Stoud Brewery pledges to offer vegan cask beers to customers

07-Feb-2018 - Last updated on 07-Feb-2018 at 13:35 GMT

Growing demand: managing director Greg Pilley says going vegan had clear benefits

Organic beer producer Stroud Brewery has announced it will have at least one vegan cask beer readily available to customers in the future.

The brewery, which was established in 2008, already has a a regular range of six bottles, four cans and regularly changing keg beers that are vegan friendly. These practices will now be rolled out to its organic cask ales, meaning Stroud will be able to offer customers a different vegan ale every few weeks.

Speaking about the decision to go vegan in cask, the brewery’s managing director Greg Pilley said: “We are a 100% organic business and have always had organic and vegan-friendly bottled beers available to customers. As veganism sweeps the UK and with the nation recognising the importance of sustainability issues, there is a growing demand for vegan products.”

New sustainable brewery

“As well as having clear biodiversity, health and social benefits, I have always believed that the organic standards are the perfect basis to produce high-quality products,” Pilley continued. “All our packaged products are certified by the Vegan Society and we want to develop our business with integrity hence our commitment to offering vegan options now of our ales in cask.”

With an annual turnover of just under £1m, the brewery is currently gearing up to build brand new premises for the brewery later this year. Among the benefits of the new site will be additional brewing capacity, storage facilities and a new community-led bar.

There will also be opportunities for Stroud to invest in sustainable practices such as rainwater capture and solar photovoltaic panels.

Ditching fish bladders

Cask ale is often not suitable for vegans because of the use of isinglass, a gelatin obtained from the swim bladders of fish, as a fining agent. However, an increasing number of breweries are now turning to alternative fining solutions or ditching fining altogether.

Earlier this week, Leeds-based Nomadic Brewing announced that it would be going isinglass free to reduce waste and create more vegan-friendly beers for its customers.

Posting a photo on Twitter, the brewery said: “We like it this way. It will reduce our plastic waste and we’ve found our recipes to be more flavourful without it. Our beers will always be suitable for veggies and almost always vegan-friendly.”