Toast Ale brews its craft beers using surplus bakery bread, and all its profits go to charities fixing the food system. Our food system is the most significant contributor to climate change, but one-third of all food is wasted. Toast is here to change that…

In 2015, a visit to a Belgium brewery inspired Toast's circular economy business model. Tristram Stuart, an environmental campaigner and a future Toast Ale founder, learnt that thousands of years ago, the very first beers were produced by fermenting baked grains. With vast amounts of fresh bread wasted worldwide - up to 44% of all bread made in the UK is wasted - here was an opportunity to use the booming craft brewing industry to deliver a positive impact.

Toast's approach is to produce great-tasting craft beer that directly reduces food waste by using surplus bread to replace 1/4 of malted barley. The brewery also influences broader systemic change by funding environmental charities, collaborating with other breweries to lead an industry-wide circular economy movement, and prompting conversations to nudge behaviour change. What better way to start a conversation than over a cheeky pint?

Toast has a uniquely collaborative approach, partnering with the bakery industry and other breweries to produce their beers. They source the heel ends of loaves that aren't used by the sandwich industry and end-of-day surplus loaves from large bakeries. The surplus bread provides starches, which are broken down to fermentable sugars by malt enzymes and turned to alcohol by fermentation. By using surplus bread, they prevent food waste and reduce their beer's environmental impact by using less malt.

Furthermore, Toast donates 100% of its distributable profits (a minimum of 1% of revenue) to charities fixing the food system.

By the end of 2021, Toast Ale had brewed with 2.6 million slices of surplus bread, donated over £80,000 to charity, and reached millions to inspire positive action for the planet. They're committed to achieving net-zero by 2030 and are working with other businesses to identify opportunities and magnify their impact as a collective.

Here's to change.

Cheers!

Learn how they’re leading a brewing movement to eliminate bread waste and their positive impact here.