People are horrified after realising there's fish guts in pints of beer
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People have been left horrified after realising that there’s actually a pretty gross-sounding ingredient in one of their favourite tipples.
As a warning, this might just put you off drinking beer.
It’s one of the staple alcoholic drinks of the entire world, and – for better or worse – one of the cornerstones of British culture.
We – and many other countries – consume a lot of beer, and whilst there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a pint from time to time, not many people actually realise what goes into making your pint.
Of course, there’s four main ingredients – grains, hops, yeast, and water – but there are other hidden ingredient that you might not know about, and one of them comes from a fish.
Yes, not even beer is vegetarian. Well, some beer, anyway.
The fish product is called isinglass, and it comes from the swim bladder of fish.
It’s used in the beer-making process to clarify the liquid, and it’s also used in some wines as well.
It was originally made from sturgeon, but then methods were created that used cod and hake too.
Nowadays, all British breweries that still use isinglass use materials from tropical fish.
Basically, it is used to filter out sediment from beer, but it was also used in other products such as desserts before gelatin was made easier to produce.
You see, yeast can make beer cloudy and sedimented, so isinglass is added because isinglass particles and yeast particles bond together and sink to the bottom, meaning that they can be filtered out and the beer will be much less cloudy.
But don’t worry beer fans, not all beers use isinglass, so if you’re a vegetarian – or just grossed out – then there’s still stuff for you to drink.
Here’s some popular beers that do contain the fish product, though.
Carling, Coors Light, Foster’s, and Kronenbourg are all off limits, but Guinness has actually stopped using isinglass in 2018, so that’s suitable for anyone.
Many beers, including ones like Birra Moretti, Camden Hells, Estrella Damm, Heineken, Grolsch, and Peroni, are vegan and vegetarian friendly as they don’t use isinglass at all in the process.
Ultimately, there’s still loads to drink without it, but there are far more wines that still use isinglass in the process.
After finding out this hidden ingredient in the beer-making process, some people have been put off the idea of drinking it altogether.
Under one video, a comment read: “Humans are sick. You need help.”
Another said: “Now, if we can just remove isinglass from beer production.”
And a third ironically wrote: “Yum!”
Anyway, that’s something nice for you to think about next time you’re enjoying a beer or a glass of wine, isn’t it?
Featured Image Credit: Pexels/Anete Lusina/BBC
Topics: Weird, Food And Drink, Science, Animals
