I recently gained an education about vegetarian beer and wine.  If you’re anything like I was 24 hours ago, you’re blissfully ignorant that such a distinction exists.  But it does.

It’s all about appearance.
The production of alcohol, whether from fruit sugars as in the case of wine or cider or from the malted grains used to make beer, results in molecular strands of protein.  The strands aren’t visible, at least not individually, but enough of them can make the drink appear cloudy.  They don’t really affect the taste or aroma but as you can imagine a cloudy glass of wine or beer might turn off many a drinker – Hefeweizen aficionados aside.

Finings to the rescue.
Long before they knew what caused this cloudiness, brewers and vintners discovered that many types of organic material could be used to clear out the cloudiness.  Egg whites, casein, and even blood have been used to drive this cloudiness away.  While all of these materials are still used in various spots around the world, gelatin and isinglass are two of the most popular fining agents used today.  These fining agents work by bonding with the protein strands then falling to the bottom of the fermentation vessel.  The cleared liquid is then drained off.  So the final product generally does not contain any animal products but their use in production is enough to turn off many vegetarians.  Beer presents further problems for vegans as some ales contain milk or honey.  Off the top of my head I can’t think of any lagers that contain animal products but there may be some out there.

Fine alternatives
The good news is that there are non-animal fining agents that work just as well and finding beers and wines made with them isn’t that hard.  Rather than try to reinvent the wheel with my own list I’ll just point you to a couple of sites that have been compiling lists of vegetarian and vegan acceptable wines, beers and ciders.  Check out Vegetarian food, beer, cider and wine and The Vegan Booze List.