Great Taste

5 surprising ingredients in your favorite beer
Care for a tall, cold glass of fish guts?

How about a tall, cold glass of fish guts? It hardly sounds appetizing, but it may be what some of us are sipping when we reach for a beer.

In recent weeks, there’s been growing pressure on breweries to share what goes into their products: a “Tell us what’s in your beer” campaign headed by food blogger Vani Hari (aka the “Food Babe” ) has already resulted in Anheuser-Busch BUD +0.47%    revealing the ingredients in its Budweiser and Bud Light brews — namely, water, barley malt, rice, yeast and hops. Still, the blogger and other researchers and consumer activists contend that many brews have less appetizing items in them.

Such as…

Fish guts

It turns out that collagen derived from fish guts — specifically, something called the “swim bladder” — makes a fine clarifying agent for use in beer (meaning it can help weed out “any remaining yeast and solid particles,” according to Smithsonian.com ). While it doesn’t necessarily affect the taste of beer, it could result in a beer being less than vegetarian or vegan-friendly. For that reason, Smithsonian reports, many vegetarians and vegans opt for German-made beers because they must adhere to that country’s “purity laws,” which specify what can (and can’t) go into a brew.

Insect-based dyes

Crushed cohineal beetles, anyone? Those particular insects are used to make a red dye that can be used to color beer. Obviously, this is another area of concern for vegetarians and vegans. But as the BeerTutor.com site also points out : “Some people do have severe allergic reactions to foods containing this dye.”

Caramel coloring

This popular coloring agent, which is found in many a soda, can also be used with beer. Hari says it’s problematic because “it is a carcinogen proven to cause liver tumors, lung tumors and thyroid tumors in rats and mice.” That said, she notes that most beers usually derive their color from toasted barley.

GMO corn

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To make alcohol, you need to ferment something with sugar in it – in the case of beer, that’s typically malted barley. But as the Cryptobrewology site explains , some brewers add corn (GMO corn, to be exact) to assist with the process. Still, Cryptobrewology maintains this is much ado about nothing since after fermentation “the original corn grain…is discarded. So GMO corn is not really an ingredient in the final beer.”

Propylene glycol

For many beer lovers, it’s all about the foamy head. In turn, for many beer makers, it’s all about the propylene glycol — that’s the organic compound that’s often used as a foam stabilizer. Beer lovers may be alarmed to hear that propylene glycol also finds its way into such products as electronic cigarettes, veterinary medicines and antifreeze. Still, the FDA says the compound “can be ingested over long periods of time and in substantial quantities…without causing frank toxic effects.”

coors lite!