🌟The Bright Side: Beer waste? You might be eating it or sitting on it! • FRANCE 24 English

Our down to earth team. After work, lazy Sundays or hot summer days, beer is the favorite alcoholic beverage in Europe and the Americas. But it generates a surprising amount of waste. In his brewery, Nicola produces up to 12,000 L of beer every week. We mix 50% wheat and 50% barley malt at 64° C [Music] as ingredients ferment in boiling hot water. Yeast, hops, grain bits and proteins build up at the bottom of the tank. Once we’ve extracted the sugars from the malt, which we need to make beer, what’s left is a sludge, a leftover we don’t need. In France, people drunk more than two billion lers of beer last year alone. And all that brewing has generated more than 600,000 tons of beer sludge. That’s the weight of 59 Eiffel Towers. Until recently, Nicola gave his beer sludge to farmers as fertilizer, as food for their cows, or he simply threw it away. But he’s found a new solution to recycle it. He gives it free of charge to agricultural engineers. We don’t consider it as trash. It’s a byproduct, an organic waste that’s high in fiber and protein. Once the organic waste is collected, it’s pressed, centrifuged, dried, and turned into something valuable, [Music] flour. This light colored flour is made from blonde beer. And that one’s dark beer flour, straight from dark beer. Using local brewer spent grain instead of fresh crops reduces our reliance on imports, which could come in handy in times of crisis. After co and the war in Ukraine, there were major wheat shortages in supermarkets. So, it’s great to be able to use this waste as raw material and turn it into the food of the future. Beer flour is still relatively unknown. For the first time in Paris, these bakers are using it in shortbread. They tested the new recipe in their lab and discovered it was surprisingly healthy. It’s really good because it works almost like a filter. It actually slows down the absorption of sugar in your blood. The more fiber you eat at the start of a meal, the slower the sugar absorption. The beer flour cookies are now ready for sale, and customers say they don’t taste like beer at all. [Music] Love it. It has a great texture and you can really taste the grains. It’s nice. Thanks to its health benefits, texture, and recyclability, brewing waste is catching the eye of innovators worldwide. Some have turned it into cutlery, leather, even furniture. In this workshop in N northwestern France, these carpenters are using beer sludge instead of wood. You can mold it into any shape you want because when it’s hot, it’s like cake batter and once it’s set, it’s hard as oak. Unlike trees, the barley used brew beer is much more renewable. It’s harvested every year. Frank’s idea came from a student project bringing together his three passions, carpentry, beer, and the environment. One day I was at the pub obviously and I thought how awesome would it be to sit on what I’m drinking. That idea became my final project and I took on the challenge. Frank collects beer waste from local breweries. His furniture is 100% made in France and can be re-recycled when damaged, giving brewers spent grain a third life.

Beer is Europe’s most consumed alcoholic beverage – but what happens to the waste it creates? In France alone, breweries generate over 600,000 tons of spent grain every year. 
#France24 #DownToEarth #BeerWaste

Read more about this story in our article: https://f24.my/B8lA.y

🔔 Subscribe to France 24 now: https://f24.my/YTen
🔴 LIVE – Watch FRANCE 24 English 24/7 here: https://f24.my/YTliveEN

🌍 Read the latest International News and Top Stories: https://www.france24.com/en/

Like us on Facebook: https://f24.my/FBen
Follow us on X: https://f24.my/Xen
Bluesky: https://f24.my/BSen and Threads: https://f24.my/THen
Browse the news in pictures on Instagram: https://f24.my/IGen
Discover our TikTok videos: https://f24.my/TKen
Get the latest top stories on Telegram: https://f24.my/TGen

2 comments

Comments are closed.