The bread that keeps giving!

It’s National Beer Day today so it only seems right to put our sustainability spotlight on a brand brewing up a storm in creating sustainable craft brews. Food production is the biggest contributor to climate change and unfortunately, one third of all food is wasted. In the UK 44% of all bread is never eaten and ends up as waste because of its relatively low shelf life. 

Tristiam Stuart and Rob Wilson are co-founders of Toast Ale and they use their passion as a force for good by repurposing fresh bread that’s surplus in bakeries, factories and supermarkets. 

Production spoiler alert: Toast Ale replaces some of the malt in their brew with bread by extracting starches and breaking them down into fermentable sugars, so the bread is more than just a flavouring. 

The brand is also on a mission to help fix the food system by giving back with every bottle through a donated meal to someone who needs it, as well as donating their employees’ time in volunteer days. They’ve democratized their approach and learnings on their website for other brewers to follow suit. 

In that ‘stronger together’ spirit, they have created a series of limited-edition beers called Rise Up in collaboration with other B Corp brands. Each beer highlights a different element of the ecological crisis and the systemic change needed to the food system to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss. For example, Rise Up Oceans highlights the challenge of plastic pollution and the threat on ocean life . The collaboration with teapigs who are certified plastic free inspired a Lemongrass (tea) Lager. The new happy hour is afternoon tea. 

Toast Ale is almost as good as sliced bread. Pick your brew responsibly.