Guinness brewery is going vegan

After more than two and a half centuries in business, Guinness is changing the way it brews its famous stout. The Times reports the venerable Dublin-based brewery is going vegan.

Starting next year, Guinness will no longer use isinglass, a by-product of the fishing industry made from the dried swim bladders of fish, to remove excess yeast in the brewing process. While isinglass is filtered out before the beer is drunk, that's not good enough for vegan and vegetarian activists who have been lobbying the company for years to stop using it.

As recently as last January, the company had insisted it had not found any alternative that would be "as effective and as environmentally friendly as isinglass," the Times reported.

But now that seems to have changed. A spokesman for Guinness told the paper that a new filtration plant will be built next year that will not rely on isinglass.

Guinness reportedly began using isinglass in the 1800s, but many modern breweries use a synthetic gelatin product to do the job instead.