A UK brewery, founded in 2016, that makes beer from surplus fresh bread to cut food waste and gives all of its profits to the food-waste charity Feedback.
Toast Ale makes beer from bread that would otherwise be thrown away. Instead of using all malted barley, brewers replace part of the grain with surplus fresh loaves from bakeries and sandwich makers, which are mashed up and brewed into ale. The first beer was a wheaty ale with a caramel flavour, and the company has also made beers with other UK craft breweries, including a milk stout called Bread Pudding made with Wiper and True in Bristol. A 2016 interview cited the figure that 44% of the bread baked in the UK is never eaten.
The company was started by Tristram Stuart, a food-waste campaigner and the founder of the charity Feedback. He had the idea after trying a bread-based beer, Babylone, made by the Brussels Beer Project in Belgium. Toast began in early 2016, and in that interview the company set four goals: reduce food waste, raise awareness of it, make a beer people love, and raise money for Feedback. It said "100% of our profits are ploughed into Feedback". The company later became a certified B Corp, which means it has met an independent standard for social and environmental performance, according to the B Corp listing found in search results.
Toast is a UK business. Search results describe it as South London-based, and in 2016 it worked with craft breweries around the UK, such as Wiper and True in Bristol, to brew its beer. Derek Alford, a brewer with 30 to 40 years of industry experience, was the brewer in residence in 2016. The company said it hoped to expand across UK bottle shops and bars and to other countries, where charities linked to Feedback had shown interest. We did not read any current source on its brewing arrangements or its offices, so check its website for today's picture.
In 2016 the company had only a few staff, and the interview gives the feel of a small, campaigning team. Jamie Oliver featured the beer on television and gave it his approval. We did not find a description of the culture today, and the 2016 article is the main source here. The mission to fight food waste and the decision to give profits to a charity are the clearest signs of what the company stands for.
Jobs in a drinks company like this include brewers and brewing assistants, sales and account managers who sell to bars and shops, marketing and communications staff who share the food-waste message, operations staff who handle ingredients and deliveries, and finance staff. Food science, business, marketing and environmental studies are all possible routes. Check the company's website for the latest about what it does and for current roles.
Website: www.toastale.com
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