Guinness to be vegan-friendly

After 256 years, the brewers behind the famous pint of the black stuff are shaking up its original recipe.

Vegans and vegetarians alike will soon be able to enjoy a pint of Ireland’s most famous stout as Guinness revealed it will remove fish guts from the brewing process.

Producers of Guinness have said the iconic St James’s Gate Brewery in Dublin will begin using a new filtration plant next year which does not require isinglass, a by-product of the fishing industry.

“We are now pleased to have identified a new process through investment in a state-of-the-art filtration system at St James’s Gate which, once in place, will remove the use of isinglass in the brewing process,” a statement read.

Guinness has long faced demands from beer-loving vegans to remove isinglass from its product.

Bronwyn Slater, who runs the Irish Vegan website, said she was thrilled to learn that Guinness is set to become vegan friendly.

“It was something we wanted Guinness to do and it was definitely on our list of things we would have liked to have happen,” she said.

She commended Guinness for “taking the vegan community seriously”.

“It does mean that they realise there is quite a large and growing population of vegans and vegetarians out there that it’s worth their while to make it available to us,” said Ms Slater.

She is hopeful Guinness will pave the way for other breweries and wine producers to become vegan friendly.

“We would love it if more breweries and more wine producers took the lead from Guinness and took isinglass out of the process because it’s not necessary,” said Ms Slater.

“A lot of wine isn’t vegan, or at least it’s not marked whether it’s vegan or not, so there’s just no way of knowing and that too is subject to the isinglass factor. We just don’t know whether the wine was made with the isinglass or not or also there could be egg whites or gelatine in the wine fining process.”

It is expected the new system will be up and running by late 2016.