England is a country of beer-drinkers. But some brands are filtered through fish bladder or other animal ingredients,. These artisan beers are all vegan-friendly and sold in zero waste packaging. Also see posts on alcohol-free beers and low-alcohol beers.
E6PR biodegradable beer rings
Boycott beers sold in plastic rings, that goes for cider and shandy too. This can help to reduce the awful harm to wildlife they do. If you see any one the ground, just pick them up, rip up or cut every single hole, and bin securely. By law, they have to photo-degrade. But by law (just like balloons) it takes months before this happens.
Meanwhile, they get caught around wildlife (choking or strangulation or like this duck with a plastic ring stuck in its feathers). And when plastic ‘degrades’, it’s not the same as biodegradable. It just breaks down into millions of invisible plastic pieces, which do just as much harm. Peanut the turtle had her shell warp around the plastic rings she was caught in. Although rescued, she now has to spend her life in captivity, because her organs did not develop properly, poor little love.
You can recycle beer bottles at bottle banks (metal tops go in household recycling). Use a can crusher for easier recycling of lots of cans, and refuse plastic cups at football matches.
Report any plastic beer rings you see to Fix My Street. This site takes complaints with photos, and reports to local councils (who have a legal obligation to clear up on public land). Because the complaints are made public, things tend to be cleared up quickly, especially if many people report the same issue at the same time.
E6PR makes compostable edible six-pack rings for beer, made from wheat and barley (by-products of the brewing method). Currently this is expensive, but the more that people buy them, the sooner the price will be more affordable to all beer companies.
Boycott beers sold in plastic rings, to help reduce the awful harm to wildlife they do. If you see any one the ground, just pick them up, rip up or cut every single hole, and bin securely. By law, they have to photo-degrade. But by law (just like balloons) it takes months. You can recycle beer bottles at bottle banks (metal tops go in household recycling). Use a can crusher for easier recycling of lots of cans, and refuse plastic cups at football matches.
Fauna Brewing helps to combat species decline, one beer at a time. Choose from cheetah lager, wild dog IPA or pango table beer. Each purchase helps to fund conservation charity partners. This helps to preserve cheetahs, African painted dogs and pangolins.
Beers (made from leftover bread)
These beers made from leftover bread use part of the normal yeast from bread that would otherwise go to waste. Both these beers are vegan-friendly. Leftover bread is one of our biggest food waste problems.
Never give birds/wildfowl more than tiny amounts of soaked wholemeal bread, too much (or stale/fatty bread in sandwiches with butter) can affect waterproofing and insulation of feathers.
Toast Ale uses surplus fresh bread to replace one-third of the malted barley in their grain bill. Bread is packed with carbohydrates, which are broken down to simple sugars by enzymes (Amylase) in the barley. Hops are added for aroma and bitterness, and to help preserve the beer, then yeast converts the sugars to alcohol during fermentation.
They use the heel end of loaves that would usually be discarded by the sandwich industry. Toast works with large factories like Adelie Foods. They donate and deliver the bread to Toast Ale at no cost because it avoids a waste cost and can have a positive impact – it’s win-win! For collaborations, they also use surplus bread from local bakeries. Toast uses surplus fresh bread to replace one-third of the malted barley in their grain bill. 100% of their profits go to charities fixing the food system to magnify their impact. Their main charity partner is Feedback founded by Tristram Stuart.
- Their fruity beer made from crumpets is unique in that some of the brewing yeast is replaced by leftover crumpets, that would otherwise go to landfill. Light with a bitter hoppy punch, the malted barley and all-British hops completes the picture. Sold in a pack of 12 x 330ml bottles, they use profits to help a charity ending food waste.
- Their Chocolate Stout has undertones of vanilla, liquorice and dark fruits. It’s brewed with surplus fresh bread, six different malts, three hop varieties and Divine sustainable cocoa powder.
Crumbs Brewing (Surrey) uses leftover bread (from their own bakery). Each bread is made with a different loaf, and cardboard gift sets are sold. Choose from Sourdough Pale Ale, Bloomin’ Amber Lager (based on a Vienna recipe) and Rye Ruby Ale. Their Rye Porter made with spent coffee grounds is the ultimate food-waste-reducing beer. Sold in a case of 12 x 330ml bottles, this chocolate sweet porter uses leftover Union Coffee grounds from the bakery that makes the beer (they also use leftover bread for other beers). By adding the delicate cold brew during fermentation, the result is a strong sweet beer that is sure to be enjoyed by all. Vegan-friendly.
Artisan Alternatives to Guinness
Guinness used to be filtered through animal bones but due to pleas from vegans, today it’s okay. Although not as popular as you would think, Nigerians drink more than the Irish. Many of us like to support small artisan ethical brands, rather than the big guns. If this is you, then here are a few good alternative brands of vegan Irish (or Irish-inspired stout beers):
- Toast Ale Coffee Porter is similar to stout. This company gives profits to help reduce food waste, and uses leftover bread to replace some of the yeast. Rich and dark with undertones of nuts and coffee, this is brewed with Fair Trade Brazilian coffee.
- Samuel Smith Organic Chocolate Stout is brewed with water (from a well built in 1758), gently roasted organic chocolate malt and organic cocoa for a smooth creamy flavour with deep flavours and a delightful finish.
A Gift Box of Vegan Beers
This plant-based craft beer selection box contains a mix of quality vegan beers. Some beers are filtered through bone char or fish bladder, these are all safe for vegans, vegetarians and everyone else. All brewed by small indie craft brewers, this makes the perfect gift. The range of brewing styles is represented across the board with a craft lager, a dark beer and lighter ales.
The box includes tasting notes and a score sheet. Packed in a cardboard box with eco tape, there are 6 cans (3 x 330ml and 3 x 440ml). The range includes Toast Ale, which is made with leftover bread that would otherwise go to waste (and gives profits to help food waste charities).
Alcohol-Free Artisan Beers
A good sustainable beer is made with natural ingredients (most have barley, so are not gluten-free) in plastic-free packaging and free from lactose sugar (also free from filtering through bone or fish bladder). Boycott brands that use plastic beer rings, which choke and strangle wildlife. Companies can easily use cardboard beer holders today. If you see discarded plastic rings, pick them up, rip up the holes and dispose of securely in the nearest bin.
No-alcohol beers still contain the same alcohol as a ripe banana (so you won’t get drunk but they have to legally say so). Low-alcohol beers obviously contain a little, but not much. If on medication or pregnant, it’s best to just avoid any alcohol at all.
There are many reasons why people prefer to drink less alcohol. And some people who do drink alcohol, sometimes like the option of going no-alcohol or low-alcohol, if cutting down on the booze, or being the designated driver (choose alcohol-free for this case). These beers:
- Do not give you a hangover!
- Are much lower usually in calories
- Are good for the drivers (no alcohol)
- Are good to help cut down on drinking
- Cutting down alcohol helps better sleep
- Cutting down alcohol is good for your skin
- Less alcohol can makes you less sluggish
- Alcohol can sometimes deplete vitamins
- For many, alcohol is a depressant
Lucky Saint is a Bavarian-brewed Pilsner-styled lager that uses quality ingredients including Hallertau hops, and follows German purity laws. Brewed the same way as full-strength beer then fermented for 6 weeks, it has a biscuity malt taste and smooth citrus hop finish. Left unfiltered. This one is available on draught, if you run a pub.
Coast Beer Co is an alcohol-free craft beer, launched after countless pilot batches, tinkering and tweaking. Made using the finest ingredients, innovative yeast cultures and modern brewing techniques, these beers include a hazy IPA and double dry hopped IPA.
Drop Bear Beer offer non-alcohol beers with attitude! Female-founded (they plant at least 36 trees per month too), this is sold in sustainable packaging and sent in bags made with sugar cane. The gift pack includes the range of New World Lager, Yuzu Pale Ale, Tropical IPA (a complex malt base, and notes of pineapple, peach, passion fruit, caramel, coffee and dark chocolate) And Bonfire Stout (notes of roasted coffee and smoked malt, with a burst of dark chocolate).
Nirvana Brewery (East London) is on a mission to create top quality alcohol-free craft beers. The founder’s dad went teetotal and so she created beers that he could enjoy. From IPA and pales ales to stout and the world’s first kombucha beer, these recipes are appreciated by craft beer enthusiasts and casual beer drinkers alike. The range includes low-alcohol beers too including a Bavarian Helles Lager and Hoppy Pale Ale.
You likely know that the boozy drink of choice in Germany is beer. Pilsner is the most popular variety, a light golden beer with a dry hoppy aroma. Nirvana Brewery Bavarian Lager is an alcohol-free beer with pleasant biscuit notes, natural carbonation and a nectar finish.
Low-Alcohol Artisan Beers
A good sustainable beer is made with natural ingredients (most have barley, so are not gluten-free) in plastic-free packaging and free from lactose sugar (also free from filtering through bone or fish bladder). Boycott brands that use plastic beer rings, which choke and strangle wildlife. Companies can easily use cardboard beer holders today. If you see discarded plastic rings, pick them up, rip up the holes and dispose of securely in the nearest bin.
No-alcohol beers still contain the same alcohol as a ripe banana (so you won’t get drunk but they have to legally say so). Low-alcohol beers obviously contain a little, but not much. If on medication or pregnant, it’s best to just avoid any alcohol at all.
There are many reasons why people prefer to drink less alcohol. And some people who do drink alcohol, sometimes like the option of going no-alcohol or low-alcohol, if cutting down on the booze, or being the designated driver (choose alcohol-free for this case). These beers:
- Do not give you a hangover!
- Are much lower usually in calories
- Are good for the drivers (no alcohol)
- Are good to help cut down on drinking
- Cutting down alcohol helps better sleep
- Cutting down alcohol is good for your skin
- Less alcohol can makes you less sluggish
- Alcohol can sometimes deplete vitamins
- For many, alcohol is a depressant
Sustainable Low-Alcohol Beer from London
Small Beer Brew Co (London) brews classic styles in Bermondsey using natural carbonation rather than vacuum distilling or reverse osmosis. This is a very sustainable brewery that has slashed the amount of water needed (1.5 pints to the usual 8 to 10) and saved over 1.4 litres of water, just by this process alone. The range (which includes a gift set in a cardboard box) includes:
- A bright crisp lager has a floral crisp citrus nose and continental bite on the finish, perfect for an evening sundowner. Ideal lunchtime ice-breaker or theatre interval refresher.
- Small Beer Session Pale Ale is full of tropical hops and aromas, with bright fresh citrus and a juicy bitterness, to help you wind down, at the end of a busy working day.
- Small Beer Steam has a punch of British rye spice, which bridges the gap between a lager and ale with dried fruits, a balanced hoppy finish and a rounded malty richness.
- Dark lager has a roasted coffee-led aroma. A refreshing sharp lager finish, with chocolate and a wisp of smoke on the nose.
The brewery is cleaned with recovered heat and water, and runs on green energy (any gas used is frack-free). All packaging is recycled and gift boxes are sent in cardboard. Even the ‘stubby bottles’ are designed to save resources. Spent grain is sent to feed local cattle (the farmer says the higher water of their grain means his cows are more hydrated so end up drinking less water from their troughs, saving more resources). Used grain sacks (which can’t be filled again by their malt supplier) are sent to a local charity that uses them to store and move garden materials for neighbourhood projects. You can also buy kegs and mini kegs (just chill in the fridge and use the carry handle to take with you).
We’re a great tasting beer, that brews with our world in mind. The way things should be. Small Beer
Low-Alcohol Shandy from Hampshire
Shandy Shack (Hampshire) was started by friends who loved to drink beer and party, but could no longer hack the hangovers. The range is sold in cans as a standard traditional shandy or an elderflower top.
Brewgooder is a vegan brand of beer that uses its sales, to create waves of positive change around the world. Founded by a university graduate who contracted a parasite in Nepal from drinking contaminated water, he worked in social enterprises and foreign development, before stating a brand of beer that uses profits to help bring clean water to developing communities worldwide. Never buy beers with plastic rings, as they harm wildlife if discarded (they are invisible on water).
Launched with the support of 1000 beer fans via crowdfunding, in just 3 months the brand was supporting its first project, bringing clean water to a rural village of over 5000 people in Malawi, Africa. Based in Scotland, it provides 100 times the amount in fresh water of every can or pint of beer sold, to charity partners. The range includes:
- Lager (brewed in the classic Helles style, with Sorachi Ace hops)
- Session IPA (oats, American hops with bitter citrus)
- Hazy IPA (stone fruit, citrus and pine)
- New England IPA (notes of pineapple, citrus & berry)
- Tropical Pale (mango & passion fruit)
E6PR biodegradable beer rings
Boycott beers sold in plastic rings, that goes for cider and shandy too. This can help to reduce the awful harm to wildlife they do. If you see any one the ground, just pick them up, rip up or cut every single hole, and bin securely. By law, they have to photo-degrade. But by law (just like balloons) it takes months before this happens.
Meanwhile, they get caught around wildlife (choking or strangulation or like this duck with a plastic ring stuck in its feathers). And when plastic ‘degrades’, it’s not the same as biodegradable. It just breaks down into millions of invisible plastic pieces, which do just as much harm. Peanut the turtle had her shell warp around the plastic rings she was caught in. Although rescued, she now has to spend her life in captivity, because her organs did not develop properly, poor little love.
You can recycle beer bottles at bottle banks (metal tops go in household recycling). Use a can crusher for easier recycling of lots of cans, and refuse plastic cups at football matches.
Report any plastic beer rings you see to Fix My Street. This site takes complaints with photos, and reports to local councils (who have a legal obligation to clear up on public land). Because the complaints are made public, things tend to be cleared up quickly, especially if many people report the same issue at the same time.
E6PR makes compostable edible six-pack rings for beer, made from wheat and barley (by-products of the brewing method). Currently this is expensive, but the more that people buy them, the sooner the price will be more affordable to all beer companies.
The Best Low-Alcohol Artisan Beers
A good sustainable beer is made with natural ingredients (most have barley, so are not gluten-free) in plastic-free packaging and free from lactose sugar (also free from filtering through bone or fish bladder). Boycott brands that use plastic beer rings, which choke and strangle wildlife. Companies can easily use cardboard beer holders today. If you see discarded plastic rings, pick them up, rip up the holes and dispose of securely in the nearest bin.
No-alcohol beers still contain the same alcohol as a ripe banana (so you won’t get drunk but they have to legally say so). Low-alcohol beers obviously contain a little, but not much. If on medication or pregnant, it’s best to just avoid any alcohol at all.
There are many reasons why people prefer to drink less alcohol. And some people who do drink alcohol, sometimes like the option of going no-alcohol or low-alcohol, if cutting down on the booze, or being the designated driver (choose alcohol-free for this case). These beers:
- Do not give you a hangover!
- Are much lower usually in calories
- Are good for the drivers (no alcohol)
- Are good to help cut down on drinking
- Cutting down alcohol helps better sleep
- Cutting down alcohol is good for your skin
- Less alcohol can makes you less sluggish
- Alcohol can sometimes deplete vitamins
- For many, alcohol is a depressant
Sustainable Low-Alcohol Beer from London
Small Beer Brew Co (London) brews classic styles in Bermondsey using natural carbonation rather than vacuum distilling or reverse osmosis. This is a very sustainable brewery that has slashed the amount of water needed (1.5 pints to the usual 8 to 10) and saved over 1.4 litres of water, just by this process alone. The range (which includes a gift set in a cardboard box) includes:
- A bright crisp lager has a floral crisp citrus nose and continental bite on the finish, perfect for an evening sundowner. Ideal lunchtime ice-breaker or theatre interval refresher.
- Small Beer Session Pale Ale is full of tropical hops and aromas, with bright fresh citrus and a juicy bitterness, to help you wind down, at the end of a busy working day.
- Small Beer Steam has a punch of British rye spice, which bridges the gap between a lager and ale with dried fruits, a balanced hoppy finish and a rounded malty richness.
- Dark lager has a roasted coffee-led aroma. A refreshing sharp lager finish, with chocolate and a wisp of smoke on the nose.
The brewery is cleaned with recovered heat and water, and runs on green energy (any gas used is frack-free). All packaging is recycled and gift boxes are sent in cardboard. Even the ‘stubby bottles’ are designed to save resources. Spent grain is sent to feed local cattle (the farmer says the higher water of their grain means his cows are more hydrated so end up drinking less water from their troughs, saving more resources). Used grain sacks (which can’t be filled again by their malt supplier) are sent to a local charity that uses them to store and move garden materials for neighbourhood projects. You can also buy kegs and mini kegs (just chill in the fridge and use the carry handle to take with you).
We’re a great tasting beer, that brews with our world in mind. The way things should be. Small Beer
Low-Alcohol Shandy from Hampshire
Shandy Shack (Hampshire) was started by friends who loved to drink beer and party, but could no longer hack the hangovers. The range is sold in cans as a standard traditional shandy or an elderflower top.
The Best Alcohol-Free Artisan Beers
A good sustainable beer is made with natural ingredients (most have barley, so are not gluten-free) in plastic-free packaging and free from lactose sugar (also free from filtering through bone or fish bladder). Boycott brands that use plastic beer rings, which choke and strangle wildlife. Companies can easily use cardboard beer holders today. If you see discarded plastic rings, pick them up, rip up the holes and dispose of securely in the nearest bin.
No-alcohol beers still contain the same alcohol as a ripe banana (so you won’t get drunk but they have to legally say so). Low-alcohol beers obviously contain a little, but not much. If on medication or pregnant, it’s best to just avoid any alcohol at all.
There are many reasons why people prefer to drink less alcohol. And some people who do drink alcohol, sometimes like the option of going no-alcohol or low-alcohol, if cutting down on the booze, or being the designated driver (choose alcohol-free for this case). These beers:
- Do not give you a hangover!
- Are much lower usually in calories
- Are good for the drivers (no alcohol)
- Are good to help cut down on drinking
- Cutting down alcohol helps better sleep
- Cutting down alcohol is good for your skin
- Less alcohol can makes you less sluggish
- Alcohol can sometimes deplete vitamins
- For many, alcohol is a depressant
Lucky Saint is a Bavarian-brewed Pilsner-styled lager that uses quality ingredients including Hallertau hops, and follows German purity laws. Brewed the same way as full-strength beer then fermented for 6 weeks, it has a biscuity malt taste and smooth citrus hop finish. Left unfiltered. This one is available on draught, if you run a pub.
Coast Beer Co is an alcohol-free craft beer, launched after countless pilot batches, tinkering and tweaking. Made using the finest ingredients, innovative yeast cultures and modern brewing techniques, these beers include a hazy IPA and double dry hopped IPA.
Drop Bear Beer offer non-alcohol beers with attitude! Female-founded (they plant at least 36 trees per month too), this is sold in sustainable packaging and sent in bags made with sugar cane. The gift pack includes the range of New World Lager, Yuzu Pale Ale, Tropical IPA (a complex malt base, and notes of pineapple, peach, passion fruit, caramel, coffee and dark chocolate) And Bonfire Stout (notes of roasted coffee and smoked malt, with a burst of dark chocolate).
Nirvana Brewery (East London) is on a mission to create top quality alcohol-free craft beers. The founder’s dad went teetotal and so she created beers that he could enjoy. From IPA and pales ales to stout and the world’s first kombucha beer, these recipes are appreciated by craft beer enthusiasts and casual beer drinkers alike. The range includes low-alcohol beers too including a Bavarian Helles Lager and Hoppy Pale Ale.
You likely know that the boozy drink of choice in Germany is beer. Pilsner is the most popular variety, a light golden beer with a dry hoppy aroma. Nirvana Brewery Bavarian Lager is an alcohol-free beer with pleasant biscuit notes, natural carbonation and a nectar finish.
