Toast Ale collaborates with Greensand Ridge Distillery

Toast Ale, the craft beer company that brews with surplus fresh bread, has collaborated with sustainable distiller Greensand Ridge to prevent beer from going to waste.

Toast, like many brewers, was faced with having to waste beer due to the Covid-19 crisis. It’s customer, ExCel London, had to cancel orders for kegged beer when it was transformed into the NHS Florence Nightingale Hospital. As a result, there was a risk that thousands of pints of beer would be wasted.

Toast instead collaborated with Greensand Ridge Distillery, united in their mission to reduce food waste and make great drinked sustainable, to distill the beer into spirit.

Greensand Ridge specialises in making spirits with produce which would otherwise go to waste. It was the carbon neutral winner of the 2019 sustainability awards from both the Drinks Business and Spirits Business publications.

The result is “Inbread Moonshine”, an Eau-de-vie de biere with a 44% alcohol content. It’s a clear spirit, most akin to an unaged whisky. There are delicate aromas of hops and malted barley, offering hints of maltiness which develop further on the palate with flavours of freshly baked shortbread, coffee and chocolate, and a sweet hoppy finish.

Will Edge, Founder and Head Distiller at Greensand Ridge Distillery said “Although the name Inbread Moonshine is tongue-in-cheek, the spirit is a long way from the fiery backwoods spirit that Moonshine is known for.

In Europe, where distilling surplus produce is commonplace, waste beer often ends up as an ‘Eau-de-vie de Bière’ or ‘Bierbrand’. Our version is a refined, fine spirit with a delicate and bright aroma and a big juicy, creamy mouthfeel.”

Toast’s CEO Rob Wilson explains “As an organisation that set out to change how society values food waste, having to scrap this unsold beer was causing us sleepless nights. Upcycling it into a fantastic product that will also benefit those hit hard by Covid-19 is the silver lining we needed.”

Every bottle of Inbread Moonshine will fund 10 hot meals for vulnerable families. Working with Toast’s charity partner Feedback, they will ensure that a meal is provided for every 50ml of spirit. “Every time you enjoy a shot of Inbread Moonshine” Wilson Adds, “you’ve bought freshly made hot food for someone that might otherwise have skipped a meal”.

Buyers can sign up at toastale.com or greensanddistillery.com to be notified of release in early November 2020.