(NEWSER) – After pressure from beer-chugging vegans who were behind a long-running campaign and several online petitions, Guinness has elected to change its 256-year-old recipe and remove isinglass—a gelatinous byproduct of fish bladders that helps filter yeast particles—from its brewing process, reports CNN Money. Guinness now says it will use a new filtration plant to be installed at its flagship brewery in Ireland at some point in 2016, reports the Independent, while it doesn’t yet plan to change its other breweries scattered across 49 countries.
The company had previously responded to requests to remove isinglass by saying it provides a “very effective means of clarification,” and as recently as January said in a company email to Barnivore, which tracks animal ingredients in adult beverages, that it had yet to find a replacement “as effective and as environmentally friendly.” No word yet on what it’s come up with. Parent company Diageo has said that competition from microbreweries flattened its sales in 2015. Meanwhile, many popular beers, including Anheuser-Busch, Heineken, and Miller, are deemed vegan-friendly by Barnivore. (Guinness lovers may want to check out one of Starbucks’ latest latte )
Sounds like they decided it was economically, ethically, or otherwise in their best interest, including taking into account quality, to make a change based on feedback from what they consider a significant portion of their customers. I wish all corporations were as responsive.
Doesn’t bother me any. I have had more than a few people ask me if my beer is vegan, including two of my business partners wives. Since I use Biofine Clear I am able to tell them, yes, it is.
Vegan doesn’t bother me…it’s the sensationalism of isinglass. Headlines brewery uses fish guts in brewing…most people don’t understand what really is going on in the process.
I always wonder how humans, especially before science isolated such substances and found their value. "My beer is hazy, what will help? Dandelions? Apples? Nope that didn’t work? How about the guts of a particular fish? "
Cheese is thought to have been created when trackers would store milk in a calves stomach for transport. There are veggie alternatives, and maybe synthesized (?), but rennet still comes from cows.
I felt the same way about the beaver anal gland story a couple years ago. In the search for flavor enhancers in various food products, how did the idea of sampling beaver arse ever cross somebody’s mind ? ;D
EDIT - I’m sure it goes back to some old hunting/trapping story. Bizarre nonetheless.
Another fining agent is PVPP, a plastic. Why don’t people get in a tizzy about that? It is RHG compliant, as it has been shown that no PVPP end up in the finished beer.
I’m with Pete 100% on the whole, it’s awesome that a corporation is being responsive to it’s audience and addressing ethical concerns but those fish guts headlines were ridiculous. While I’m not vegan I rarely eat meat and get the whole environmental and ethical issues with factory farming and over fishing but to me Isinglass and Gelatin are more of a byproduct.
I forgot about that Beaver anal gland thing haha, that’s thinking outside the box. Remember that Guinness myth that they mashed with dead rats or something?
Everyone loves to talk about castoreum (the excretion of a beaver anal gland that happens to be very vanillay/strawberry) - looking at the stats, here in the states less than 300 pounds of castoreum is used per year for consumable purposes as opposed to 2.6 million pounds of vanillin. It’s mostly used in the perfume industry which is where I suspect you get the initial use.
Good on the big G for responding to their market and removing isinglass. The vegetarian/vegan market is a much greater concern over in Europe than it is here, but it’s nice to see some things shifting around.