Upcycling Surplus Bread into Beer

A team of Food Scientists led by the Upcycled Food Lab coordinator, Grace Clare, set out to explore the maximum amount of bread that could be substituted into a good tasting beer. This concept is an innovative way to divert some of the 29 million loaves of bread wasted annually in New Zealand away from landfill and back into the food value chain.

The team were working with Citizen Collective, a New Zealand upcycled food company with bread beer products already on the shelf at New World and Pak’N’Save supermarkets.

Based on a series of product development trials, a ‘how-to-guide’ for homebrewers was developed that substitutes 50% of the malt with bread. Using this recipe, 4.75 slices of bread are saved per 500ml of beer.

We also developed a non alcoholic ginger beer soda version of the recipe.

We challenge all homebrew enthusiasts to attempt brewing your own beer using any leftover bread you can find and join the movement in reducing the number of loaves going to waste.