Our founder, Tristram Stuart, was inspired to launch Toast after meeting the guys behind Brussels Beer Project. Their Babylone beer, so called because it’s based on a 7,000 year old “divine drink” made with fermented bread, is brewed with bread surplus. What better way to preserve bread than by brewing beer! The guys shared their expertise with us and our first brewery partner, Hackney Brewery, so we could start a global food waste rev-ALE-ution.

We refined our recipe with Hambleton Ales and are now brewing our full range – a Pale Ale, an IPA and a Lager – with Wold Top Brewery in Yorkshire.

We also collaborate with breweries on exciting new beers. Wiper and True in Bristol created ‘Bread Pudding’. Inspired by the idea that traditional bread pudding uses leftover bread, they brewed bread with brandy-soaked currants infused with Bourbon vanilla and cinnamon along with lactose – the sugar from cow’s milk – to create a rich, sweet and velvety Amber Ale evocative of a traditional bread pudding.

Other collaborations include St Austell’s Brewery in Cornwall who stocked us in pubs across the South West, King Street Brewhouse in Bristol who supplied cask beer to Shambala Festival and Franklins Brewing Co in Sussex who use bagels in their Optimist beers. We also have an ongoing collaboration with Essex Street Brewery at Temple Brewhouse in London. Head brewer Vanesa has created a ‘Brown Toast’ Porter and a ‘White Toast’ Weissbier in addition to her version of the Pale Ale. If you’re in London, pop in and chat to her about her experience

We support the Real Bread Campaign’s initiative to tackle overproduction and never take bread that could go to feed people via one of the many brilliant organisations that receive and use, or otherwise help with, donations of surplus food here.

In the UK, bread is top of the list of our most wasted household food items. We waste almost 900,000 tonnes of bread every year – around 24 million slices every day. In terms of calories, that’s enough to lift over 26 million people out of hunger.

We began by sourcing bread from bakeries all over London.

As we’ve grown, so has the amount of bread we use. So we source the bread for our bottled beers from a sandwich manufacturer, Adelie Foods.