Are wine and beer vegan?

Basically, the production of wine creates a purely plant-based product that does not have to come into contact with animal products from flowering to harvesting to fermentation.

However, gelatins enriched with animal products can be used to clarify the must before fermentation. These gelatins are a glue-like mass of transparent protein that is obtained from the bones and skin of animals. Pork and chicken gelatine make up the main part.

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In the past, for example, it was common to add egg white to strong red wines – something that is still sometimes done today in traditional wineries. The eggs are cracked and the yolks are separated from the egg whites. This is collected and stirred and then goes into the top of the barrels. The egg white forms a film and then settles from top to bottom through the young wine, freeing it from cloudy substances and other undesirable flavors.

So if you avoid gelatine, isinglass (dried swim bladders from fish) or protein fining during all the work in the cellar, the wine can be called “vegan wine” according to the wine law.

The must (i.e. the grape juice before fermentation) is clarified with non-animal substances, alternatively with a vegetable protein made from peas, beans or potato starch or with bentonite. This is a layered clay mineral that is stirred into the must. As a result, bentonite pushes cloudy matter to the ground. The “clean” must is then fed into the fermentation process. Bentonite fining can also be carried out later on the finished (hence vegan) wine, for protein fining (this can come from fruits and yeasts) and for heat stabilization.

Beer drinkers can be very happy that their favorite beverage is a vegan way to moisten their throats – especially beer brewed in Germany, which is subject to the Purity Law of 1516. It stipulates that only water, malt, hops and yeast can be used to make beer.

In Austria you are also on the safe side if the beers are not creative beers that contain honey, for example. Anyone who follows their veganism very strictly may turn up their noses at the labeling of the bottles – the glue may contain casein.