Iconic Irish beer Guinness has announced plans to become completely vegan-friendly for the first time in its 256-year history, stating that it will stop using animal byproducts in the filtration process of the company's famous brew, according to The Independent.
A company spokesman has stated that Guinness will start removing the use of fish bladder, known in the brewery world as isinglass, in its filtration process. Isinglass is a gelatin made from fish bladders that is used to filter yeast particles from the brew.
The use of isinglass has been quite prevalent for quite some time. In fact, the listed ingredients of Guinness' famous beer - barley, hops, yeast, and water - does not include the animal byproduct. However, despite its relatively minor use as a filtering agent, traces of the fish bladder have been found in the company's finished product, reports Eater.
Of course, traces of fish bladder in the beer have not been received well by the vegan community.
"Isinglass has been used widely within the brewing industry as a means of filtration for decades. However, because of its use we could not label Guinness as suitable for vegetarians and have been looking for an alternative solution for some time," Guinness said in a statement, according to CNN Money.
Guinness expects the changes to be fully implemented by 2016.
Guinness is not the first beer company that has embraced a vegan-friendly process. Other popular brands, such as Anheuser-Busch, Heineken and Miller, have already been branded as vegetarian-friendly.
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