London-based Toast Brewing won a bronze award at this year’s London Beer Competition for their Rise Up Lager, which as their website states is: “A seriously refreshing, Helles-style lager with all English ingredients. Clean, light, and crisp. Crafted with surplus bread, malted barley, and English hops.”

The idea to launch Toast dates back to 2015 when Toastmasters. Tristram Stuart — a campaigner for the environmental and social impacts of food production — met the brewers behind the Brussels Beer Project. 

This company used bread in their Babylone beer, which inspired Louisa (Toast’s COO) and Tristram to use some of the wasted bread — a colossal 13,000 slices of bread per day from a single sandwich factory are simply thrown away — to make beer and in the process reduce waste.

Toast brewed its first batch with the Hackney Brewery using leftover loaves from London bakeries and formally launched on 22 January 2016 (coinciding with being featured on Jamie Oliver and Jimmy Doherty’s Friday Night Feast).

The company’s founding principles are to produce great-tasting beer, whilst helping to eliminate bread waste directly by using it to produce award-winning beers and the company remains committed to raising awareness of the problems of, and solutions to, food waste in general.

According to the company, one-third of all food is wasted — squandering the natural resources that go into its production. 

Image: Team Toast and Brewery

The UK is acknowledged to be one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, so tackling food waste can help to change this. The owners believe it’s the fairest, fastest, and most enjoyable way to do their bit to protect Mother Nature. 

In 2021 the ethical brewer first entered the London Beer Competition and has been involved ever since.

Being based in London it made perfect sense to enter a London-centred competition and the owners are fully behind the judging criteria: "We love that it rates the beers across three categories: quality, value and packaging — so, it has a really holistic approach. And that the judges come from a diverse range of backgrounds and expertise.” 

The impact of winning awards at the competition is clear to the owners: “It’s always great to win and gain outside endorsement of our beers. 

“Having the credibility of an award from the LBC really elevates things for us and our customers. 

News of this year's award was communicated across their social media platforms, on their website, and with a newsletter to their on-trade audience.

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The ease of entering the competition was cited as being a real positive aspect of the LBC and the owners also appreciated that they were not kept waiting for the results.

As for future markets, the London-based brewer is popular across the capital, but they’re keen to spread the word of their ethical underpinnings, their commitment to the environment, and their undiluted passion for producing great beers.