Is your alcohol vegan?

Many people do not even consider the fact that animals can be exploited in products that do not contain animal ingredients.

Isinglass, for example, is a collagen, derived from fish bladders, commonly used in beer and wine to clarify the final products. Campari, a cordial, is colored with carmine, derived from the bodies of dried cochineal beetles.

In general, liquors tend to use the least amount of animal products, followed by beer, and the least vegan-friendly, wine.

Luckily for us conscious eaters, there exists a comprehensive list that informs you as to which companies are vegan-friendly and which are not. It is user-developed, so if your alcohol of choice is not listed, you can determine if it is vegan or not and add it to the list.

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Comments

  1. AnonymousJuly 31, 2008 at 3:19 PM

    Since ALL alcohol is essentially Yeast piss and the yeast ALL die in the making of the alcohol isn't any alcoholic drink inherently NOT vegan?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Eating ConsciouslyJuly 31, 2008 at 3:32 PM

    Hello Anonymous,

    Most vegans do not avoid yeast and I think it is a ridiculous argument usually used by non-vegans to try and find some type of loophole to make vegans look hypocritical.

    Yeast is not an animal, or an insect, in fact, yeast is a fungi. Vegans eat mushrooms, should we be avoiding them as well? Is yeast a sentient being? Does yeast feel pain? I think not, therefore I do not believe it is necessary to avoid it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousSeptember 4, 2008 at 12:35 AM

    Yeast is actually not a fungus, it is a bacteria. There's no way to avoid consuming bacteria, and it's probably likely that you will consume that specific species even if you did try to avoid it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Eating ConsciouslySeptember 4, 2008 at 4:59 AM

    "Yeast are a group of unicellular fungi a few species of which are commonly used to leaven bread and ferment alcoholic beverages. Most yeasts belong to the division Ascomycota. A few yeasts, such as Candida albicans can cause infection in humans. More than one-thousand species of yeasts have been described. The most commonly used yeast is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which was domesticated for wine, bread and beer production thousands of years ago. See Yeast (baking).

    Yeast physiology can be either obligately aerobic or facultatively fermentative. There is no known obligately anaerobic yeast. In the absence of oxygen, fermentative yeasts produce their energy by converting sugars into carbon dioxide and ethanol (alcohol). In brewing, the ethanol is used, while in baking the carbon dioxide raises the bread and the ethanol evaporates."

    Source: http://www.bionewsonline.com/q/what_is_yeast.htm

    ReplyDelete
  5. Eating ConsciouslyNovember 21, 2008 at 10:03 AM

    Also... even if you are making the false argument that yeast is bacteria, which it is NOT. You essentially answered your own question by saying, "There's no way to avoid consuming bacteria, and it's probably likely that you will consume that specific species even if you did try to avoid it." So, doesn't that statement in itself clearly debunk your original comment?

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousFebruary 27, 2009 at 2:38 PM

    I love this reply :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. the istant classicMay 2, 2009 at 10:58 PM

    is old crow whiskey vegan ????

    ReplyDelete

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