Ever since the movement first appeared, vegans have been looking for ways to maintain their old habits while also respecting their way of living.
In recent years, they’ve set their sights on the alcoholic beverage market, and vegan options have been growing in number ever since.
Before, it was practically impossible to find vegan-friendly options in the liquor aisle, and even drinks that could’ve potentially passed for safe to consume were difficult to identify.
Thankfully, those times are long gone, and plant-based alcoholic beverages are more available than ever, keeping up with the growing popularity of veganism in the US and the rest of the world.
Thousands of companies from various industries have adapted their products and services in order to cater to this community, and with enough activism, this number will only continue to go up.
How are some alcohols not vegan?
In a more general sense, alcohol on its own is 100% vegan-friendly, as it’s derived from the fermentation of plant-based sugars.
However, it’s what gets added to these beverages that make them unsafe for vegans, and it’s often stuff that doesn’t even make it to the ingredient list on the label.
This leads to situations where a product seems vegan-friendly at first, but only after some serious investigating into the production process does it get revealed that it isn’t.
Oftentimes, it’s similar to the issues vegans have with candy, one good example being gelatine, which is sourced from cows/pigs, making sweets like gummy bears completely inaccessible to someone with a plant-based diet.
However, due to food products having different labeling laws compared to alcoholic beverages, this is explicitly stated in the ingredients list.
This makes it so that the average vegan would rather not drink than take their chances with a potentially unsafe product.
Wine
With how simple the ingredient list for wine is, you’d assume that most, if not all wines are vegan friendly, but the disappointing reality is that one can’t really tell at a glance.
Despite being made from fermented grapes, a wide array of animal-derived products are used in the modern winemaking industry in order to speed up the time it takes a bottle to clarify.
More specifically, milk protein and casein are used in this process, and sometimes even chitosan, which is a substance derived from crustacean shells.
Not all hope is lost though, as vegans can simply opt for wineries that avoid these methods and let their product clarify naturally, or with the inclusion of Bentonite, which is a purified clay.
This does imply that the price tag on said wine will be far out of reach for many, but knowing that your beverage didn’t contribute to the suffering of living beings is priceless.
Nothing better than a cold one, or is there?
Similar to wine, the majority of beers on the market are safe for vegans, but there’s still the issue of not knowing which ones aren’t.
Once again, due to how the fermentation process works, a certain amount of fining is required for the beer to be ready to serve, and in order to save time, companies will use the same fining agents wineries use.
This drastically cuts back on the length of the production process, inadvertently making the beverage unsafe for the occasional beer-drinking vegan.
To make matters worse, breweries are not required by law to disclose the ingredients used in the brewing process, meaning that you won’t find any of this stuff on the label.
In fact, even with safe beers, you won’t find the lack of these fining agents on the label either, so just do your own research before heading out to the pub.
The blanket approach to vegan liquor
Despite the fact that ordering a fully plant-based drink has become much easier in recent years, there are still certain drinks that will remain off-limits for the time being.
One such example is any liquors that are honey-flavored or have dairy as a main ingredient, although there’s no doubt that someone will come up with a suitable replacement for those in the near future.
When ordering cocktails, make sure to ask what they’re sweetened with, as some sugar varieties aren’t vegan-friendly.
As a rule of thumb, avoid any colored liquors or dairy-flavored beverages, as drinks imitating Campari can contain carmine dye, which is derived from the shells of cochineal insects.
When in doubt, just order yourself a vodka screwdriver with some freshly squeezed orange juice, and you’ll know you’re getting a product you can’t feel guilty for enjoying.
Final word
A decade back, vegan liquor was a term relegated to small-time brewers who were willing to go the extra step for the ones they love.
Nowadays though, it’s a booming industry and it seems like everyone’s looking to make the next big thing in order to cater to this growing community.
While this does mean that you’ll be paying a premium on any beverage that’s labeled as being vegan-friendly, the fact that there are options at all should let you know that even better times are coming.
Familiarizing yourself with the production process of the alcohols you commonly purchase can also help a great deal, as you’ll know what to avoid before even looking at the label.
At the end of the day, it’s not like brewing your own alcohol is impossible, and we all know that the fruits of our own labor are sweeter than any other.
Just make sure you know what you’re doing before diving into homestyle winemaking.