the world has declined dramatically due to over-exploitation, so most isinglass finings have for many years been made mostly from a number of tropical species. So it could be possible for a brewery to claim that "no sturgeon were killed to make our beer", but not to say anything about other fish!
Corum, I left the industry 7 years ago, so I'm a bit out of touch with more recent developments. I'm delighted to hear from you that these breweries are making vegan beer, but I would be surprised if all the beers made by them are now vegan.
Thanks, everyone!
I have just read the majority of this thread and OMFG I may well have died if I had drunk some of the beers. (Severe allergy to seafood) I didn't realise Carling wasn't vegan....I have been drinking that since I was vegan. So now it looks like I'm sticking to Carlsberg and Bud (Bud is vegan right?)
What about the cheaper wines that you can buy for £4.99 pretty much anywhere?
The taste of anything in my mouth for 5 seconds does not equate to the beauty and complexity of life.
Sainsburys seem to have a few more vegan wines including a couple of organic ones in stock, advice seems to depend on the store but it is on the bottles vegetarian/vegan.
I tend to stick to Co op as there is a small off licence by work and the nice staff in there have taken the time to sticker the shelves with blue spots for the vegan wine so i can nip in and get wine quickly they sell fairtrade too.
Im fed up of asking Waitrose for vegan wines - keep saying they will ask head office for a list and dont but then i should prob email myselves, tescos and asda dont really seem to understand about vegan wine when asked i was told at tescos any vegetarian wine is ok for vegans, same with marks and spencers but im doubtful about that!
I avoid the mainstream wines as just not sure which are ok or not? co op are cheap and cheerful so i stick to those, it really would not hurt wine producers to put veggie/vegan on the bottles or even on their websites but they just dont.
I contacted them (Jim beam) but got no reply.
Luxardo claim (have contacted them twice from different addresses) that all their drinks are suitable. We've got in our collection:
Sour Apple - not identical to sourz but nice
Orange Bitters
Limoncello
"Mr Flibble - forum corruptor of innocents!!" - Hemlock
Emzy - apparently any imported beers are vegan. Europe have different filtering standards of something, which makes them vegan. Anything brewed in the UK is most likely not vegan.
Wine - I go to the co-op. Sainsburys label, look for the organic and taste the difference range (they are the ones that are generally labelled).
Tesco - there is a long list online somewhere. The Ogio (white) is vegan, and nice too
That's not really correct.
German beers will be due to the German purity law on brewing. Some German beers are now brewed in the UK - and they insist on them being produced to their strict criteria (thankfully)
Everywhere else has to be investigated.
Stella - all not vegan as use fish finings, Australian beers too - XXXX, Castlemaine etc.
Budweiser is okay.
Guinness etc - all fish.
I Think, Therefore I Am A Vegan
Thank goodness Bud is ok! It's the only beer you can buy for a £1 a bottle at my local nightclub!
The taste of anything in my mouth for 5 seconds does not equate to the beauty and complexity of life.
You can pull off a list by searching their "Wine Direct" site on the term "vegan", thusly :
http://www.waitrosewine.com/Search/S...et=1&refined=0
However, finding these wines in their stores is another matter. There are about 2 that I keep on buying because I can remember where they are and that they are vegan. They have a special offer on one at the moment BTW, this one
http://www.waitrosewine.com/Search/S...et=1&refined=0
...which in their shops is £3.99 instead of the usual £4.99.
Hi guys,
If any of you are around the northwest on Saturday why not call in at the Northwest Vegan Festival at Sachas Hotel on Tib Street 11am until 6pm and visit our vegan wine stand?
Hope to see you there!
George
www.smithfieldwine.com
My son bought me a bottle of 'Dark Lord' from Morrisons at the weekend. It's the first beer I have ever had which is actually marked as vegan.
I'll be back for more!
From Sutton, Surrey, (or Greater London when they want to fleece me for the Olympics)
The independent Sam Smiths brewery beers, brewed in Tadcaster (not to be confused with Sam's cousin John Smiths :urgh!: in the same town but owned by Scottish Courage) are Vegan!
There are a couple of Sam Smiths pubs in London and the beer is £1.80 a pint!
Born to Lose - Live to Win!
I've become addicted to making my own ginger beer. It's ridiculously easy and delicious!
All you do is peel a bunch of ginger root and chop it into slivers. Then boil it until it's tender. Then measure an equal weight of sugar, add enough water to dissolve, and boil again. A dark syrup should form. Strain this out and put into a container. Then add it to seltzer water/club soda and voila! Homemade ginger beer!
BONUS: Save the slivered ginger pieces and dip into sugar to make crystallized ginger! Yum!
Haha, I love the BONUS (save some for me)!
what about vodka? i love me some vodka
mmmmmmm...cupcakes
Skye Vodka is vegan AND raw.
Absolute Vodka is vegan too. They had all flavors the Farm Sanctuary Halloween party last October.
I'm not really sure how any company can claim a distilled liquor, such as vodka, can be "raw". All distillation uses at least one stage of boiling a liquid, turning it to steam and then re-condensing it elsewhere to form the final product. Although potato was once common as the base material, most vodka now uses grains.
Mahk, I'm going by raw chef Juliano who said vodka sky is raw.
Here's a link to an interview where he says he uses raw vodka: http://www.rawguru.com/html/julianointerview.html
As a professional writer, though, I must say that is a crappy interview. I would have told him to elaborate on that answer.
I looked up more interviews and it was more of the same, no elaboration. Perhaps they were email interviews, which are pretty tacky.
According to veggiewines it is vegan
http://www.veggiewines.co.uk/popularbeers.htm#cider
Bells, Troegs, Otto’s, Legacy, East End, Victory, Stone, Voodoo, Lancaster, Middle Ages, Jolly Pumpkin, Sly Fox
Anchor, Stone, Sierra, Redhook, Rogue, Bear Republic, Great Divide, Lost Coast, Breckenridge, North Coast
So, does anyone know if these are vegan? I'm going to a beer festival the first weekend of March and would love to participate in the beer tastings!
“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” ~ Alcott
So I did some researching and I found this site. The following bolded ones are vegan. The other ones are not on the list.
Bells, Troegs, Otto’s, Legacy, East End, Victory, Stone, Voodoo, Lancaster, Middle Ages, Jolly Pumpkin, Sly Fox
Anchor, Stone, Sierra, Redhook, Rogue, Bear Republic, Great Divide, Lost Coast, Breckenridge, North Coast
“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” ~ Alcott
Sure it's been mentioned before but this site is quite good, sure it needs updating though - http://homepage.ntlworld.com/geraint...ian_beers.html
Ah, maybe that was the out of date site I was thinking of.
Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is being free to do anything. - Floyd Dell
I will be travelling by train to Scotland next month, my dads has saved some vouchers from a paper so i have in fact got a 1st class return for £35 now i have never had any luck getting vegan food on Virgin trains (apart from a linda mac sos sarnie once!) but they do offer complimentary drinks fairly often on the journey.
The alcohol options are heineken beer, gaymers cider and hardys wine (i cant see the wine being vegan) but are heineken or gaymers vegan?
If not i shall stick to water/juice!
Heineken is, not sure about gaymers, I think it's not.
Which Hardys wine is it?
I know Hardy's Nottage Hill Chardonnay is vegan!
I like Sandra, she keeps making me giggle. Daft little lady - Frosty
Heineken is vegan, I'd go for that!!
“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” ~ Alcott
Definitely look up the Hardys as a lot of it is okay.
Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is being free to do anything. - Floyd Dell
That is good news! That means a long slow comfortable screw against the wall with a Heinie chaser would be vegan too.
Translation: A screwdriver (OJ + vodka) made in a tall (long) glass with additional sloe gin, Southern Comfort, and in the style of a Harvey Wallbanger (a splash of Galliano) with a side drink (called a chaser) of Heineken.
oooh I love screwdrivers, but I've been told I make them too strong and then black out... but Heinekens are great for avoiding that
“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” ~ Alcott
Personally, I am extremely sceptical about the reliability of that site. Particularly as it lists Greene King as vegan. I asked them myself some years ago and was given the following reply (in the UK):
"Unfortunately for you, Greene King along with the rest of the Brewing Industry are reliant on the use of isinglass finings to help to clarify beers...."
Greene King is also listed as not vegan on Geraints site - so which do you trust? Geraints is several years out of date, but if it was not vegan then, it's unlikely to have changed.
The vegan connection site also lists "Carlsberg Tetley" and "Whitbread". Both of these are huge brewers with a lot of beer varieties including Bitters which are almost certainly not vegan. It's possible that the difference comes from them being brewed in the USA - but it isn't clear.
In general I would say that relying on out-of-date lists on websites is a bit like Russian Roulette. You can never be sure what you are going to get.
How good it is to be well-fed, healthy, and kind all at the same time. Henry J. Heimlich
The Hardys wine choice is Hardys Riddle Shiraz - cabernet sauvignon or chardonnay semillon.
Must see if they list it on their website if they have one?
I normally ignore the over priced drinks on trains but as its included in my ticket price id prob have a couple of drinks as its a 4 hr 20 journey
Noticed they offer a vegetarian toasted sarnie on the outward journey which use to be Linda Mac, but i shall take my own food supplies.
well, I've found several sites with beers listed. I usually cross reference, if its on multiple sites, I'll go for it if its around.
“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” ~ Alcott
A while back there was some confusion as to the veganness of Koppaberg Cider. After several emails, and lack of responses from myself and other members from the forum, I have come across this on the interweb...
Hi!
According to our consultant product developer our cider is suitable for vegetarians/vegans.
Best Regards
Fredrik Bjornehall
Customer Relations
konsumentkontakt@kopparbergs.se
I like football. And potatoes.
Mmmmm... Beer...
From: "Carlsberg Feedback" <Carlsberg.Feedback@carlsberg.co.uk>
To: ********************
Cc:
Subject: RE: Carlsberg.co.uk - Contact Us
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:24:24 +0100
Dear *****
Thank you for your email which we received via the Carlsberg website.
We can confirm that the following Carlsberg UK products are suitable for
vegans:
Carlsberg
Carlsberg Export
Carlsberg Elephant Beer
Carlsberg Edge
Carlsberg Special Brew
Holsten Pils
Holsten Export
Holsten Tuborg
Skol
Skol Special
Skol Super
Kind regards
The Lagers Team
"I don't want to live on this planet any more" - Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth
Hey guys, i was wondering about Kopparberg also... this site ( which has been updated 2 months ago) seems to think it is!
http://www.veggiewines.co.uk/index.htm
cheers! x
I'm going to try this recipe, it sounds great.
I'm also thinking of trying to "brew" some ginger beer too, but the above recipe sounds much more convenient and, presumably, "ginger ale" like.
I tried brewing some ginger beer once with yeast and everything. When I got to the step about leaving it somewhere warm like an airing cupboard I realised I don't have such a place so I left it in a sink full of warm water. After a few hours the bottle looked like it was going to burst (I had used a 3l pop bottle) so I very gingerly (ha!) removed it and left it on the draining board for a while. It actually tasted pretty good but was a bit gassy. I'll see if I can find the recipe.
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