BELGIUM-BEER/BREAD Brussels brewer uses leftover bread to make beer

Record ID: 159275

  • Title: BELGIUM-BEER/BREAD Brussels brewer uses leftover bread to make beer
  • Date: 17th April 2015
  • Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (APRIL 14, 2015) (REUTERS) WAITRESS BRINGING OUT BOTTLES OF "BABYLONE" BREAD-BASED BEER / BRUSSELS LOCALS SIDDY DE ROM AND ORRY STERCKX SAYING (English): "Cheers" AND DRINKING BABYLONE DE ROM LOOKING AT BABYLONE BOTTLE AND NODDING BOTTLE OF BABYLONE BEER (SOUNDBITE) (English) 26-YEAR-OLD BRUSSELS LOCAL, SIDDY DE ROM, SAYING: "I like it, it's a good beer, I wouldn't drink it all night long because it's a very strong and also a bitter beer and you also really taste the hop in the beer, which I like because I like the bigger beers. So yeah, I would definitely drink it again." 27-YEAR-OLD BRUSSELS LOCAL, ORRY STERCKX, DRINKING BABYLONE / DE ROM DRINKING BABYLONE (SOUNDBITE) (Dutch) 27-YEAR-OLD BRUSSELS LOCAL, ORRY STERCKX, SAYING: "It's good because with the recycled bread in it it tastes good. It has a specific taste, so it's going to find its place, certainly in the pubs in Brussels. It's going to be a success." LABEL SHOWING BREAD AS INGREDIENT
  • Embargoed: 2nd May 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA2F4D7ZC9K56XH1KPCUBEKAXER
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A small Brussels-based brewery has embarked on a project to make beer from leftover bread, harking back to antiquity, when bread, rather than barley, was the main ingredient.
    "Babylone" beer, a seven percent amber brew, has a subtly salty taste from the bread and a hoppy finish.
    It's one of a collection of beers made by microbrewery Brussels Beer Project, a crowdfunded venture set out to widen Belgium's famous beer selection with some quirky brews.
    For now, Babylone is mainly being sold to local cafes and bars. Sipping the new creation under Brussels' spring sunshine, 26-year-old local Siddy de Rom was impressed by the beer's hearty flavour.
    "I like it, it's a good beer, I wouldn't drink it all night long because it's a very strong and also a bitter beer and you also really taste the hop in the beer, which I like because I like the bigger beers. So yeah, I would definitely drink it again," he told Reuters Television.
    His friend and colleague, 27-year-old Orry Sterckx, said it could find its spot on the Belgian beer market.
    "It's good because with the recycled bread in it it tastes good. It has a specific taste, so it's going to find its place, certainly in the pubs in Brussels. It's going to be a success," he said.
    It took about a year for Brussels Beer Project and its 31-year-old co-founder Sebastien Morvan to get the right recipe. Initial trials failed before brewers worked out the ideal ratio of bread to barley and how to cut the bread so it would not clog the brewing equipment.
    A nearby social project, "Atelier Groot Eiland", arranged to get unsold bread from nearby supermarkets, dry it and cut it into flakes for Morvan.
    The beer is currently brewed in Halen, while their own Brussels-based brewery is under construction.
    "So, this is where we add the bread. So the bread is already a powder, we already made a powder, and here it's mixed with the barley malt and in this milling machine you will make also a powder out of the barley malt. So, this is really the fusion of the barley malt and the bread, which gave birth to the Babylone," Morvan said.
    The idea for brewing with bread came when Morvan talked to friend Rob Renaerts about food waste, specifically the bread thrown away because supermarkets, eager to offer fresh bread to shoppers all day, baked until late afternoon.
    "It's actually 12 percent of the total food waste in Brussels. So, we joked around and after a good night, we thought what about making beer out of bread because in some ways bread is the ancestor, fermented bread is the ancestor of beer. So, we looked back at what was brewed 7,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, which Babylon was the capital, and we started from there," Morvan said.
    The oldest surviving recipe for beer dates back about 4,000 years to ancient Mesopotamia and calls for thick, multigrain loaves to be mixed with honey. The Belgian bread beer is more modern, using hops from the United States and Britain and adds yeast instead of relying on spontaneous fermentation.
    Brussels Beer Project, which was supported by 1,200 crowdfunders, plans to create 20 new beers every year. Those who backed the project with 160 euros have been promised 12 beers, every year, for a lifetime.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register