Explainer

Is Your Alcohol-Free Beer Vegan? The Big Names, Checked

By Rich, Founder · Updated August 2026

“Is Moretti vegan?” gets asked of Google hundreds of times a month, and the honest answer is more interesting than yes or no. Most beer is naturally vegan — water, malt, hops and yeast — but a handful of things can quietly change that, and alcohol-free beer plays by exactly the same rules. Here's how to tell in five seconds, brand answers included.

The three things that make a beer not vegan

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Isinglass finings

A fish-derived clarifier used in some traditional filtration. Increasingly rare — most modern AF beers use vegan-friendly methods or skip filtration entirely.

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Lactose

Milk sugar — the “milk” in milk stout, adding sweetness and body. Always named on the label as an allergen, so it's the easiest one to spot.

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Honey

Occasional guest in speciality brews. Like lactose, it'll be declared in the ingredients — no detective work needed.

Quick answers: the beers you asked about

UNLTD Lager & IPAVegan
Days LagerVegan
Lucky Saint (brewery-stated)Vegan
Guinness 0.0Vegan
Drop Bear (whole range)Vegan
Nirvana Best & core rangeVegan
Heineken 0.0Vegan
Big Drop Galactic Milk StoutNot vegan
Northern Monk Heaven AF (lactose)Not vegan
Honey & milk-stout styles generallyCheck label

“Vegan” above means brewery-stated or certified; “check label” means it varies by beer within the style. Uncertified big brands are covered in the FAQs below. When in doubt, the ingredients line settles it.

The all-vegan shortcut

If you'd rather not read a single label: Wise Bartender's Vegan-ator mixed case is vegan end to end — the beers, the finings, even the bottle glue — and at £2.08 a bottle it's also the cheapest case we've ranked. UNLTD's IPA and Lager (vegan, gluten-free, 13–23 kcal) are the standout singles.

Get the Vegan-ator → Shop UNLTD →

Affiliate links — small commission, no extra cost to you, never affects our answers.

FAQs

Is Birra Moretti vegan?

Moretti's brewer doesn't certify it vegan, but no animal-derived ingredients or finings are listed for the lager or for Moretti Zero, and it's widely listed as vegan-friendly by community databases. Cautious answer: almost certainly fine, not certified.

Is Corona vegan?

Corona — including Corona Cero — is widely reported as vegan-friendly (no isinglass, no animal ingredients), though the brewer doesn't carry formal certification. Same cautious verdict: fine for most vegans, uncertified.

Is Lucky Saint vegan?

Yes — Lucky Saint states its unfiltered lager is vegan: no finings at all, since the beer is deliberately left unfiltered.

Is Guinness 0.0 vegan?

Yes. Guinness famously removed isinglass from its filtration in the late 2010s, and Guinness 0.0 is vegan-friendly — one of the reasons it's become the default alcohol-free pint.

Why would a beer NOT be vegan?

Three usual suspects: isinglass finings (a fish-derived clarifier used in some traditional filtration), lactose (milk sugar, the signature of milk stouts — that's why our beloved Big Drop Galactic isn't vegan), and honey in speciality brews. Ingredients like malt, hops, water and yeast are all plant-and-fungus territory.

What's the easiest way to buy vegan alcohol-free beer?

A case built for it: Wise Bartender's Vegan-ator pack is all-vegan by design — beers, finings, even the label glue — and it's our vegan pick in the variety case guide.

Keep reading

Ranked

The 10 Best Vegan Alcohol-Free Beers, Ranked

Ranked

Best Variety Cases (incl. the Vegan-ator)

Brewery

UNLTD — vegan, gluten-free, B Corp

Explainer

Is Alcohol-Free Beer Gluten-Free?

Label data

The Lowest-Carb Alcohol-Free Beers

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