Lion’s Malt Shovel Brewery has been busy in lockdown putting the finishing touches on a new limited edition IPA called Our Green Beer, which has sustainability at its heart. Thanks to Yume, a certified social enterprise that uses innovative technology to prevent commercial food waste, Malt Shovel was able to source 500 kilograms of Kellogg’s cereal by-product for the beer.

The by-product has been used as one of the base ingredients to make a beer with some solid ‘green’ credentials, which showcases how well the circular economy can work across FMCG.

Brewer Max Cook said he wanted to celebrate Malt Shovel’s own environmental initiatives at every stage of the brewing process, starting with the brewery’s carbon neutral accreditation with Climate Active, and use of renewable energy sources.

“Basically, we just wanted to do this beer in a way that was a little kinder to the planet,” he said. “In terms of ingredients, we used malt from Gladfield – a supplier deeply committed to environmental sustainability. Soon they will be able to burn bio-fuel to kiln their malt and they reuse all their steeped water to irrigate their barley, whilst moving to BOPP malt bags, which keep the product fresh and use 50% less plastic than other malt bags.

“Hops used for brewing can also have a hefty carbon footprint. They are bulky and have to be cold stored and cold transported, so we decided to use concentrated hop products in the beer to reduce the bulk load of hops required to be refrigerated.

“But the real highlight is obviously the key ingredient – a half a tonne of Kellogg’s household name cereals sourced through Yume that otherwise would’ve gone to waste, which in combination with novel hop varieties such as Sabro and Loral, give this beer a truly new-age flavour profile.”

According to Maggie Pillay, Manufacturing Director at Kellogg ANZ, projects like this are very much aligned to the company’s sustainability goals.

“Running our business sustainably is at the heart of how Kellogg’s operates, so we love it when we can collaborate on projects like the Green Beer partnership which test creative solutions that can help to further reduce our environmental impact.

“Through this partnership, we have been able to provide a by-product from one of our cereal lines. This kind of reuse of one product’s byproduct into other edible or drinkable products is gold standard in terms of minimising food waste. It’s great to see how the team at Malt Shovel were able to repurpose this product into a sustainable new beer for people to enjoy. At Kellogg’s, we have already reduced waste by reusing 95% of the by-product in our factory back into our food, so the project was a perfect alignment to the goals we’ve achieved, as well as our future sustainability commitments. We’re really excited to see it come to life!”

Yume Founder and CEO Katy Barfield said it’s projects like the Green Beer that demonstrate the power of businesses working together to minimise their impact on the planet.

“By taking advantage of Yume’s innovative, tech driven approach to surplus food, Malt Shovel has given 500 kilograms of Kellogg’s cereal by-product its best possible life. Our job here at Yume is to make sustainable decisions easy for businesses and to ensure all edible food finds a good home, this beer is a testament to that.”

OUR GREEN BEER is available at https://maltshovelcraftgarage.com.au/ and select retailers.

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