When the staff at Eden were growing up in our various corners of the country - Barnsley, Appleby, Sheffield and Wisbech - ham sandwiches were a pretty uncontroversial subject.
Children ate them with the crusts chopped off at kids’ parties and in their packed lunches, adults gobbled them in their lunch breaks and then threw the leftovers to their dogs without a second thought.
But with growing numbers of people going gluten free while others are opting for a vegetarian, flexitarian or completely vegan diet, the humble ham bap - once consumed with the same lack of thought as air - is suddenly beset with issues, alongside many of its meat and wheat based brethren. Many are even turning their dogs vegan without even consulting them.
The only problem is that these diets are - in many cases - excluding people from the supreme being of all food and drink: beer.
Barley is, obviously, a key ingredient in beer and, perhaps less obviously, the vast majority of beers use isinglass - a product made from the swim bladder of a sturgeon - to extract the yeast sediment from the beer and make it clear.
As we have said before, Eden’s mission is to make great beer that everyone can drink. That’s why this year we’ve brewed Naked Gold, a 4.2%ABV ale that’s really an identical twin of our ever popular Eden Gold, except that it’s gluten and animal product free.
In the slightly longer term we are working on making all of our beer suitable for vegetarians and vegans, but we think Naked Gold is a pretty good start.
After all, no-one should have to miss out on good beer.
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