Interviewing Toast Ale

1. Who is Toast Ale and where did the idea of a beer from surplus bread come from?

We brew our  planet-saving beer with surplus fresh bread. All our profits go to charities fixing the food system. 

Our circular economy business model was inspired by a visit to a Belgium brewery. Tristram Stuart, an environmental campaigner (and our Toastmaster), learnt from brewers at the Brussels Beer Project that the beer production originally involved the fermentation of bread. With industrial quantities of fresh bread wasted all over the world (44% of bread is wasted in the UK), here was an opportunity to use the booming craft brewing industry to deliver positive impact. 

Tristram and Louisa Ziane, who was a sustainability consultant at the time, set up Toast Ale in 2015. In 2016 they appointed a founding team – Rob Wilson, a social entrepreneur, and Julie Prebble and David Ryan, both retail experts – and launched the first UK bread beer.

Toast’s approach is two-fold. Firstly we produce great tasting craft beer that directly reduces food waste by using surplus bread as a valuable ingredient. Secondly, we influence wider systemic change by funding charities tackling the underlying drivers of waste, by collaborating with other breweries to create an industry-wide movement and by creating positive conversations to nudge individual behaviour change. 

What better way to start a conversation than over a cheeky pint!

2. Can you talk us through the process of transforming surplus bread into beer?

We use surplus fresh bread to replace around one-quarter of the malted barley in our grain bill. Bread is packed with carbohydrates, which are broken down to simple sugars by enzymes (Amylase) in the barley. Hops are added for aroma and bitterness, and to help preserve the beer, then yeast converts the sugars to alcohol during fermentation.

3. Where do you source your bread and how much waste are you able to save thanks to Toast Ale?

We source the heel ends of loaves that aren’t used by the sandwich industry and end of day surplus loaves from large bakeries. We are currently working with EF Bakers in Bognor Regis and have also collaborated with bakeries such as Warburtons. By using surplus bread, we prevent food waste and reduce the environmental impact (land, water and emissions that contribute to climate change) of our beer.

To scale our impact, we open-source a recipe for home brewers and collaborate with breweries to create beers with unique local stories. We’ve worked with over 50 breweries, including Fourpure, BrewDog, Wiper and True, De Molen and Greene King.

By the end of 2021, Toast Ale had brewed with 2.6 million slices of surplus fresh bread, donated over £80,000 to charity and reached millions to inspire positive action for the planet. 

4. How does using bread instead of barley reflect in the tastes and flavours of your beers?

We replace around one-quarter of the malted barley with surplus fresh bread, so the much of the flavour of the final beer comes from the barley, hops (which vary to reflect the beer style), the yeast and even the water. The bread is used to add starches, or sugars, that are used by the yeast to produce alcohol and CO2. Everyone has a different palate and some people say they can detect flavours and aromas from the bread, whereas others cannot! We always ask people to try the beer before telling them we’ve used bread. 

5. What are some positive environmental impacts of using surplus bread to produce beer?

By using surplus bread, we prevent food waste and reduce the environmental impact (land, water and emissions that contribute to climate change) of our beer by using around ¼ less malt than most other breweries. 

6. What are some of the main challenges of using this process to produce beer?

The main challenge is achieving efficiency in the brewhouse, measured in terms of the amount of sugars we can extract and the volume of liquid coming out of the first mash stage. We’ve perfected a technique over the past seven years to process the bread to remove moisture and reduce the size of the crumb to overcome those problems.

7. Reading and learning about Toast Ale I see how your circular approach is helping to reduce food waste. However it seems the success of your business relies on waste produced by the businesses you collaborate with. Is there a plan to educate more on the importance of reducing food waste at its source? 

We have focussed our business on bread as it tops the list of most wasted food items in the UK, with up to 44% never eaten. We waste lots in our homes – 24 million slices of bread every day – because we buy too much. But huge amounts are wasted in the supply chain before it even reaches our bread bins. Unfortunately it’s not as simple as baking less bread. We need to change our expectations for abundant supplies of day-fresh bread. 

Toast’s approach is two-fold. Firstly we produce great tasting craft beer that directly reduces food waste by using surplus bread as a valuable ingredient. Secondly, we influence wider systemic change by funding charities tackling the underlying drivers of waste, by collaborating with other breweries to create an industry-wide movement and by creating positive conversations to nudge individual behaviour change. 

Whilst directly reducing food waste, we’re using great-tasting beers to change people’s perceptions about food waste. We want our beer to inspire conversations that  nudge behaviour change, and move us towards the future we need to build. 

So far we have reached millions to inspire positive action for the planet – prompting conversations over a pint; open-sourcing a recipe for home brewers to get involved and collaborating with commercial breweries to inspire our industry. We also use our platforms to campaign for positive change.

8. What is your vision of a more sustainable agri-food industry?

Our vision is a world without waste (and beer with more taste). And we  need a food system that works in harmony with nature, not against it.

To achieve that, we believe we need radical collaboration. It requires businesses to work with their supply chains to understand and change the unhelpful pressures being put on farmers and producers, and to support and incentivise alternative models 

For example, whilst we work to reduce our carbon footprint, we are investing in UK farms leading the transition to regenerative agriculture. Healthy soils sequester more carbon, hold more water and enhance biodiversity, whilst improving crop nutrients for healthier and tastier food.  By doing this, we balance our emissions with removals and help build resilience in food supply chains. 

This business-led approach can be really powerful. However, we also need government policies to be on the same journey. The recent news that the current UK government plan to scrap the Environmental Land Management Scheme would be hugely negative and damage the years of work that has been done by many progressive farmers to regenerate our land.

9. Where can people find your beers or support you?

You can purchase all our beers (in the UK) at our online store: toastale.com. 

In addition to national retail partners in the form of Waitrose, Co-op and Ocado we are stocked in large pub groups such as Laines and restaurant chains, Wahaca and Neat Burger. As well as at festivals and cultural institutions such as Sadlers Wells, the Almeida theatre and Somerset House.