Stroud Brewery is proud to announce that everyone who is vegan or joining in with the
annual Veganuary challenge can now choose from its full range of beers when
enjoying a night out or relaxing at home. It also makes the brewery one of the few in
the UK to be both vegan and organic. The Brewery’s keg and canned beers have
always been vegan but the final piece in the jigsaw – its cask ale – is now in place to
help make its beer even more inclusive, sustainable, and downright delicious.
And that last point can be said with confidence after four months of quietly serving the new vegan cask ales in the brewery’s taproom to see if customers noticed a difference in taste – and it seems no-one did! Going 100% vegan is another step in the Brewery’s dream to see pubs as a hub for bringing people together to connect, learn, laugh and break down barriers.
Adopting a vegan approach to eating and shopping has been growing in popularity: over 2 million people in the UK now call themselves vegan or are following a plant-based diet, with a higher than average of 4% in SW England. It’s particularly popular with younger people in the 16-44 age group who are proving twice as likely as older people to adopt a plant-based diet, and women are twice as likely than men. Plus 10% of the UK population say they’re reducing or eliminating animal products in some way – such as becoming vegetarian, pescatarian, flexitarian or just being more careful about what they buy. A YouGov survey suggests that 25 million people globally took part in Veganuary last year, the annual January campaign to try something vegan for a change.
Until relatively recently, it’s been hard for vegan beer lovers to find a suitable one they can drink. The main ingredients of beer – barley, hops, water and yeast – seem ideal for a plant-based diet. However, a substance called finings, which is derived from fishes, has been used for centuries to take out the unwanted stuff, such as spent yeast, that remains in suspension after brewing, making the beer hazy. Finings causes these particles to congeal and sink to the bottom of the cask so they can be easily removed, so clearing the beer. In recent years some fantastic new products, which are silica gel based, have become available as replacements and, working together with its suppliers, the brewery has had these approved for use in its organic beers.
It took a little time for the brewers to ensure the new type of finings didn’t alter the beers’ taste and aroma, or how it felt in the mouth. The brewers’ magic has made sure there’s a seamless transition and the test run at the taproom has shown that drinkers haven’t noticed any difference.
The pint is such a part of the UK’s pub heritage that Stroud Brewery wants to continue removing all the barriers it can which stop people from enjoying beer, and the next step is to increase the choice of gluten free beers by adding to the current ones (OPA and Hop Drop).
