THINK BEYOND SURPLUS
We often think that food labelled ‘surplus’ is past its best. But we’re on a mission to brew beers that challenge and change that belief.
What do we mean by surplus?
We’re talking wonky, misshapen foods and offcuts that are not suitable for sale but a brilliant source of sugars that we can extract and use for flavouring or replacing the malted barley in the brewing process.
These foods might be stuck in a warehouse, on a farm, or in a factory or restaurant somewhere destined for the black hole of landfill until we swoop in and give them a second life as cosmic beer.
For us, it's about maintaining the value of surplus by using it for human consumption rather than lower value uses like energy or animal feed.
We joke that everything we touch turns to beer, but thanks to our patented process, we really can take just about anything starchy and transform it into any style of beer.
Creating a craft like no other
Our patented process has been carefully crafted to offer a credible solution to tackling food waste. And, because we’re on a mission to save as much surplus as possible, our patents don’t just apply to the UK, they’re pending in most regions worldwide. In short, we’re the only ones who can brew what we brew at scale.
We’ve collaborated with other visionary breweries who share our passion for brewing and sustainability in the UK, Slovenia, and Ghana, and we’re always on the look out for partners who can expand our horizons.
01
Sourcing our surplus
No matter how hard many manufacturers, farmers and hospitality businesses work to reduce waste levels there will always be a certain amount that is unavoidable - and that’s where we can help. Thanks to our patented process, we’re able to take a wide range of by-products and reutilise them in the brewing process.
So we start by finding a partner who is committed to reducing their environmental impact and has a large supply of surplus food - as we use about 450kg within the base malt of each 3000L brew or around 200kg as flavouring.
02
Pouring new life into leftovers
Once we have a steady, reliable supply of surplus that meets our high safety and quality standards, we experiment with it, working out the best way to extract as much sugar (or flavour) as possible. As soon as we’re happy with the outcome, we will then move on to do our first full scale production.
03
Perfecting flavours
The next step is developing a unique flavour profile. If a stout is made with surplus chocolate brownies, you’d expect some big, bold chocolatey flavour to come through. But when using surplus food to extract fermentable sugar, often very little of its origin flavour carries over. So we create flavour profiles that perfectly match taste expectations using hops, speciality malts and other other flavourings.
When we use surplus food for flavouring rather than extracting fermentable sugar, it’s a different story and the original flavour really soars. The mangoes used in Kofi are a perfect example of this.
04
The Beyond Surplus Stamp of approval
We want you to be able to really trust our process and that our beers are genuinely brewed using surplus food to have a significant sustainability impact.
So we go out of our way to check that each of our surplus suppliers is providing us with food that would 100% be going to waste otherwise. We work hard to improve efficiency throughout the entire process, carrying out frequent visits to partner sites, ensuring full traceability of all the raw materials we use, and engaging with sustainability managers to ensure our beer is solving a surplus problem, not creating a new one.
That’s why, when you see the Beyond Surplus stamp, you can feel confident that you’re drinking a beer that’s blazing a trail towards an enlightened waste-free frontier.This is Free Thinking Drinking.
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A new frontier in beer
We’re firm believers that an open mind can take you anywhere. And it’s this belief that launched us into the craft beer cosmos back in 2021.
After years working in the food industry our eyes had been opened to the extent of the food waste problem (currently, in the UK, nearly 10 million tonnes is wasted annually). As firm believers in doing right by our planet, it got us thinking about solutions. So we decided to combine our passion for sustainability with our love for beer and made a seismic discovery.
how we use surplus
So what’s the science behind how we use surplus?
We replace 50% of the malted barley used as a source of fermentable sugars in the brewing process with surplus food.
Whether it’s pasta, rice, or sponge, the starch compounds are broken down into simple, fermentable sugars, mimicking the process of malting. These sugars are then converted into CO2 and alcohol by yeast.
This process allows us to achieve the same brew efficiency as you’d get from using 100% malted barley by only using 50%. This has an important environmental impact beyond the surplus food we save from going to waste too. By halving the amount of barley, we reduce the demand on water and land required to grow it and dramatically cut CO2 emissions.
Science worthy of raising a beer to, we’d say.
Our
big bang
moment
We pioneered using surplus pasta as a base malt in the brewing process. Dissenting voices on the internet had said it couldn’t be done but the pints in our hands proved otherwise.
These days, we’re far more than just the pasta beer guys. We’ve gone on to patent our own sustainable brewing process and brew beer using all sorts of surplus ingredients from mangoes to fondant fancies.
We’re on a mission to keep thinking beyond beer and beyond surplus, to challenge beliefs around what beer can be.
Welcome to Free Thinking Drinking.
HOW WE MEASURE WHAT WE SAVE.
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Tracked by weight on brewing records. Independently verified.
Calculated against the CO2 cost of growing, transporting and malting traditional barley for an equivalent volume of brew.
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Measured against industry-standard water consumption for traditional grain-malt brewing.
Join our Free Thinking Drinking Movement
We’re always looking for collaborators, partners and fellow free-thinkers to join us on our mission to an enlightened, waste-free frontier. Come aboard!
Need a quick recap?
Yes, it tastes like beer from a different stratosphere. We convert surplus foods like pasta and bread into fermentable sugars, which we use as a replacement for malted barley in the brewing process. It’s a more sustainable approach with zero compromise on taste.We also use surplus food for flavouring - enhancing some of our products, like the delightfully tropical mango flavour of Kofi - African Pale Ale.
We brew lagers, IPAs, stouts and many more. Each one is designed to challenge the idea of what beer can be. Check out the full range in our online shop.
The majority of our beers are vegan. While we aim to make as much of our range as possible free from animal products, the nature of using a range of surplus ingredients means that some will contain eggs or milk as an ingredient. All details are available in full on our product pages.
All our beers contain barley. Because we use surplus, many of our beers contain other cereals containing gluten and in some cases other allergens such as milk. You can find full allergen information on every product page in our shop but if you have any specific concerns, just reach out to us directly.
It varies by beer. You can find the ABV listed on each product page.
It is. We hold 3 granted and 1 pending UK patents for the processing of food surplus into beer. And, because we’re on a mission to save as much surplus as possible, our patents don’t just apply to the UK, they’re pending in most regions worldwide. Head to our Sustainability page to learn more.
The surplus we use comes predominantly from other food and drinks businesses. These can be factories, farms, restaurants, or anywhere that has a surplus of food destined for landfill. Head to our Sustainability page to find out more about each of our surplus stories.
We use our patented process to mimic the malting process for a whole range of surplus foods, converting them into fermentable sugars that we use to replace malted barley. This dramatically cuts CO₂ emissions, water and energy use. We also use surplus food as flavouring for many of our beers - think wonky fruit.
We measure everything. Surplus ingredients are tracked by weight at collection, and water and carbon savings are calculated against traditional brewing methods. We're transparent because the numbers matter.
Every brew saves real surplus, water and carbon. You'll find our latest impact figures on the Sustainability page which we’ll keep updated as we grow
Because we want to challenge perceptions and lead the way to a new waste-free frontier, championing a credible and mind-expanding solution for surplus food across the industry..