Leftover bread is a culinary goldmine. It can be used as bread crumbs, croutons, or turned into savory deserts like pudding. But what if your next pint was brewed using surplus bread? This is the story behind Toast Brewing’s new Hazy Pale Ale, its special collaboration beer with South-Wales based brewer Tiny Rebel.
Crumbs from 19,000 surplus bread slices collected from Co-op’s bakery suppliers replaced some of the malted barley used to make a pale ale. The sugar in the bread produced alcohol, which then gives the ale its body and character.
Meanwhile, the haziness of the beer comes from part-filtering in the final stages of production. It also contributes to the beer’s juicy appearance and enhances flavor and aroma. While using leftover bread is a sustainable approach to brewing beer, it also raises eyebrows about the taste. Will the Hazy Pale Ale taste like bread?
Chief Operating Officer Louisa Ziane explained that they get the sugar from the bread for carbon dioxide and alcohol. But a lot of the flavors come from the malts, yeasts, and hops to give the beer a fruity and bitter note. Then a duo of hops, Mosaic and ID-7, brings notes of pineapple and a zesty citrus punch to the taste.
Aside from pineapple, the taste also delivers aromas of peach and passionfruit and features a silky-smooth bitterness. Meanwhile, the late kettle hops gives the palate a pleasing mix of lychee, mango, orange, and floral notes.
Hazy Pale Ale is part of Toast Brewing’s “Breaking Bread” series, which aims to connect people to raise a Toast to planet Earth. The beer has a 4% alcohol content, perfect for lazy-hazy summer days, and is now available exclusively in over 500 Co-op stores nationwide.
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Images courtesy of Toast Brewing/Tiny Rebel
