From: mwisdom@bnr.ca (Mark Wisdom)
Subject: Re: Guiness beer and meat
Keywords: Guiness,beer
Reply-To: mwisdom@bnr.ca (Mark Wisdom)
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 16:53:51 GMT

The following is a compilation of the information posted about beers
here on rec.food.veg in the past 7 or so months. I myself don't drink
alcohol, but nonetheless I found the information rather interesting
and I've compiled this to show to my beer drinking friends. If you
see something that you don't agree with, please post a correction.

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Many beers contain pepsin (from hogs) to make it foam.

German beers sold in Germany comply to the "reinheitgesetz", or Bavarian
purity law, that insists that beer can have only 4 ingredients:
water, hops, malt and yeast - no preservatives, no flavoring agents,
nothing else is allowed by law.

German beer made for consumption outside Germany usually DOESN'T
conform to the purity law, and because of this the purity law has been
struck down by the EEC because it was ruled that is a restriction on
free trade. The EEC pointing out that the German breweries themselves
quite happily broke the purity law when producing beer for export.
Even big names like Beck's and Warsteiner use different recipes for
their exported brews.  Read the label to make sure.

American beers that conform to the German purity laws:
- Samual Adams (review: it's a very good beer - try the amber)
- Mordelaine
- Penn Pilsner (brewed locally in the Pittsburgh area at a 
   micro-brewery. Also brewed commercially. Review: I think it is even
   better than Sam Adams!)

In general, you are quite safe with most micro-brewery beers. Stick to
the locally brewed microbrews which have ingredients listed, or those
that claim to adhere to the "reinheitgesetz", or Bavarian purity law.

Some cream ale recipes have lactose in them.

Isinglass (gelatine finings), which is the dried ground up swim bladder
of a sturgeon, is used as a clarifying agent, often in bitter (a kind
of strong english ale).

Stay away from draught British beer since it contains isinglass.

Irish Moss, which is carrageen, a seaweed, is used as a fining.
It works just fine as a clearing agent.

Guiness contains animal finings.
Guinness (bottled) used to be on the UK Veg Society's list of vegetarian
beers. No other type of Guinness was on that list. Now, even the bottled
variety has disappeared from the list.

Miller is made from corn.
Bud is made from rice.
Coors are very proud of the fact that they use *no* corn. 

The Bud and Miller type beers in this country probably have something
of everthing in them. Stay away.


Ray Peck (rpeck@pure.com) writes:

There is a large number of additives which The State approves for use
in beers, and which brewers need not list on their products.  I have
a full list, which I will try to dig up.  Some of these are indeed "heading
agents", or "food grade detergents" added to increase the beer's head.

Heading agents are used by brewers who incorporate a large quantity of
adjuncts in their brew (i.e., using corn sugar instead of malt, to make
tasteless BudMilObe megabrewery swill).  You won't find heading agents
used by brewers of all-malt beer.  Almost all all-malt beer in this country
is brewed by microbreweries which almost never use additives of any kind
(e.g., Anchor, Sierra Nevada, etc.).  Other options are non-mega English
beers (e.g., Fullers' ESB, Sam Smith's), and Belgian beers.  

Most other imports, especially lagers, use larger proportions of corn
syrup, and therefore, heading agents.  This includes, as others have noted,
German brands which do not use these additives at home, and Canadian
and mega English beers (perhaps Bass, et. al.).

On a related note, most brewers use Irish Moss (aka carageenan aka
agar aka seaweed) to clarify their brew.  Some use gelatin.  If you
really want to know, call 'em up.


Norman R. Kraft (nkraft@bkhouse.cts.com) writes:

I've found a non-alcoholic beer which also is vegetarian and *much*
better than any of the American non-alcoholic beers I've tried.

Clausthaler Alkoholfrei is a non-alcoholic (<0.5% alcohol per bottle) 
beer brewed in Frankfurt, Germany in strict accordance to the German 
purity law (Reinheitsgebot) of 1516 (contains only water, barley malt, 
hops and yeast). It tastes like a light German beer, and much better 
than Sharp's and the other American non-alcoholic beers. There are 
other imports, but none of the ones I've seen meet the "four ingredient"
rule that I look for.

For those of us that like the taste of beer, but would rather avoid
the alcohol, I've really grown very fond of this one. Here in San Diego,
CA, Clausthaler is available in Vons supermarkets, and at Liquor Barns,
so it shouldn't be too hard for anyone to find.


-----------------------------------------------------
Mark Wisdom,  Bell-Northern Research,  Ottawa, Canada
Disclaimer: Above opinions are my own, and not BNR's.
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Newsgroups: rec.food.veg