Brewing Purpose - How Beer can be a tool for Food System Change

Toast Ale is the beer that tackles food waste head-on, using surplus bread to brew award-winning pints and putting profits back into the fight for systemic food change.

I sat down with Louisa Ziane, the brand’s Chief Operating Officer and co-founder, to hear how it all started, why beer can be a brilliant vehicle for activism, and how small actions can spark bigger change.

How did the idea of using surplus bread in brewing come about?

I’d been a sustainability consultant at the Carbon Trust, advising large businesses on all aspects of climate strategy, from energy use to material waste. But I didn't feel that I was having a direct impact and when I had my son, I began rethinking everything - how I worked, what I cared about, how to make a difference. In 2015, I started working with Feedback (now Foodrise), a charity tackling food system waste, founded by Tristram Stuart.

We knew bread was one of the UK’s most wasted foods - 20 million slices are wasted in UK homes every single day. It’s everywhere, and so much of it goes unused. Tristram visited the Brussels Beer Project, who’d brewed a beer with bread from their local bakery. He came back and said: “It tastes good - and it’s genius.” We started to think, what if we could preserve vast amounts of bread through fermentation, creating a delicious product that also told a story and raised funds for the charity? We pitched the idea to Jamie Oliver’s team for his Friday Night Feast show with Jimmy Doherty and when they said yes, we had six weeks to make it real. I found a brewery partner, sourced surplus loaves from London bakeries, and a friend designed our first bottle labels - it was scrappy but full of energy. Jamie tasted one of the first beers on camera and the response was incredible. That was the moment Toast was born.

Can you explain how you source the surplus bread and how it’s used in the brewing process?

In the early days, I contacted local bakeries and picked up whatever surplus they had at the end of the day, but we quickly learned that not all bread is ideal for brewing - we avoid bread that is high in salt, oils, or contains allergens such as nuts. Now we work mostly with large bakeries and the sandwich industry; where the most waste comes from. When you buy a packaged sandwich, the heel ends of each loaf have been discarded. That’s two slices wasted per loaf, straight away. We segregate that surplus bread, then dry it and turn it to a crumb. This extends the life of the bread and prevents large chunks of soggy bread clogging the brewery tanks. The crumbed bread replaces around 25% of the malted barley that would otherwise be used, reducing the land and carbon footprint of our beer. But otherwise the process of producing Toast - from mashing to fermentation - is the same as any other beer.

You're clearly committed to zero-waste principles. Beyond the bread, what else do you do to keep your brewing process sustainable?

The main brewing by-product is spent grain, which is full of fibre, protein and trace nutrients. At our partner brewery, Freedom Brewery in Staffordshire, that goes to a local farmer to be used as animal feed. Hops are a bit trickier. Whole-leaf hops can be removed from the kettle tank and compost well - a great example of circularity as we return nutrients to the soil to grow the crops we need. Hop pellets - processed and dried hop cones - become a sludge that’s hard to extract from the water, however at Freedom, waste water goes through a swale and reed bed filtration system. The organic matter from hops, yeast and residual grains are used by the land and freshwater is returned to the natural environment. This water is used again by the brewery, extracted via a borehole in the ground. It’s a really elegant circular water solution.

Consumer packaging is another big challenge. We’ve moved away from glass bottles as much as possible. They’re heavier and bulkier than aluminium cans, and harder to recycle with resulting low recycling rates in the UK, for example 82% of aluminium cans are recycled, compared to 68% for glass. We use steel kegs for pubs and events which are returned, cleaned and sterilised, and filled again. It’s the most sustainable option for delivering beer to consumers, though it can be hard for us to access taps as so many pubs are tied to the big breweries.

How do you bring your customers into that sustainability conversation?

This is so important. People want to make choices that are better for a thriving planet, but life is busy and it can be hard to know what we can do. We offer nudges not lectures, and celebrate all the little wins while directing people towards some bigger things they can do. For example, wanting to switch from bottles to cans on our website, we added a note showing the relative carbon footprint of each, then adjusted prices to make the more sustainable can option cheaper. Eventually, we removed bottles from the site.

We also run fun campaigns to help people engage in low-effort, high-impact ways. Last year we joined PlantLife’s No Mow May campaign encouraging people not to mow their lawns to support pollinators. We offered free beer for the best wild gardens. The message was: “Put your feet up, have a beer, and let nature do its thing.” It’s about framing small actions as joyful, not sacrificial.

Toast Ale has always gone beyond just making beer. How do you use the brand to inspire system-level change?

We’ve always put our profits towards environmental charities - initially Feedback, and now a wider range of partners. It’s not just about financial donations; it’s about building awareness and community. In 2021, ahead of COP26, we launched a series of collaborations beers with fellow B Corp businesses. To accompany that series we ran webinars, inviting people to connect during lockdown and learn about the food system, whilst also encouraging people to write to their MPs. We hosted a simple tool allowing people to type in their postcode and then generate a letter to send direct to their MP. People don’t always think of writing to them unless something bad happens - but what if we all started writing to ask for the good things we need for the future? 

For Toast it’s about using beer - a social connector - as a gateway to bigger conversations and connecting personal, collective actions with systemic change without overwhelming people.

What’s one policy shift that would make a real difference to food sustainability?

Mandatory food waste reporting for large businesses. Without transparency, companies aren’t held accountable for the food they waste which means wasted land, energy, water and unnecessary emissions. Some businesses report voluntarily, but without a legal requirement there is an unfair playing field. A consultation was promised before COVID and since that has been delayed again and again. When the Conservative government finally consulted on it the response was overwhelmingly in favour, but they scrapped the idea. We supported Feedback’s legal challenge asking the government to reconsider. I’m hopeful that Labour will prioritise this as it’s low-hanging fruit really. Measure it, report it and be held accountable to take action.

Are there any brewing innovations or future ideas you’re particularly excited about?

Spent grain is still an untapped opportunity. It’s rich in protein and fibre and bigger brewers are exploring how to turn it into food products and bioenergy. The challenge is how to do that cost-effectively at smaller scales. One start-up I’m talking to is using spent grain to feed black soldier fly larvae, a high-protein ingredient for animal feed. That’s real circular economy thinking.

Another opportunity area is the capture of CO₂ released during fermentation. That gas has been captured by the grain while growing and is released during the brewing process. Meanwhile breweries are purchasing CO2 for packaging use that is derived from the production of chemical fertilisers which has a climate change impact. Equipment is available to capture CO2, but it’s expensive and so it’s mainly the big breweries using it. With the right financial support, smaller brewers could do it too.

Finally, what gives you hope?

Community and the resilience of nature. I was moved by the way people came together during COVID - setting up lasting WhatsApp groups, sharing resources and helping neighbours. It was such a reminder that we are innately dependent on each other, and that community action matters.

Also, for me personally, gardening is my escape, my therapy - it’s so good for physical and mental wellbeing. I’m studying permaculture at the moment and loving learning how we can create spaces that are good for people and for nature. Here, hope is as simple as planting a seed. Literally. The idea that something tiny can grow into something beautiful and giving - that’s the story of Toast too.

Learn more about Toast Brewing here and follow them on Instagram.