Most British Beer contains Fish!

Plekhanov · Post by **Plekhanov** » 2004-06-05 06:22pm

I was in the pub the other day and was handed a voucher for cheap Stella when to my horror my mate told me I wouldn’t be able to use it because get this it has FISH in it as does most other beer. I wasn’t going to take his word for it (this is beer were talking about here) so I did a search when I got home and it turns out he’s right most commonly available beer including nearly all the cheap stuff isn’t vege safe.

Not only are my financial plans for university out of whack now that I have to pay an extra 50p a pint but it’s a complete pain in the arse trying to remember what is and isn’t safe, sometimes ignorance truly is bliss and my life before I learnt what isinglass is was one of those times. Here’s a link in case any other lazy vegetarians want to know what they can and can’t drink with a clear conscience (sorry if this info makes your life a little more complicated but in the end I think it’s better to know).

Edit changed title from “Most Beer isn’t vegetarian safe, bugger” to “Most British Beer contains Fish!” in an attempt to focus more on the initial purpose of posting the thread which was my surprise at finding out that they use fish to make beer and dismay that due to my perverse decision to go veggie I can no longer buy carling at ₤1.10 a pint in the union.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-06-05 06:26pm

What is "vege safe" anyway? Is it a food or drink that hasn't had any animals killed in its making or something that has no animal products in it?

Funnily enough, plants and animals are made from the same stuff.

Plekhanov · Post by **Plekhanov** » 2004-06-05 06:36pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:What is "vege safe" anyway? Is it a food or drink that hasn't had any animals killed in its making or something that has no animal products in it?

Vege safe means no animals were killed vegan safe is no animal products.

Funnily enough, plants and animals are made from the same stuff.

What exactly do you mean by “the same stuff”? My objection to eating animals isn’t that they have DNA or are to quote some SciFi film I can’t remember which are “carbon based life forms” it’s the needless inflicting of suffering and death.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-06-05 06:50pm

Plekhanov wrote: Vege safe means no animals were killed vegan safe is no animal products.

Then I have the sad duty to inform you that a lot of veggie food involves the horrible deaths of many animals. The moral highground of vegetarians isn't so high. Farming costs lives.

What exactly do you mean by “the same stuff”? My objection to eating animals isn’t that they have DNA or are to quote some SciFi film I can’t remember which are “carbon based life forms” it’s the needless inflicting of suffering and death.

That's what I mean. No worries, just some object to animal slaughter on that grounds too.

Plekhanov · Post by **Plekhanov** » 2004-06-05 07:03pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:Then I have the sad duty to inform you that a lot of veggie food involves the horrible deaths of many animals. The moral highground of vegetarians isn't so high. Farming costs lives.

I’m not a follower of Jainism so I can live with that, I know full well that land clearance, pesticides and so forth kill animals however there is a significant difference between killing animals as a by-product of attempting to grow food and intentionally killing animals just because they taste nice.

Post by **Dalton** » 2004-06-05 07:14pm

Plekhanov wrote:I’m not a follower of Jainism so I can live with that, I know full well that land clearance, pesticides and so forth kill animals however there is a significant difference between killing animals as a by-product of attempting to grow food and intentionally killing animals just because they taste nice.

Welcome to nature.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-06-05 07:17pm

Jainism is interesting. It's core principle is that life works to live together as a symbiosis and it is indeed like that in some ecology. But in the ever ongoing arms race that is evolution, many species want to fuck the other over for a percentage, just like humans. The flaw is the misguided assumption that altruism is rife in the natural world. A human may have the morals to not eat an animal, but that animal, if inclined and hungry, sees the human as a "moveable feast" to quote Roland from The Lost World.

I know few like that at least, thankfully.

Superman · Post by **Superman** » 2004-06-05 07:51pm

Well, I can tell you that I sure as hell didn't claw my way up the fucking evolutionary food chain to eat nothing but leaves. Life is too short. Just play the damn game, dude. Things will be so much easier.

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2004-06-05 08:01pm

How are fish used in making beer????

Plekhanov · Post by **Plekhanov** » 2004-06-05 08:06pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:Jainism is interesting. It's core principle is that life works to live together as a symbiosis and it is indeed like that in some ecology. But in the ever ongoing arms race that is evolution, many species want to fuck the other over for a percentage, just like humans. The flaw is the misguided assumption that altruism is rife in the natural world.

I’m well aware of how tough nature is a basic understanding of Darwinism tells you that, however unlike the rest of nature we can make choices and I choose not to kill without good reason.

A human may have the morals to not eat an animal, but that animal, if inclined and hungry, sees the human as a "moveable feast" to quote Roland from The Lost World.

I know few like that at least, thankfully.

That sentiment is more applicable to big game hunters (who generally don’t eat what they kill) than vegetarians, other than fish people rarely eat carnivorous animals even omnivores are rarely eaten apart from maybe pigs, don’t wild boor eat carrion? (unless of course you count all those cows that we fed ground up sheep to) so “that animal” you choose to eat is almost never going to try to eat you if the roles are reversed. There’s nothing left in Britain that could possibly eat people anyway unless those big cat stories are true or they’ve reintroduced wolves to Scotland to keep the deer down.

Plekhanov · Post by **Plekhanov** » 2004-06-05 08:24pm

Superman wrote:Well, I can tell you that I sure as hell didn't claw my way up the fucking evolutionary food chain to eat nothing but leaves. Life is too short.

When you say “I… didn't claw my way up the fucking evolutionary food chain to eat nothing but leaves” are you personally taking credit for all those millions of years of living, breeding and dieing that your ancestors went through? That seems a little big headed.
It turns out you can eat more than just leaves, after a few years of making your mistake a friend pointed out to me that I can also legitimately eat tubers, pulses, fruit and even mushrooms armed with such knowledge I recovered from the malnutrition in no time

Just play the damn game, dude. Things will be so much easier.

Which games that?

Frank Hipper wrote:How are fish used in making beer????

They use fish scales to filter it and isinglass which is some kind of an extract from the swim bladder as a clarifying agent, I do wander how they first figured out that an extract from the swim bladders of certain kinds of fish makes bear taste nicer.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-06-05 08:29pm

And they use seaweed in making ice-cream. The food industry has all sorts of stuff people don't expect because they think it's all au naturale like some family farm. I guarantee that every one of you has consumed something that had part of it at least made in a vat by a certain microbe whether it's an acid for your soda or a colouring for your crisps.

I'm annoyed with the whole organic phenomena going on now as well. There's a reason we can't do the organic thing with 6 billion mouths to feed.

Boyish-Tigerlilly · Post by **Boyish-Tigerlilly** » 2004-06-05 08:38pm

And they use seaweed in making ice-cream. The food industry has all sorts of stuff people don't expect because they think it's all au naturale like some family farm. I guarantee that every one of you has consumed something that had part of it at least made in a vat by a certain microbe whether it's an acid for your soda or a colouring for your crisps.

I'm annoyed with the whole organic phenomena going on now as well. There's a reason we can't do the organic thing with 6 billion mouths to feed.

What does that mean anyway...all natural? They can't put plastic in it or something

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-06-05 08:42pm

nimetski wrote:
And they use seaweed in making ice-cream. The food industry has all sorts of stuff people don't expect because they think it's all au naturale like some family farm. I guarantee that every one of you has consumed something that had part of it at least made in a vat by a certain microbe whether it's an acid for your soda or a colouring for your crisps.

I'm annoyed with the whole organic phenomena going on now as well. There's a reason we can't do the organic thing with 6 billion mouths to feed.
What does that mean anyway...all natural? They can't put plastic in it or something

It means that if we were alive 500 years ago, we'd be doing what they did then. Only you try feeding a nation with modern appetities using traditional techniques. What the hell are you going to do for mod-cons like Pringles? Plant a Pringle tree?!

jenat-lai · Post by **jenat-lai** » 2004-06-05 08:56pm

ooh, a Pro Peta boy. *points and laughs*

Plekhanov · Post by **Plekhanov** » 2004-06-05 09:12pm

jenat-lai wrote:ooh, a Pro Peta boy. *points and laughs*

ooh a knee jerk poster who types and submits before engaging his brain *points and laughs*

I’m largely unaware of PETA who don’t have much of a presence in the UK but from the little I have heard I’m no supporter. Has it not occurred to you that it’s possible to be vegetarian and a liberal who has no desire to inflict their moral choices upon others? The fact that I choose not to eat meat doesn’t automatically make me a hunt sabbing eco terrorist. Moron

Superman · Post by **Superman** » 2004-06-05 09:20pm

Do you take prescription medication? If you do, I hope you realize that gelatin is used to make the capsules. You know where gelatin comes from, right?

And by the way; yes, I am taking credit for millions of years of primate evolution... So there.

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2004-06-05 09:30pm

Superman wrote: And by the way; yes, I am taking credit for millions of years of primate evolution... So there.

Too bad you're not from the planet they actually happened on...

And aren't you supposed to be photovore anyway?

Superman · Post by **Superman** » 2004-06-05 09:31pm

Well yes, but we Kryptonians do enjoy a nice steak now and then.

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2004-06-05 09:39pm

The German Purity Law is still in effect after nearly 500 years, I recommend you drink German.

Plekhanov · Post by **Plekhanov** » 2004-06-05 09:41pm

Superman wrote:Do you take prescription medication? If you do, I hope you realize that gelatin is used to make the capsules. You know where gelatin comes from, right?

Yes and Yes.

I’m a veggie because I don’t think it’s right to kill animals just because they taste nice, I’m quite prepared to kill them for better reasons. So I take prescription medicine when necessary (though not recently as my supremely healthy veggie diet means I’m in perfectish health), if a doctor told me I needed to eat meat for health reasons I would, if I was in some kind of unlikely survival situation I’d do my best to kill and eat whatever was available.

Just for the record I approve of medical tests upon animals and think the current ethical guidelines upon academic research that prevent work like Harlow’s baby monkey from being carried out are too restrictive.

And by the way; yes, I am taking credit for millions of years of primate evolution... So there.

Does this mean I can hold you responsible for the congenital colour blindness that stopped me joining the RAF? What the hell were you thinking when you evolved that?

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2004-06-05 09:43pm

Frank Hipper wrote:The German Purity Law is still in effect after nearly 500 years, I recommend you drink German.

Indeed.

The Kernel · Post by **The Kernel** » 2004-06-05 09:45pm

*pokes head in and looks around*

Hmmm...nope, I'm steering clear of this one.

*leaves*

Plekhanov · Post by **Plekhanov** » 2004-06-05 09:45pm

Frank Hipper wrote:The German Purity Law is still in effect after nearly 500 years, I recommend you drink German.

What’s this purity law thing? I know Becks is on the safe list what other German makes are there?

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2004-06-05 09:55pm

Plekhanov wrote:
Frank Hipper wrote:The German Purity Law is still in effect after nearly 500 years, I recommend you drink German.
What’s this purity law thing? I know Becks is on the safe list what other German makes are there?

The relevant bit:

...nothing is to be added to or used in beer other than barley, hops and water.

The whole thing.
And, I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think all German beers are held to the purity law.