Guinness Tweaking Its 256-Year-Old Beer Recipe So Vegans Can Enjoy A Pint, Too

It must be tough out there sometimes for a vegan or a vegetarian — your meat-eating friends can’t talk about anything but bacon, and waiters never know if there’s cream in the soup or if the potatoes are fried in lard, etc. — so when it’s time to relax with an alcoholic beverage, it’s got to be nice to have options. Guinness is giving vegans one more option, with a tweak to its 256-year-old beer recipe.

In order to make Guinness full of goodness for those who eschew consuming animals or their byproducts, the Irish brewer is swapping out isinglass — a gelatin made from fish bladders used to filter yeast in the finished beer — with an animal-free method in late 2016.

Though Guinness’ main ingredients include barley, hops, yeast and water, tiny bits of fish bladder can make their way into the finished product.

“Isinglass has been used widely within the brewing industry as a means of filtration for decades,” the company said in a statement (via CNNMoney). “However, because of its use we could not label Guinness as suitable for vegetarians and have been looking for an alternative solution for some time.”

Guinness hasn’t disclosed details about how it will replace isinglass, but had said in the past that it’s looking for a method that’s “as effective or as environmentally friendly… whilst maintaining the quality of the liquid.”

It’s not all great news for those of us on this side of the pond, however: though the company brews in 49 countries, only Guinnness’ flagship brewery in Dublin will be using the vegetarian-friendly method. At least, for the foreseeable future.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist