{"id":10383,"date":"2022-04-11T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rangeme.com\/blog\/?p=10383"},"modified":"2022-04-08T08:41:50","modified_gmt":"2022-04-08T16:41:50","slug":"cheers-vegans-can-enjoy-a-tipple-with-new-plant-based-alcoholic-beverages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rangeme.com\/blog\/cheers-vegans-can-enjoy-a-tipple-with-new-plant-based-alcoholic-beverages\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheers! Vegans Can Enjoy a Tipple With New Plant-Based Alcoholic Beverages"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What\u2019s your favorite tipple when you sit down to eat your plant-based burger on a vegan bun with no-animal-products-added relish? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More importantly, are you sure your drink of choice is genuinely plant-based? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many people just assume the beverages they’re quaffing with dinner are vegan, but they\u2019re often not. Alcoholic drinks can contain ingredients such as honey, cream, isinglass (fish bladder), gelatin, carmine (derived from cochineal beetles), casein (from animal milk), and egg whites. These products are used for texture, filtering drinks, refining them, and making them look more appealing. But for the vegans among us, there\u2019s nothing appealing about consuming animal products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Future of Drink Report from market research company Datassential, Chicago, 42% of consumers say they are interested in plant-based, alcohol-free versions of classic cocktails. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that same 42 percent of consumers who drink alcohol, are also interested in vegan or plant-based cocktails, while 65% are interested in alcoholic drinks made with plant-based juices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy some definitions, most of the alcoholic beverage category is plant-based,\u201d says Datassential trendologist Mike Kostyo, but a lot of making drinks more vegan-friendly \u201cfocuses on swaps consumers perceive to be healthier, or that give them permission to indulge, so that might mean swapping in oat milk in a cream-based cocktail, for instance,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As luck would have it, beverage manufacturers are catching on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beer and cider, animal-free<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For the most part, beer is vegan, though not always, as the process of clarifying beer often uses animal products. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018, Guinness stopped filtering through isinglass (fish bladder), which it had been doing for more than 250 years. Last April, Heineken released a sustainable cider, Inch\u2019s, which is vegan, and a watermelon and lime version of its Old Mout cider that\u2019s vegan and gluten-free. Heineken\u2019s beers are all plant-based.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not just the big brands. Smaller breweries like Bellfield Brewery in Edinburgh and Toast Ale in London have vegan beers; the latter even uses leftover bread from local bakeries to keep food waste down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n