Only 10% of the ingredients to produce your beer end in the cup. What to do with all this brew waste? Barley bars! Meet it here.
Yes, you read that right, after the bread beer (in this post here), to drink, you can now eat beer. This is the proposal from the American startup ReGrained. They use the brewing residue as raw material to create barley bars. It is similar to the famous cereal bars, but much more sustainable. This thanks to the left over ingredients from local breweries. So far they are available in two flavors: almond + honey and chocolate + coffee.
Some breweries maintains relationships with farmers who use the spent grains as part of animal feed. However for urban breweries, distant from rural areas, there is not demand for that. That’s why the partnership with ReGrained is so interesting, it gives a second life to what would become garbage. The pulp looks similar to oats, contains fiber, protein, low glycemic index, a unique flavor, and can be used in several culinary preparations.
The founder Dan Kurzrock was studying at the University of California when he began making homemade beer. But he soon found himself in the dilemma of what to do with almost 10 kg of brew waste that he generated for each production cycle.
He then joined his friend Jordan Schwartz, also a student at the same University, to bake and sell bread made with the spent grain. The two used to sell up to 20 loaves a week on campus, enough to fund the hobby of beer. From there came the idea to launch the ReGrained in 2012, as soon as they were graduated. They changed the bread to barley bars, easier to produce, allowing to scale up the business.
The company produces up to 15,000 bars per day using the remains of only 3 breweries. The creators see themselves as a business that reuse brew waste rather than a granola bars company. And they hope to grow even more. They have lots of raw material and good ideas for new products. When will the barley bars be available here?
References: The Food Rush, Forbes, Tree Hugger, Geeks Who Eat
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