Can vegans/vegetarians consume alcohol? Is Vegan Alcohol a Thing? Or more importantly, why would alcohol not be vegan? I kid you not if you’re vegan, this is a serious question that should be on your mind when consuming any type of drinks.
This may come as a surprise to most of you, but most alcohol isn’t vegan. And I’m shocked to find out the number of vegans that don’t know this. I mean, if you research the hell out of the food you’re about to consume, why not do the same with your drinks? According to the Vegetarian Society, it’s very common for beverages like beer and wine to be clarified using a variety of animal-derived products. These products used in the production of alcohol include albumin (from egg whites), casein (from milk), chitin (from the shells of crabs, lobsters, etc), gelatine (from bones and tissues), isinglass (from fish swim bladders), and many more.
This includes Beer, Cider, Wine/Fortified Wines, & Spirits/Liqueurs. “What? No way!” Unfortunately, this is very true. “But how was I supposed to know?” Yes! Exactly how were we supposed to know this since there is no regulation that requires alcoholic beverages to establish their ingredients on their labels? Don’t worry, this was my reaction at first as well, it’s all wrong and sketchy.
However, finding vegan alcohol is not impossible. You’ll be surprised to see that a couple of commercial alcoholic drinks are, in fact, vegan. And also, according to Vegan.com “every brand of hard liquor—bourbon, whiskey, vodka, gin, and rum—is vegan. Nearly all distilled spirits are vegan except for cream-based liqueurs and products that mention honey on the label.” But you do have to do some research since beer and wine are the most popular, but also the most prone to be processed using animal products such as isinglass, egg whites, or gelatin.
Lucky for us there’s this really amazing site called Barnivore, which has done 95% of this research. You can check the vegan status of most popular alcoholic beverages on Barnivore, which has been amazing at maintaining an updated vegan alcohol list. Go over to their page to check out if your favorite drink is vegan!
All that being said, alcoholic drinks are fun and nice from time to time; however, it’s important to mention that alcohol dependency is no joking matter. In the USA alone, alcohol kills 88,000 people annually, nearly 20,000 Americans who die each year from alcohol-related diseases, and 10,000 killed in drinking-related car accidents. In Puerto Rico, according to a study run by ASSMCA, 1 out of 8 people, nearly 350,000 suffer from alcohol abuse; and nearly 140,000 people have alcohol dependency. According to Vegan.com, “Numerous studies have found that alcohol is associated with about half of all cases of domestic violence and sexual assault.” Regular drinking is also linked to colon cancer.
So if you’re going to use alcohol, keep those things in mind, please be careful, and give it adequate respect.
