Vegan alcohol: our guide to beers, wine and spirits

The first thing you realise when switching to a vegan diet is the prevalence of animal products. Sometimes, this fact makes perfect sense: you can't have a chicken pot pie without chicken. But bone marrow in your wine: is that necessary? No is the answer, which is good news for vegans who would like a little tipple.

As plant-based diets increase in popularity, vegan variants of common foods and drinks are more readily available. As with faux-meats and chocolates, vegan alcohols are becoming increasingly accessible.

Some alcoholic brews, like many pure spirits, have always been vegan and are just starting to shout about it. Others, such as Guinness, have updated brewing processes to remove the needless use of animal products. In other cases, new breweries have been established that focus on eco-friendly practices and plant-based products.

Whether you’re a vegan looking for a new favourite drink or looking to treat your plant-based friend, below you'll find a list of the best vegan-friendly beer, wine and spirits.

Whichever you go for, we know that you'll find them tasty as we were lucky enough to taste them all.

Looking for something specific? Click below to jump ahead:

The best vegan beers: Tested, recommended

Popular favourites: Lager, ale and cider

These beers are mainstream beers that are accessible and vegan-friendly. These are great to get in for get-togethers.

• Peroni

• Budweiser

• Corona

• Heineken

• Coors Light

• Newcastle Brown Ale

• Thatchers Gold Cider

• Bulmers Cider

• Aspall Suffolk Cyder

Our favourites vegan beers:

The best wines: Tested, recommended

The best spirits: Tested, recommended

Why are some alcoholic drinks NOT vegan?

While almost all alcohol is made from plant-based materials, some manufacturers introduce products animal products as part of its processing.

What animal products are used in non-vegan alcohols?

Drinks that are not suitable for vegans but are for vegetarians have likely seen honey, egg or milk at some point in the process. Drinks that aren’t suitable for vegans or vegetarians will have been processed using fining substances derived from bone marrow, crushed insects, fish bladders or gelatin.

What non-vegan ingredients should I look out for?

Not all manufacturers, wineries or breweries include information about whether a product is vegan or non-vegan. However, if you read the ingredients, you can sometimes work it out for yourself. Some, such as honey, milk or cream, are real giveaways, while others are partially disguised behind technical terminology. These include:

• Isinglass - Fish bladder

• Cochineal/carmine - Insect shell

• Chitin - Insect shell, shellfish, fish

• Albumin - Eggs

• Casein - Milk

• Whey - Milk

• Lactose - Milk

• Gelatin - Animal skin, ligaments, bones

In alcohol, what do animal products do?

Unless an animal product has been used to flavour a specific drink (i.e. honey whiskey or milk stout), then the animal product has likely been used in the fining process.

Fining is a process that clears and clarifies a liquid - unfined wines and beers appear cloudy. Fining agents cling to unwanted elements within the alcohol. By doing so, the fining agent increases the size of the molecules, which allows them to sink or be caught in a filter. The result? Clear liquid.

Vegan alcohols either don’t use any fining agent or use a non-animal alternative, such as limestone, vegetable caseins or carbons. The choice to use a non-animal alternative may not be for ethical reasons - many brewers argue that different fining agents alter the taste in unwanted ways.

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