Artisan bakery Baker & Cook, and local craft beer brewery Brewerkz, have joined hands to reduce food waste by each creating two new products from the other company's surplus food and by-products.

Bread using brewers' spent grains

Baker & Cook has created NEWGrain+ Sourdough, a sourdough loaf that incorporates spent grains from Brewerkz.

Brewers' spent grains are a residual by-product of the beer brewing process, and accounts for 85 per cent of food waste generated from the brewery industry.

According to a press release by Baker & Cook and Brewerkz, more than 40 million tonnes of brewers’ spent grains are produced by breweries around the world, equivalent to 80,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

While some of these are turned into animal feed, the bulk is discarded.

Baker & Cook converts the spent grains into a food ingredient for their sourdough loaves called NEWGrain+, which is "high in protein and rich in dietary fibre, vitamins and various minerals".

The fresh spent grains are added at the start of the sourdough crafting process.

Beer using leftover sourdough

Meanwhile, Brewerkz' new craft beer, Earthbrew Sourdough Pale Ale, makes use of Baker & Cook's surplus sourdough bread.

The surplus bread, which is typically thrown away, is instead collected from supermarkets around Singapore as well as online platforms.

It is then toasted and mixed with the grain bill at the start of the beer brewing process.

For every 2,500 litres of beer made, approximately 180kg of surplus sourdough bread was used, Brewerkz stated.

The sourdough bread makes up 20 per cent of Sourdough Pale Ale's grain bill, allowing Brewerkz to save on the amount of fresh grains that would have been bought and used for this brew.

The new brew is described as having "grapefruit-like hop flavours and bready toast notes".

Speaking to Mothership, Brewerkz co-founder Tan Wee Tuck shared that while it is possible to use surplus sourdough when brewing their other craft beers, this would mean that the craft beers would all have a similar flavour profile to Earthbrew Sourdough Pale Ale.

Where to buy?

From Aug. 4, NEWGrain+ Sourdough will be available at all 12 Baker & Cook stores for S$10.50 per loaf.

Those dining in at Baker & Cook can order two brunch dishes which incorporate the NEWGrain+ Sourdough — sautéed mushroom on NEWGrain+ Sourdough (S$18), and braised beef cheek with a side of NEWGrain+ Sourdough (S$22).

The dishes will be available at all Baker & Cook stores, except Holiday Inn Express Clarke Quay and InterContinental Bugis, from Aug. 4 to Oct. 31.

There are also plans to sell NEWGrain+ Sourdough at supermarkets in the form of another type of loaf, similar to that of sliced white bread.

Meanwhile, Earthbrew Sourdough Pale Ale can be found at all Baker & Cook outlets, as well as all five Brewerkz outlets at S$7.80 per can.

A glass of the pale ale at Brewerkz starts at S$12.

Both the bread and brew are sold on both companies' e-stores too.

Tan shared that if the response to Sourdough Pale Ale "is good", pushing it to supermarket shelves is a possibility.

He also acknowledged that commercial beer brands are much cheaper as they are produced at a larger scale and use a smaller variety of ingredients. However, the price of Sourdough Pale Ale, he said, is comparable to other craft beers currently sold in supermarkets.

NEWBrew

Previously, Brewerkz was also the brewery behind a craft beer made of 95 per cent NEWater.

NEWBrew was sold at S$4.50 per can at FairPrice and Cold Storage outlets, as well as on online platforms and via Brewerkz's restaurants and e-store.

Top photo from Baker & Cook and Brewerkz, and Flo Yeow / Google Maps and Ruiyu Liang / Google Maps