Toast Brewery – What are they all about?

Hello fellow beer lovers,

Today we are having a look at Toast Ale Brewery, whom are a Hackney based brewery that are hell-bent on making the best beer since sliced bread, or should I say with sliced bread!

I have reached out to Toast Ale for an interview, but unfortunatley they are not available at the moment due to their commitments and lockdown constraints. Maybe something will appear in the future, so for now we are keeping fingers crossed.

Dispite this, given our current predicament in lockdown, it would be remiss of me not to write a short peice on them given their mission and ethos to beer, which everyone should take heed of.

A lot of breweries are making a number of efforts to reduce their carbon footprint and help reduce their overall environmental standing. This is done through changing to bio-degradable packaging, gifting their spent hops for mulch, or changing their brewing processes to reduce emissions through sustainable brewing.

Toast Ale however, are taking a slightly different approach in assiting with food waste. If you did not know, food production is the biggest contributor to climate change and biodiversity loss, it’s responsible for around 80% of deforestation, 70% of freshwater use and approximately 25% of greenhouse gas emissions. But one third of all of that food is wasted!

Their method of brewing is to use surplus bread.

“But why bread?”

After a significant amount of research it was calculated that around 44% of bread in Britain goes to waste. After looking around at other breweries they were inspired by the brewers behind the Brussels Beer Project, who created a beer based on an ancient recipe using bread as the grain. It was at this point that the founders saw an opportunity to use the booming craft brewing industry to deliver positive societal impact.

By using this surplus bread to replace virgin barley, they not only prevent food waste, but also reduce the environmental impact of producing malt, which requires gallons of water and creates emissions that contribute to climate change. 

If re-using what would otherwise be going to landfill is not enough, they also decided that all of the profits made from selling their wares would go to a number of food charities, which are dedicated to fixing the food system.

Their reach thus far has been suprisingly long. Through their collaboration programme they have worked with over 50 breweries, including Fourpure, Brew Dog, Tower Hill, Wiper, True, De Molen and Greene King. They have also collaborated with bakeries such as Adelie Foods and Warburtons.

Tomorrow I will be having a look at their Warburtons Table Beer Collab, so watch this space for that. Hopefully soon I will get to have a sit down chat and find out even more about this inspirational comapany, but until then check out their online store and get yourself some guilt free beer!