Is beer vegan?

The different styles, aromas and flavours of beer, or its varied and surprising gastronomic pairings are a frequent topic of conversation among regular consumers of this popular drink. However, there are other aspects of it that go beyond mere sensory perception, such as the question we are dealing with today:

can WE SAY that beer is vegan?

At first, one might assume that all the beers in the world have been, are and will always be suitable for vegans, but a closer look may bring some surprises. Almost everyone knows that the regular ingredients used to brew beer - water, barley or wheat malt, corn, rice, oats, hops, yeast, spices... - are all suitable for consumption by people who follow a vegan diet, and therefore reject any food of animal origin.

However, there may be elements in the brewing process that are not strictly ingredients and that, although they do not form part of the final product, intervene at some stage of the process, such as clarifiers. Used to obtain beers with a clean and crystalline appearance, some of them are of animal origin such as the so-called isinglass, which has been common for many years among British brewers.

If this isinglass is used during the brewing process, and then the liquid is filtered without leaving any traces of the clarifier in the final product: can we say that the beer is vegan? The answer is NO. For this and other reasons, almost all brewers have stopped using this type of resource, replacing it with others such as Irish Moss, which, although it also comes from the sea, is an alga and therefore a plant. Some brands such as Guinness have made this decision public, but curiously most brewers, although they do not use animal origin products, do not place special emphasis on communicating this to the consumer.
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