Last night I went out to dinner with my girlfriend at Soul Mama, a vegitarian restaraunt on St Kilda beach.
Firstly, neither of us are vegitarians, cook me a steak and I'll prove it by eating it! The food's really good, and will change you mind on vegitarian food if all you think it involves are tofu and lentils.
Anyway, I was having a look at the extensive beer list, and noticed that they'd marked Coopers Sparkling and Coopers Pale Ale as vegan. This got me wondering. What makes it vegan? then more obviously, what makes all the other stuff NOT vegan?
Curiosity got the better of me and I asked the guy at the bar. He explained that the others on the list (inclunding corona, grolsch, beez neez, and carlton draught) used fish products for filtering. Something like ground up fish bones, I guess. Coopers doesn't filter to that degree, so their beer is vegan (although I'd question whether yeast counts as a living organism).
there you have it.
Full points for the guy at the bar for giving me a really good answer.
vegan beer
vegan beer
I left my fermenter in my other pants
I guess the main problem is that yeast is pretty much everywhere. It's naturally on grapes, and is so prevalent in the air that people were making beer and wine thousands of years before it was descovered. For example, the German beer purity laws had to be changed when single-celled organisms were descovered.
I guess vegans have to draw the line at some point. It's virtually impossible to live without ingesting and/or killing the odd amoeba, and I certainly beel a whole lot better to give my yeast the oportunity have fun making beer before I end their life.
I guess vegans have to draw the line at some point. It's virtually impossible to live without ingesting and/or killing the odd amoeba, and I certainly beel a whole lot better to give my yeast the oportunity have fun making beer before I end their life.
I left my fermenter in my other pants
Absolutely - the line has to be drawn somewhere.
Some 'extreme' vegans wait for produce to fall from the branches i.e they will not take a fruit or vegetable from the vine/branch
I believe in 'each to their own' but my personal opinion of this practise is very dim.
Would also be inconvenient.
Some 'extreme' vegans wait for produce to fall from the branches i.e they will not take a fruit or vegetable from the vine/branch
I believe in 'each to their own' but my personal opinion of this practise is very dim.
Would also be inconvenient.
Coopers.
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The Proud Anselmo
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The interwebs tell me that yeast is "unicellular fungi" so I don't see why vegans couldn't eat them.
Because being vegan would be pretty tough if you never got to eat anything living. Such as plants. I mean then you really only end up with rocks.
I was a bit put off when I was looking at wine in the bottle-o and it said "eggs and milk" products were used in the process... since when do you put eggs in wine???
Because being vegan would be pretty tough if you never got to eat anything living. Such as plants. I mean then you really only end up with rocks.
I was a bit put off when I was looking at wine in the bottle-o and it said "eggs and milk" products were used in the process... since when do you put eggs in wine???
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The Proud Anselmo
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Anzac Cookies
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I sure hope so, a nice glass of Geisen Sauv Blanc would go well with bacon, eggs and smoked salmon, lolThe Proud Anselmo wrote:Ah, thanks Pale_Ale. Still strikes me as odd though, as eggs, milk and fish are probably the last things I would think of adding to a brew.
But if eggs = breakfast. and wine = eggs. then does that make it ok for me to have wine for breakfast?
A woman walks into a bar and orders a double entendre, so the bartender gave her one !
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Oliver
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While looking up info for another post, I came across this:
From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Isinglass
Isinglass is a substance obtained from the swimbladders of fish (especially Beluga sturgeon), used mainly for the clarification of wine and beer. It is a form of collagen. Prior to inexpensive gelatin production and other competitive products, isinglass was used in confectionery and desserts such as Fruit Jelly and blancmange. Isinglass was originally made exclusively from sturgeon until the 1795 invention of a cheap substitute using cod by William Murdoch. This was extensively used in Britain in place of Russian isinglass. The bladders, once removed from the fish and processed, are formed into various shapes for use.
Isinglass finings are used extensively as a processing aid in the British brewing industry to accelerate the fining, or clarification, of beer. They are used particularly in the production of cask-conditioned beers, known as real ale, although there are a few cask ales available which are not fined using isinglass. The finings, a pure form of gelatin, flocculate the live yeast in the beer into a spongy mass, which settles to the bottom of the cask. Left to itself, beer will clear naturally, however the use of isinglass finings accelerates the process. Isinglass is sometimes used with an auxiliary fining, which further accelerates the process of sedimentation.
Non-cask beers which are destined for kegs, cans or bottles are often pasteurized and filtered. The yeast in these beers tends to settle to the base of the storage tank naturally, so the sediment from these beers can often be filtered without using isinglass. However, some breweries still use isinglass finings for non-cask beers, especially when attempting to repair bad batches.
Although very little isinglass remains in the beer which is drunk, many vegetarians consider beers which are processed with these finings to be unsuitable for vegetarian diets (although it is suitable for pescetarians). An alternative to isinglass which is suitable for vegetarians is Irish moss, a type of red alga. The process differs, however: isinglass is added at the end of the brewing process, before bottling, whereas Irish moss is added to the hot wort while it is being boiled, and primarily reduces hazes caused by proteins. Since the two fining agents act differently, some beers will make use of both.
Isinglass finings are also used in the production of kosher wines.
I would be very, very surprised if any of Corona, Grolsch, Beez Neez and Carlton Draught used isinglass as finings.
Aren't they all filtered beers anyway? If they are, there'd be no need for finings.
Sounds like you were fed a line by a barman trying to flog you a particular beer, or he was just blindly repeating misinformation he'd heard from some vegan hippy. Probably the latter, I'd suggest.
Oliver
From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Isinglass
Isinglass is a substance obtained from the swimbladders of fish (especially Beluga sturgeon), used mainly for the clarification of wine and beer. It is a form of collagen. Prior to inexpensive gelatin production and other competitive products, isinglass was used in confectionery and desserts such as Fruit Jelly and blancmange. Isinglass was originally made exclusively from sturgeon until the 1795 invention of a cheap substitute using cod by William Murdoch. This was extensively used in Britain in place of Russian isinglass. The bladders, once removed from the fish and processed, are formed into various shapes for use.
Isinglass finings are used extensively as a processing aid in the British brewing industry to accelerate the fining, or clarification, of beer. They are used particularly in the production of cask-conditioned beers, known as real ale, although there are a few cask ales available which are not fined using isinglass. The finings, a pure form of gelatin, flocculate the live yeast in the beer into a spongy mass, which settles to the bottom of the cask. Left to itself, beer will clear naturally, however the use of isinglass finings accelerates the process. Isinglass is sometimes used with an auxiliary fining, which further accelerates the process of sedimentation.
Non-cask beers which are destined for kegs, cans or bottles are often pasteurized and filtered. The yeast in these beers tends to settle to the base of the storage tank naturally, so the sediment from these beers can often be filtered without using isinglass. However, some breweries still use isinglass finings for non-cask beers, especially when attempting to repair bad batches.
Although very little isinglass remains in the beer which is drunk, many vegetarians consider beers which are processed with these finings to be unsuitable for vegetarian diets (although it is suitable for pescetarians). An alternative to isinglass which is suitable for vegetarians is Irish moss, a type of red alga. The process differs, however: isinglass is added at the end of the brewing process, before bottling, whereas Irish moss is added to the hot wort while it is being boiled, and primarily reduces hazes caused by proteins. Since the two fining agents act differently, some beers will make use of both.
Isinglass finings are also used in the production of kosher wines.
I would be very, very surprised if any of Corona, Grolsch, Beez Neez and Carlton Draught used isinglass as finings.
Aren't they all filtered beers anyway? If they are, there'd be no need for finings.
Sounds like you were fed a line by a barman trying to flog you a particular beer, or he was just blindly repeating misinformation he'd heard from some vegan hippy. Probably the latter, I'd suggest.
Oliver
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Oliver
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OK. I found this on the Foster's website:
Beer is a natural product. Its basic ingredients of beer are water, malted barley, sugar syrups, hops and yeast. However, isinglass, a protein material from the swim bladder of some tropical fish species, is widely used in brewing in Australia albeit in very small quantities. It is used in all Foster's Australia beers. However the information we have is that it is removed by the filtration process, which precedes the packaging of beer whether into bottles, cans or kegs.Over the years the industry has looked for alternative materials, which are not animal based but the specific characteristics of isinglass, which make it so useful, also make it difficult to replace. The only material, which has shown promise, is gelatin, which is also of animal origin. We will however continue to assess alternative materials as they become available. For further information, click here Brewing Beer
According to one website I saw, Matilda Bay beers are suitable for vegans and vegetarians, so the bloke at Soul Mama was obviously talking through his arse (as I'd predicted).
And by the way, it's a pity Soul Mama's stupid website doesn't work with Firefox. Damn hippies (yes, I'm an angry man tonight).
Oliver
Beer is a natural product. Its basic ingredients of beer are water, malted barley, sugar syrups, hops and yeast. However, isinglass, a protein material from the swim bladder of some tropical fish species, is widely used in brewing in Australia albeit in very small quantities. It is used in all Foster's Australia beers. However the information we have is that it is removed by the filtration process, which precedes the packaging of beer whether into bottles, cans or kegs.Over the years the industry has looked for alternative materials, which are not animal based but the specific characteristics of isinglass, which make it so useful, also make it difficult to replace. The only material, which has shown promise, is gelatin, which is also of animal origin. We will however continue to assess alternative materials as they become available. For further information, click here Brewing Beer
According to one website I saw, Matilda Bay beers are suitable for vegans and vegetarians, so the bloke at Soul Mama was obviously talking through his arse (as I'd predicted).
And by the way, it's a pity Soul Mama's stupid website doesn't work with Firefox. Damn hippies (yes, I'm an angry man tonight).
Oliver
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DarkFaerytale
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Re: vegan beer
sorry to go off topic but great restaurant. i'v been there a few times now i first went there with a group of people and we tryed some banquit thingo and got about 15 different dishes, all were greatblandy wrote:Last night I went out to dinner with my girlfriend at Soul Mama, a vegitarian restaraunt on St Kilda beach.
-Phill
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Iron-Haggis
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http://www.vnv.org.au/AlcoholByName.htm
List of alcoholic products and suitability for vegetarians/vegans.
List of alcoholic products and suitability for vegetarians/vegans.
Punk in Drublic