‘Beer With Conscience’
I was inspired to create a range of ‘Liquid Bread Ales’ using surplus bread/rolls in collaboration with Clark’s Bakery in 2016 after watching Ch4’s Friday Night Feast with Jamie Oliver and Jimmy Doherty who have been fighting food waste and were keen to discover new solutions to the UK’s most wasted household food product – bread. The show highlighted a Toast Ale brewed in England with surplus bread and all profits went to the charity Feedback to support the fight against food waste. Tackling food waste is a massive and immediate opportunity to reduce our environmental impact and improve the social value of our food system so I thought it would be a great idea to start locally with one of Dundee’s institutions- Clark’s Bakery.
The ‘Beer With Conscience’ project was thus borne to promote recycling and reduce wastage in Dundee and Scotland. This idea will not only save money in waste disposal for the bakery but will also raise the profile and business acumen of participating companies to hopefully receive accreditation from the local council and Scottish Government. The public embrace concepts with a social conscience and this would be further enhanced by donating a percentage of the profits from the sale of ‘Liquid Bread’ to local charities. This project of course could also have tax saving implications.
There will also be cost savings for the brewery as the Grain bill will be reduced. I initially experimented in producing different recipes (malt and hop variations) and so far using surplus rolls up to 33% of the Grain bill produces a novel and quality beer. This percentage will equate to a large amount of surplus bread in commercial large scale brewery installations. There are many different flavours and ingredients from artisan breads/rolls so it seems like an excellent and potentially very creative way of using up a staple item which can also be combined with other ingredients such as surplus fruits and herbs to further reduce wastage.
The current beer label design and name (‘DoughBoy Bread Beer’) was created after a few beers in the pub with a local artist Scott Hudson (brogueprinter) in 2019 and acknowledged the 40th anniversary of Factory Records with the same industrial style and colours of a health and safety poster with additional bread rolls as ear protectors!
‘The Best Beer With Sliced Bread’
Factory Records Box Set
