Drinks of the Month

Toast Ale

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on February 23 2016 at 13:13

Sometimes a good story is all it takes to make you buy a bottle and who could resist a beer that makes use of food waste - unused bread in the case of Toast?

It’s brewed by Hackney Brewery and made to a Belgian recipe from bread crusts that would otherwise be discarded, along with malted barley, hops and yeast. All profits go to the charity Feedback which campaigns against global food waste. (According to the website 44% of all bread produced in the UK is thrown away.)

I wouldn’t say the taste was toasty, more emphatically malty - slightly more bitter than a lot of the craft beers out there (not that that’s necessarily a bad thing). When I tasted it I felt it needed food - maybe a cheese toastie or cheese on toast which would enable you to use yet more surplus bread and leftover bits of cheese.

You can buy it from the end of this week from the Toast Ale website at £18 a 6 bottle case (+ £6.99 delivery). Look out for it too at River Cottage, E5 Bakehouse, Poco, Fifteen and Tiny Leaf.

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