As a winter guzzler of Guinness, I love the fact the dark stout is slightly lower in calories than many other brands (210 per pint), but apparently, Guinness isn't vegetarian. I'm a happy meat eater, but wasn't always, so I find this interesting and amusing.

The stout uses isinglass, a by-product of the fishing industry that comes from dead fish. Isinglass is used as a fining agent for settling out suspended matter in the beer vat, and even though it's kept in the floor of the vat, small quantities might end up in the beer, which makes the beer, technically, not vegetarian.

I was a vegetarian for 10 years, and have been a Guinness drinker for even longer, but I never knew this alleged factoid about my favorite beer. All those years I thought I was on a strict veggie diet, I was, possibly, ingesting dead fish particles.

Might as well have downed a fish sandwich from McDonald's while I was at it.