Having spent many years brewing a range of beers using unsold bread the Crumbs team knew a lot about bread and its characteristics in brewing.  One of these was the fact it tends to be less efficient at contributing fermentable sugars to the brew versus regular malt.  This led to the theory that using more bread in a brew could be a unique way of brewing a lower alcohol brew.

Morgan, Chief Crumber at Crumbs Brewing, explains: “The way we typically brew is to replace about 25% of the malt with breadcrumbs. This is partly for practical reasons (bread it a notoriously tricky, gloopy ingredient to deal with in a mash) but also because bread simply isn’t as efficient as malt. We’ve always been intrigued by the idea of what would happen if you took the proportion of bread even higher? Would using more bread be practical and, because of the less efficient mash, could it be an interesting way to brew a lower alcohol beer?”

Our Head Brewer John Fridd was really intrigued by the idea of brewing with bread and particularly pushing the boundaries of using it as an ingredient.  We didn't want to hold back so Un-Wasted replaces a whopping 50% of the malt we’d typically use with sourdough bread rescued from our local baker, Chalk Hills.  We put a few measures in place to deal with such an unusual mash, but it has been a real success and we're really pleased with the outcome 

As far as we are aware, Un-Wasted Hazy APA, is the first ever beer to use such a high proportion of bread in the brew. The resulting 2.5% abv beer has been finished with Citra and Mosaic hops, giving it delicious notes of mango, fresh berries and stone fruit.  

And one added benefit of brewing with so much bread is mouth feel. The beer retains a body which is all too often missing in lower alcohol brews. Un-Wasted may be lower in alcohol but isn’t short on flavour.

This initial trial brew will be available in 330ml cans direct from the Crumbs Brewing or Pilgrim Brewery websites. It will also be available on tap in Pilgrim Brewery venues the Taproom and The Hatch from this week!

Please grab one and let us know what you think!