Marks & Spencer Christmas Ale is Not Vegan Friendly

Company email (April 2024)
"Ghost Ship 4.5% is brewed at Adnams in Southwold, but some is packaged elsewhere.

The vegan status is dependent on the format and where it is packaged.

The cask format is packaged by Adnams and uses isinglass and so it is not vegan.

The bottle and canned formats are packaged by a contractor and as part of their filtration process it uses Isinglass and so isn’t vegan.

The Keg and mini keg format are packaged by Adnams and do not use any animal ingredients and as such are suitable for vegans.

Our Ghosty ship 0.5%, in all formats, bottle, can and keg, do not use any animal ingredients and as such are suitable for vegans."

Company email (October 2019)
"I have attached a reference chart to explain which of our brews are Vegan and Vegetarian suitable.

"This chart takes into account where the beer is processed and packaged and therefore whether isinglass is used or not. We don’t use any of the other ingredients mentioned." [List updated as per chart]

Company email (September 2018)
"I have now spoken to the brewer. And been advised that yes, the 0.5% Ghost ship is certainly vegan."

Company email (July 2018)
"I have had confirmation from our Head Brewer that unfortunately Sole Star isn’t suitable for vegetarians. Although our new Ghost ship 0.5% is." [vegetarian, but is it vegan? -ed]

Company email (May 2018)
"All kegged beer and seasonal/small batch cans are suitable for vegans as well as certain mini kegs.

"Currently the seasonal/small batch cans are; New England IPA, Bicycle Kick, Arabella and Cucumelon Sour. All other cans are currently not suitable for vegans.

"The suitable mini kegs are Ease Up, Mosaic, Dry Hopped Lager and Blackshore, the rest are not.

"No bottles are suitable but it's something that's being looked at."

Company email (April 2018)
"Many thanks for contacting Adnams, in answer to your question our kegged beer is now all vegan friendly, no isinglass is used in any of our kegged beer now.
Same is true for the small batch cans like Arabella and Bicycle kick and NEIPA (when they are canned in two weeks)"

Company email (October 2017)
"...unfortunately at the moment our beers are not vegan however the good news is that we will be brewing a healthier range of brews in 2018 which will be vegan"

Company email (February 2017)
"Currently all our beer either uses Isinglass as a regular process or could use it if needed so I wouldn’t want to call anything vegan. We brew all the beer onsite in Southwold but we can currently only package cask beer, so bottle, can and keg are sent out for filtration and packaging.

"We do use Isinglass in all the cask beer on site. We are involved in trialling some vegan finings but the results so far aren’t good so I don’t think this situation will change soon.

"The vast majority of our beer is bottled at Martsons in Burton on Trent. They do use Isinglass as part of the regular filtration process. They can, on request, filter without Isinglass but they will only do this with low volume beers as it impacts their capacity, we do brew two beer for M&S which don’t use Isinglass, M&S Suffolk bitter and M&S Christmas ale.

"All our Canned beer is treated with Isinglass or could be to deal with any process issues.

"Our kegged beer is similarly treated,. However we are in the middle of a project that will mean we will be able to filter beer on site and keg it here from July. We are hoping that we will be able to process some of our keg beer without the use of Isinglass. I can’t say for certain yet as all beers are different but it is our intention to do trials in June when the equipment is in place.

"It’s also worth adding in the spirits. We produce Gin, Vodka and whisky, amongst other spirits here. None of these use animal products in the distillation."

Company email (March 2014):
"All our spirits are vegetarian/vegan friendly at this time."

Company email (June 2012):
"All our cask beers and bottled beers contain isinglass. Our beer is all made here in Southwold by ourselves so the processing would always be the same. The Cask Diamond Jubilee Ale we produced contained Honey."

Company email, January 2012:
"None of Adnams ales are suitable for vegans."

[clarification question asked]
"I am saying that ‘all’ Adnams drinks are not suitable for vegans; ie beers & spirits."

Company email (circa 2011)
"Currently, only one of our beers is suitable for vegans (i.e no isinglass finings are used) and that's bottled Spindrift."