Overproduction is built right into the business model of most bakeries. While we devour much of what is made, huge quantities of perfectly good grain are tossed. But聽Tristram Stuart, an Englishman who began battling food waste 15 years ago, long before it became a popular cause, discovered a way to turn bread, an inexpensive product with a short shelf life, into one that鈥檚 long-lived and lucrative: craft ale.
After coming across a recipe, he refined it with聽Hackney Brewery in London and then contracted with聽Hambleton Ales聽in North Yorkshire to produce it in quantities. In 2016, Mr. Stuart began selling聽Toast, an English ale with malt and citrus notes, at London restaurants,聽online聽and through a growing number of distributors. Using roughly one slice per bottle, his team of three has recycled 3.6 tons of bread in its first 15 months.
Now, in his first satellite operation, Mr. Stuart, 40, has begun making beer in New York. Working with聽Chelsea Craft Brewing Company, in the Claremont section of the Bronx, Toast produced the pilot batch of its American Pale Ale in March.
On Saturday, the first bottles of the ale were sampled at the聽Tribeca Film Festival聽for the screening of 鈥淲asted! The Story of Food Waste,鈥� a documentary produced by Anthony Bourdain in which Mr. Stuart is featured. Mr. Stuart鈥檚 New York team has set the date for the second brew, which will be much larger to accommodate an order from Whole Foods. This summer it should be available there, and at bars and restaurants in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens.
To finance its next two New York brews, Toast began a crowdfunding聽campaign. Mr. Stuart also began franchising the Toast concept to entrepreneurs around the world who will brew the beer to aid his food-waste mission.
Toast has yet to turn a profit, but Mr. Stuart says that when that happens, as he expects this year, all proceeds will go to聽Feedback, his nonprofit group, which plans to finance future anti-waste campaigns.
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