Recent polls suggest over 5 million adults follow a vegan diet in the United States alone. Vegan diets exclude all animal products, including meat, dairy, eggs, and honey - and most of them also eliminate any byproducts derived from animals or insects, including ones used during food processing.
Finding vegan alcohol can be tricky, as manufacturers aren’t usually required to list ingredients on labels for beer, wine, and spirits. Thus, you may wonder how to tell which products are vegan. This article provides a complete guide to vegan alcohol by highlighting non-vegan ingredients to look out for, reviewing several types of alcohol, and offering purchasing tips.
Why Isn't All Alcohol Vegan?
Many - but certainly not all - alcoholic beverages are vegan. Animal products may be used during processing or as ingredients in the drink itself. For example, animal-derived foods are often used as fining agents, which are substances that help filter out impurities and improve the clarity, flavor, and aroma of alcoholic beverages.
Common Non-Vegan Ingredients and Fining Agents
Here are some common non-vegan ingredients and fining agents used in alcohol:
- Milk and cream: These dairy products are sometimes added to beer and liqueurs to give a creamy, rich flavor. They’re also used in many cocktails and blended drinks.
- Whey, casein, and lactose: These milk byproducts are occasionally used as ingredients or fining agents. Lactose is often added to beers, specifically stouts and sours, to add notes of sweetness to the drink. Whey is added to spirits for hints of creaminess and sweetness.
- Honey: Honey is fermented to make mead and used as a sweetener in other alcoholic beverages. Some rums and whiskeys contain honey, but when that’s the case it’s usually part of the product’s name.
- Eggs: Egg white protein, also known as albumin, is often used as a fining agent in wine. Egg whites are commonly used in cocktails to create a silky, smooth texture.
- Isinglass: This popular fining agent is derived from fish bladders. 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.
- Gelatin: Gelatin is not only used to make jello, puddings, and gravies but also commonly serves as a fining agent. Notably, it’s derived from animal skin, bones, and cartilage.
- Cochineal and carmine: Carmine, a red dye made out of scaly insects called cochineal, is added to some alcoholic beverages for color.
- Chitin: Chitin is a fiber used as a fining agent. Though vegan versions exist, it’s often a byproduct of insects or shellfish.
- Castoreum: Although rare, this flavoring is derived from the anal glands of beavers.
Vegan Alcohol Options
Vegan Beer
The four main ingredients in beer are water, a grain like barley or wheat, yeast, and hops - a flower that provides beer’s distinctive, bitter taste. The yeast ferments and digests the sugar from the grain to produce alcohol. All of these ingredients are vegan. However, some breweries add non-vegan ingredients to clarify, flavor, or color the beer. Vegan beers do not use animal or insect products at any time during brewing.
Read also: Can You Drink on Carnivore?
Examples of Vegan Beer:
Most commercial beers from established breweries are vegan. These include:
- Budweiser and Bud Light
- Coors and Coors Light
- Corona Extra and Corona Light
- Michelob Ultra
- Miller Genuine Draft and Miller High Life
- Heineken
- Pabst Blue Ribbon
- Guinness Draught and Guinness Original XX
Numerous other vegan beers are on the market, including many craft beers. Craft breweries may include vegan status on the product label, which is indicated by text or a vegan trademark. Microbreweries that make vegan beer include Alternation Brewing Company, Little Machine, and Modern Times Brewery.
Non-Vegan Beer:
Any beer brewed with ingredients derived from animals or insects is not vegan. Ingredients like isinglass and gelatin may be used as fining agents, while whey, lactose, and honey are sometimes added as ingredients.
Though there are exceptions, certain types of beer typically aren’t vegan, including:
- Cask ales: Otherwise known as real ales, cask ales are a traditional British brew that often use isinglass as a fining agent. Fining is an entirely optional process as if the beer is left undisturbed, the clarification process will occur naturally.
- Honey beers: Some breweries use honey for added sweetness and flavor. Any beer with “honey” in the name is likely not vegan.
- Meads: Mead is a beer-like alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey.
- Milk stouts: Though vegan alternatives exist, milk stouts usually contain whey or lactose.
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.
Read also: Risks of Mixing Ozempic and Alcohol
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.
Tips for Choosing Vegan Beer:
- 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.
Vegan Wine
Wine is made from grapes, which are crushed and fermented to form alcohol. After the juice is fermented, fining agents may be added to remove unwanted substances, such as bitter plant compounds called tannins. If animal-based fining agents are used, the wine cannot be considered vegan.
Vegan Wine:
Vegan wines use clay-based fining agents, such as bentonite, or proteins derived from wheat, corn, legumes, potatoes, or other plants. Plenty of brands make solely vegan wine, including:
- Bellissima Prosecco
- Cycles Gladiator
- Frey Vineyards
- Lumos Wines
- Red Truck Wines
- The Vegan Vine
Many wineries also include their vegan status on the label, which is indicated by text or a vegan trademark. Alberto Nani Prosecco DOC is a certified organic vegan Prosecco that's lovingly crafted from Glera grapes unadulterated by pesticides, insecticides, herbicides or animal products. Made with Glera grapes in the remote Valdobbiadene region of Italy this vegan prosecco is gold by name & nature with its fruity scents of golden apple, acacia flowers and lily of the valley.
Non-Vegan Wine:
Some wineries may use animal products, such as isinglass, gelatin, albumin, and casein, for fining. Carmine, a red dye made from insects called cochineal, may also be added as a colorant.
Read also: Enjoy Keto Drinks
Most wines from the following brands are not vegan:
- Apothic
- Barefoot Wine
- Black Box Wines
- Chateau Ste. Michelle
- Franzia Wines
- Sutter Homes
- Robert Mondavi
Tips for Choosing Vegan Wine:
- Viva! offers a selection of vegan wines sourced from independent vineyards around the world.
- Tesco, Co-op, Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s all label which of their own-brand wines are vegan.
Vegan Spirits
Unlike beer and wine, spirits rely on a process called distillation, in which the alcohol is concentrated from fermented ingredients. Most unflavored spirits are vegan. However, some flavored liquors and several cocktail recipes aren’t.
Vegan Spirits:
Unflavored versions of the following spirits are usually free of animal-based ingredients, including during processing:
- Brandy
- Gin
- Tequila
- Rum
- Vodka
- Whiskey
Non-Vegan Spirits:
Flavored liquors and cordials may contain non-vegan ingredients, such as milk, cream, and honey. Although uncommon, carmine may be used as a dye in some red spirits. Non-vegan ingredients may also be introduced to spirits when making cocktails. Potential non-vegan spirits and cocktails include:
- Campari alternatives: Though it once contained carmine, Campari - a popular red liqueur - is now vegan. However, similar mixers may still use carmine for their red hue.
- Coffee cocktails: White Russians, Irish coffee, and other popular coffee cocktails may contain milk or cream. Baileys, a whiskey made with cream, is also not vegan.
- Dessert cocktails: Some cocktails, such as grasshoppers and mudslides, are blended with ice cream. What’s more, jello shots harbor gelatin.
- Honey-flavored spirits: Honey serves as a sweetener and flavor enhancer in many spirits and cocktails. Almost all drinks with “honey” in the name aren’t vegan.
Vegan Cocktail Options:
Many classics are always vegan:
- Cosmopolitan
- Mojito
- Martini
Most regular bars will have vegan cocktails on offer, including independent bars in your area. Some chains which have vegan cocktails (and vegan food) are the Slug and Lettuce, Vodka Revolution and All Bar One.
How to Identify Vegan Alcohol
Finding vegan alcohol isn’t always straightforward. While some companies list ingredients voluntarily, it’s not mandatory in the United States or Europe to do so for most alcoholic beverages. Regardless, companies rarely list fining agents. Substances that have been used during processing and later removed, such as isinglass and gelatin, seldom make it onto labels.
Here are a few tips for identifying vegan alcohol:
- Ask the manufacturer: The most reliable method to determine whether an alcoholic product is vegan is to ask the manufacturer.
- Look for vegan symbols: Some companies use vegan symbols or text to indicate vegan status on the label.
- Look for allergen statements: Milk, eggs, fish, and shellfish are not only used in some alcoholic beverages but also common allergens. Companies may voluntarily list major allergens, though this isn’t required in the United States.
- Look for a carmine statement: In the United States, manufacturers are required to mention carmine. Look for phrases like “contains carmine” or “contains cochineal extract” on the label.
- Find online vegan resources: Barnivore 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.
Responsible Consumption Matters
It’s easy to find vegan alcohol, but you have to do some research since beer and wine can be processed using animal products such as isinglass, egg whites, or gelatin. Fortunately these ingredients are never listed on the labels, since alcohol is commonly exempt from the labeling requirements of other food products. Fortunately, virtually every brand of hard liquor-bourbon, whiskey, vodka, gin, and rum-is vegan.
While alcohol can add some pleasure to your life if you’re aware of its risks and drink with care and restraint, it's essential to be mindful of responsible consumption. If you’re going to drink, please be careful. Many people who don’t give this drug adequate respect lose everything. So, with all that said, temper each unit of enthusiasm for booze with about ten parts restraint and caution. When it comes to alcohol, how much is too much? For people who wish to drink, Dr. Peter Attia advises drinking no more than three days a week, and not going over two drinks in a day.