Did you know that food production is the biggest contributor to climate change, and one third of all food is wasted? Seeing the problem as an opportunity, Toast is doing its bit to change that. Not only is it brewing planet-saving beer with surplus fresh bread, but it donates all of its profits to charities fixing the food system.
All of Toast’s beers are brewed using waste ingredients from bread making to create unique flavours. Working with bakers and sandwich makers across the UK to cut waste, Toast brews up some mighty good bouquets, and pass on its profits to charities tackling food waste head on. So we can all enjoy a cheeky pint, knowing that we’re helping both people and planet. Nice.
Almost half of all bread that’s made – a whopping 44% – is never eaten.
Almost half of all bread that’s made – a whopping 44% – is never eaten. This may be good news for ducks, but it’s bad news for the planet. From sandwich shops that won’t use the crust heels to make their sandwiches, to bakers who overproduce because demand is unpredictable, we’ve collectively bitten off more than we can chew. But by turning bread i nto booze, Toast is tackling a problem that most of us didn’t know existed.
Toast’s founder Tristram Stuart is an author and campaigner on the environmental and social impacts of food production. He discovered that beer and bread go way back, with original brewing methods involving lobbing a loaf into the mix. After watching the Brussels Beer Project successfully brew a beer using bread, Tristram dreamed up Toast, knowing that it could banish bonus bread for good.
Homebrew fans should also take note of Toast’s open source recipe – which allows budding home brewers to try the Toast method at home.
And there’s, ahem, more to this than meets the rye. Toast isn’t ‘just’ using up surplus bread – it’s the knock-on effect this waste-not, want-not approach has: it reduces the amount of virgin barley that goes into its beer, reducing both land and water use, and cutting the emissions they create.
Whether you’re a casual drinker or an out-and-out ale nerd, Toast has a range of beers to suit all tastes with a golden, zesty, smooth pale ale, session IPA, American pale ale and crisp, refreshing, Pilsner-style craft lager, available canned or bottled. A 12-beer crate will set you back £28, or about £2.30 a beer. Delivery’s free, which is always a bonus, or you can pick them up in UK supermarkets including Tesco and Waitrose.
All Toast ales are vegan.
Not content with making great brews for you to enjoy, Toast partners craft breweries around the globe to produce palate-pleasing waste reducing beers. It’s collaborations are designed to benefit the areas where they’re produced, helping fight food waste in South Africa, Brazil, and Iceland amongst others. It’s even teamed up with industry giant Warburtons to produce a crumpet beer – a Session IPA – although it’s probably best to not butter this one unless you have weird taste.
Homebrew fans should also take note of Toast’s open source recipe – which allows budding home brewers to try the Toast method at home. It’s already been downloaded more than 83,000 times, so we can all do our bit to fight food waste. All Toast ales are vegan too, meaning you can have a go at brewing your own beers, no matter what your diet entails.
A certified B Corporation and social enterprise, Toast has so far donated over £30,000 since it started brewing in 2015. It fights food waste causes worldwide through charitable organisation Feedback, which aims to halve global food waste by 2025. And it’s done it all whilst saving more than a million slices of bread so far – that’s around 500,000 sandwiches, or the food platters at 1,000 boring conventions.
So raise a glass for planet Earth, may we Toast your good health. Cheers!
