Yards Sons of Ben is Vegan Friendly

Jone notes (December 2019)
"Yards’ Chocolate Love Stout has lactose and is not vegan, per one of the brewers I just spoke to."

Company email (February 2018)
"Generally all of our beers are vegetarian. Based on how you feel about honey, Thomas Jefferson's Tavern Ale may not be vegan."

Company email (April 2013):
"As far as my understanding of vegan dietary restrictions go, with the exception of our Thomas Jefferson Tavern Ale, Yards does not use any products, ingredients, or processes that are considered inappropriate for a vegan diet. We do brew an oyster stout-style beer called the Love Stout. This beer DOES NOT have any oysters, oyster shells, or other animal products in it. Originally, it was formulated to recreate the historic style, but it now only uses a mineral salt addition to alter the water chemistry. As such, it should be vegan safe. The only beer in the Ales of the Revolution series that uses honey is the TJ mentioned before. Both the General Washington’s Tavern Porter and the Poor Richard’s Tavern Spruce utilize molasses and have no honey in them."

Company email (August 2012):
"We have honey in our Thomas Jefferson Ale but no other animal products are used in the processing/filtration of our products.
Also, we occasionally use oyster shells when we brew our Love Stout, but it is only the shells."

UPDATE: Feb 2010
Note from Eric:
"I went to Yards brewery the other day and was talking to one of the brewers and I asked about the revolutionary series which I had never tried because the website before showed that they used honey. Anyways he explained that they used molasses for all but the Thom Jefferson Tavern Ale. Anyways I was glad to find this out. I emailed the owner just to make sure, the response is below."

Company email:
"We use honey in the Thom Jefferson and we use Molasses in the General Washington and the Spruce.""
Company Email: Oct 2010
"We use oyster shells for one of our beers. We also use Isinglass as a fining agent in the same beer. It's called Love Stout. The use of the oyster shells is to extract calcium carbonate which hardens the water and implies a perceived dryness."

UPDATE: JUNE 2009
From Kevin: The ales of the revolution series are the ones with honey in them.

Company email:
Hi Justin ~ Thanks for the email and it's not an odd question...we've gotten it before. We think it is important for people to know about their food and drinks and how it is made. Surprisingly enough, we are forbidden - by law- to put any kind of ingredient or nutritional label on our beers. Breweries aren't governed by the FDA. The macro breweries lobbied the Federal Government very strongly in favor of not putting ingredient/nutritional labels on beer. Crazy but true. I guess they don't want people to know about all the chemicals, etc. that they put in their beers. So, the answer to your question is - no, we do not use any animal products or byproducts in our beers. The filters we use are diametaceous earth so it contains nothing animal related.