RE: BREAD, Organic Beer Made with “Discarded” Bread

Inaugurated last March 2021, Bakery Square , in Yokohama Takashimaya, likes to focus on bringing us food in a sustainable way while keeping ecology in high regard. This business offers more than 500 types of products, and on a good day, it can sell up to 10,000 pieces of bread.

Unlike most bakeries in Japan, it has gone further in the direction of sustainability, running special discounts and freezing products that are no longer at their peak of freshness, as well as engaging in recycling and reuse of materials intended for compost.

In its most recent environmental action, Bakery Square introduced a new product in its catalog, RE: BREAD (RE as a prefix meaning “again” and Bread from English “bread”). Made from bread that’s about to be thrown away, RE:BREAD is a low-malt beer that reduces food waste.

The bread offered in bakeries in Japan is usually made and consumed on the same day. So at the end of the day, many bakeries discard food that is in perfect condition. This type of waste is not exclusive to bakeries, since many pastry shops, butcher shops and restaurants tend to follow this type of daily routine.

The bread used in the production of these drinks is about to be discarded, not because it is old or expired, but because it was not sold the same day it was prepared. Bakery Square recognized in this problem of wasting food every day, the fundamental basis of food waste in Japan, which is estimated at 6.12 million tons of food daily.

The RE:BREAD production process begins by breaking the “old” bread into small pieces. From there, the crumbs are heated together with wheat to break down the complex carbohydrates. After this, the resulting mixture can be used to produce low malt beer. On average, with the rest of a day’s bread, 200 bottles of 330 ml of RE:BREAD can be produced. The bread replaces up to 23% of the wheat that would be needed to produce this beer.

The result is a smooth tasting “clear” beer with minimal bitterness. It may sound obvious, but this beer made with bread is an excellent flavor complement with a good freshly baked loaf of bread.

And for the realization of this fabulous beer, Bakery Square has the help of ON TAP Edo Tokyo Beer , who obtained their license for the production of low malt beer in 2018.

RE:BREAD 330ml

Price: 693 yen
Points of sale: Yokohama Takashimaya Liquor Section and Yokohama Takashimaya Bakery Square
Address: 1 Chome-6-31 Minamisaiwai, Nishi-Ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 220-8601

[Original in English: https://grapee.jp/en/180952 ]