Offline Moment: Brewing Beer From Food Waste With Toast Ale
Image: Toast Ale
OUR HECTIC MODERN LIVES ARE INCREASINGLY DOMINATED BY SCREENS. AS A DIGITAL COMPANY WE KNOW FIRST HAND HOW TOUGH IT CAN BE TO TAKE A BREAK FROM THAT ADDICTIVE BLUE GLOW. SO CONSIDER THIS YOUR WEEKLY OFFLINE MOMENT. A MOMENT WHERE WE EXPLORE DIFFERENT WAYS TO QUIETEN YOUR MIND BY TAKING YOU OFFLINE AND BACK TO REAL LIFE.
Food waste is an ever present problem in the modern world. We expend valuable natural resources and energy to create food that is simply never eaten. Toast Ale are a UK based B Corp that are pushing the boundaries of beer making by brewing beer from food waste.
Image: Toast Ale
How the story began
1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted annually around the world. A shocking 900,000 tonnes of this is bread. It may be a popular staple in the UK, but we still chuck away 24 million slices every day. Most of this happens before our bread products arrive in our homes or lunchboxes. Factories that make sandwiches discard the heel and first slice of every loaf, thats 13,000 slices of bread thrown away every day. This is the material that Toast Ale utilise to create their beers. Modelled after a 7,000 year old recipe called ‘divine drink’, made with fermented bread, Founder Tristram was inspired to create a great tasting beer that helped solve our food waste problems too. Toast Ale now works with factories all over the UK, receiving surplus slices of bread that they then use to create your beer.
The Impact
Not only are they rescuing perfectly good bread slices, but they are also saving energy. Through not using barley in their beer, Toast have freed up the land and water that would have been used to grow it. That land can now be used for other agricultural uses or returned to nature. Therefore by swapping barley for bread that would otherwise end up in landfills, they have saved 32.1tCO2e (carbon emissions). This is because when bread is left to rot in landfill it emits methane, a gas known to cause Global warming.
As a registered B Corp, Toast plough all of their profits into charities and social projects. Their main partner, Feedback, is a charity that helps to reduce the environmental impact of food production. So far they have donated £25,000 to Feedback and other charities around the world.
Brew Your Own Bread Beer
If you have been inspired to utilise your bread waste to create beer, Toast also offer a handy recipe to help you on your way. Get the recipe here.
It’s an incredible story, and one that continues to inspire those that enjoy drinking it. Currently, the beers are available in glass bottles made from recycled glass and locally sourced sand. In a bid to step up their environmental work and make their beer even more ‘planet saving’, Toast want to launch their range in cans in the UK. Aluminum cans are much lighter than glass, meaning that a large amount of energy can be saved when transporting the beer. They can also be recycled over and over again. As a socially aware company, they need your help to do this and have set up an amazing campaign to get you involved.
Get Involved
Toast are looking to raise money to continue their amazing work to rescue bread waste and bring you a great tasting bevvy. Head to their Crowdfunder page to find out more about the new canned range and pledge money to help them release the cans in the UK.
Disclaimer: This post was created in partnership with Toast Ale to support their Crowdfunding project. This post may contain affiliate links.
