My wife is a vegi and she just found out that wine & some beers are made with fish products?!
Answers: if so what wine and what beer and how about gin
nothin will stop step mummy drinking gin so if there is fish or such like in it god help gordons!!! lol xxx
This is not true. Isinglass was once primarily used to clarify wine and beer but it is often cheaper to use other ingredients today (like clay). Clarification is to help the yeast settle out and make a solid mat at the bottom of the brewing vessel. The process is referred to as flocculation. However, to say that wine or beer is made with an animal product is not correct.
If your wife is concerned about who may, or may not, be using isinglass for flocculation then I would suggest a good book on brewing where you can control all stages of the process and avoid those you find distasteful.
There is some rumour going around that the wines are filter through isglass and fish bladder products, but with beer, it is filtered through cloth filters, there are craft breweries and small micro brewed beers that are organic or non filtered so there is not fish in any beer to begin with, but for safety sake.
As for gin, vodka, whiskeys and other distilled product they are not filtered at all the mash or raw ingredients are boiled and vapour is turned into raw alcohol, gin is a raw alcohol that has the aromatcis infused and then redistilled so you get the flavour of the juniper and other botanicals used, there are infustion alcohols like GrandMarnier and others were the fruits, seeds other other flavours are steeped like tea in the base alcohol, but none of these are filtered or run through meat or fish ingredients for filtering.
Tell her to quit being vegitarian.
You'd have to ask the manufacturer. Isinglass, made from fish bladders, is sometimes used by homebrewers and small winemakers to clear the yeast from the wine or beer; it settles out of the drink and does not end up in the final product. Most commercial breweries and winemakers tend to filter their wine mechanically because it takes less time, and time is money. Gin and other liquors are distilled and so there's no need for isinglass or other 'fining' agents.
What a wonderful excuse to get her brewing her own beer and vinting her own wine. And while she's at it, she could make some for you too.
there was a post about vegan beers a couple months ago. i know vegetarians aren't as crazy as vegans, but here's a couple websites to help out:
http://www.veganconnection.com/veganbeer...
http://vegans.frommars.org/wine/
Theres a list of some vegan beer companies and wineries. There's a ton more vegetarian friendly beers, though.
Gin is distilled, it's mostly a physical and chemical reaction with some botanical essences involved. There's no need for clarifiers. Filtration, like with vodka, would be done with charcoal anyways.