Wait, wine and beer aren't vegan?
Short answer: Often not. Many drinks are filtered with fish bladder, and animal bits hide in sweets, cheese and juice, but it's easy to check and avoid.
The objection
“Come on, now you’re telling me a glass of wine isn’t vegan? This is getting ridiculous.”
The answer
It sounds absurd until you see how the pint is actually made.
Many wines, beers and ciders are clarified with fining agents that are animal-derived: isinglass (dried fish swim bladders), gelatine, casein (milk protein) or egg white, used to drag out haze. The animal product is mostly filtered back out, but it was used, so the drink isn’t vegan. The bottle never lists it, because finings count as a processing aid, not an ingredient.
It hides elsewhere too:
- Gelatine (boiled skin, bone and connective tissue) in most gummy sweets, marshmallows and some yoghurts.
- Animal rennet (from calf stomachs) in traditional cheeses.
- Carmine / cochineal (E120), crushed beetles, for red colouring in sweets, drinks and some yoghurts.
- Shellac (E904), a resin from the lac insect, glazing sweets and “natural” waxed fruit.
- Isinglass again, sometimes in fined fruit juices.
None of this is a reason to throw up your hands. The opposite, in fact. Apps like Barnivore list thousands of vegan drinks, most supermarkets label clearly now, and the entire category of “accidentally vegan” food is huge. The aim isn’t perfection or paralysis. It’s noticing that the animal turns up in places the label never mentions, and that once you can see it, most of it is easy to step around.