Toast Ale, From Recycled Bread, Is Now Brewed in New York

This is a nice measure of what's wrong with young people today compared to say the 60s & 70s. Fanboy fawning will make this reverse business popular, because it plays the fad of making believe you are actually doing something positive right down the the homemade looking label and font. It's like showing up for an Occupy Rally for the time it takes to kick back a few, so you can head off to stare at GTA for three hours and think of yourself as an activist.

Let's face it, business people own a whole generation better than any time since the 50s. An anti-business business is good business! WC Fields was right.

Maybe one day Man will live by bread alone.

3.6 tons or 7200 slices...errrh...bottles of beer. At the going retail rate of craft beer in NYC, that's about $14,400 gross. The manufacturer probably takes less than half of that before overhead. Be nice to know from Mr. Stuart if this sustainable use is also a sustainable business model.

I wish they wouldn't use the word waste… It kind of turns me off thinking about the meaning of waste sewageand other appetizing words

When Sam Walton was asked, "How did you become a successful businessman?" he replied, "... by making good business decisions." Asked, "And how did you come to make good business decisions?" he replied, "... by learning from making bad business decisions."

And so Tristram Stuart may do well, if he can learn from this nonsense project.

So how is this different from Russian Kvass, which tastes terrible to non-Russians? Answer: none

What a wonderful idea and project. If we were not so anal retentive as a Society we could be re purposing nearly all our food waste and excess to feed, heat, or provide beer for people.

I recall kvass, a slightly fermented drink made from rye bread, being sold from small tank carts on the streets of Moscow. Everyone was served from the same glass, which may have added to the flavor.

It's a variety of KVASS, the beverage commonly made from rye bread in central and eastern Europe since at least the Middle Ages.

Congrats!

Your efforts to battle food waste and "turn bread, an inexpensive product with a short shelf life, into one that’s long-lived and lucrative: craft ale" is indeed a great innovation.

I will raise a "Toast" to that.

Look forward to catch one in NYC soon.

A great article, and, how excellent to see some GOOD news in the NY Times this morning! With all of the trouble in the World today, it is inspiring to see individuals who come up with solutions that are wonderfully simple, AND wonderfully effective. Great product name! Great idea!

Congratulations, Mr. Stuart. Well done. I'll be looking at my local Whole Foods Store in Oregon for "Toast".
Cheers.

Wouldn't some sort of rotgut - attractively labeled of course - fermented from starchy food scraps be a more lucrative enterprise than a craft beer? Boutique liquor stores already sell various high-end moonshines and unaged whiskeys which are probably no different than what you'd get from using an old POW camp recipe for the secret still.

Hey readers, there's beer then there's kvass. Beer has alcohol, kvass not ( or its so low its negligible.) Beer uses hops, kvass not. There are many fermented foods, some with alcohol, some not. They are not all equal in ingredients, processing or results.

No where does the article say this use of waste bread is a NEW and ORIGINAL idea...except that its being done by a few craft brewers to use waste from bakeries! A new approach st the very least

Is this lack of reading comprehension week? Or read only the article title and react week?

Bravo! Well done! So many ways we all can participate in reusing food waste. For example, we save all non-animal (dairy and meat) waste and bring it weekly to NYC Greenmarkets for composting. To the wary: a week of discarded bread, vegetables, fruits, teabags, coffee grinds, used paper towels, paperbags do not have an odor. The benefits are real--tons of composting soil made from kitchen waste that would have gone into landfills. Oh, and the collection booths also take used batteries, wine corks, and used clothing. At last count, only 100,000 New Yorkers routing collect kitchen waste for composting. The numbers can go way higher once people are aware NYC composting projects exist. NYT--why not more coverage?

Interesting and tempting. It reminds of a novel by the Russian humorist writers Il'f and Petrov on how a Russian entrepreneur taught Americans during the Prohibition to distill moonshine from wooden furniture.

Is this something like kvass?

I'm confused. There is a very big difference between taking a waste product that can be used to feed hungry people and turning it into beer. Also, not really resource efficient either, given the other solids and WATER added to it. You know what would be the most efficient, no additional inputs required? Go ahead and give that loaf to your local food pantry. Because that will feed your neighborhood's hungry, not your fancy toast beer.

The idea is far from unique and new. The Soviets have been making kvas, a fermented bread-based drink for ages. Every corner in the summer had a huge canister on wheels filled with this refreshing beverage. I don't know if there was any alcohol in it, better not because it was sold to minors!

Isn't this Kvass? We make it at home to use up stale bread butts.

Interesting, particularly since Orlando's artisan baker, Olde Hearth, is doing the opposite, making breads from spent grain used to make beer at microbrewery Cask & Larder.

You could actually combine this great effort with continuing to help food pantries. This is because in some pantries, like ours here in Portland, there can be an excess of bread, (secured hygienically in plastic bags), even after the food pantry closes

So the upper crust,
Need not ferment grape must,
'Cause the leftover bread,
Gives an ale great head,
And taste that is very robust.

My first paid job was working at a local bakery down the street from my house. The year was 1969. This "Mom and Pop" bakery did a daily brisk business and Saturday mornings (between 6 and 9) the lines of customers went around the block. By Saturday afternoon, the shelves were empty. What always captured my eye was the section off to the right, which only shelved "day old" bakery. This stuff was truly only one day old and was 1/2 price. That stuff went first every morning by folks of meager means. I always thought the owners of this bakery were doing a wonderful service to those in need. I never understood why this concept seems to have lost favor over time, especially when more now than ever, people seem to be in need. The various food kitchens in Chicago are hurting for food because donations have waned so greatly. I do applaud Mr. Stuart's efforts and his concept of no food waste, but instead of making beer, why don't bakeries donate day old bread to food banks? It would be wonderful if even 25% of Mr. Stuart's eventual profits went to food banks instead of or in addition to financing anti-waste campaigns.

This effort demonstrates why we all need to work together - across oceans, borders, and cultural lines - to ensure we use every bit of the foodstuffs we have available to us. I come from a long line of "waste not, want not" farmers and food consumers who found a use for even the trimmings (stock pot). "Drippings" from bacon have long been collected, saved, and reused at my house because my mother did as did her mother and so on as far back as can be remembered.
As for ale, not being a drinker I doubt I'll participate, but I applaud Mr. Stuart and his business partners for using bread that would otherwise go to waste. So long as no one is hungry, I'm good with the ale.