Isle of Bute brewer makes beer from unwanted bread

An island brewery is tackling food waste by making beer from leftover loaves of bread.

Aidan Canavan (left) and Simon Tardivel (right) from Bute Brew Co with their beer Thorough Bread. Picture: SWNS

The remote microbrewery, based on the Isle of Bute, collects the bread, cuts it and then toast it in pizza ovens, as part of the brewing process.

The bread replaces some of the malt that is normally used in the brewing process and has proved a hit with locals.

Brewery owner Aidan Canavan said he was encouraged to take up the practice by Zero Waste Scotland in a bid to reduce the waste of bread on the island.

And Adian, 40, said the new beer had “opened up our eyes to the issue of waste”.

“Because we are a tourist destination there needs to be enough bread made for all the weekend visitors.

“But if the weather is particularly bad and the visitors don’t come bread sales drop and that bread goes to landfill.”

The brewers were also inspired by chef Jamie Oliver who featured on a TV programme using stale bread to make beer.

Adian said: “We had a pretty tight brew schedule and the bread beer is quite intensive.

“The bread needs to be gathered and cut, then we toast it in our pizza ovens at the end of the weekend.”

“So now we have a really good tasting beer and it really took off in our tap room.

“Customers loved the circular economy story and loved the beer.

“The first batch disappeared much quicker than we imagined and customers were asking for more.

“It takes a month to make beer so we now had a pressure to make it from a new source, the customers.

“But we didn’t just get a great new beer with a great story out of this, it also opened up our eyes to the issue of waste.

“Because we are on an island with a defined border around us we are more aware of things that are brought on to the island need to be shipped off when no longer of use.

“So if we can reduce the amount we need to ship back off in the form of waste, we reduce our costs.”