Just before the pandemic hit, I discovered a small-batch baker in Bengaluru who baked on order and home-delivered an enticing range of sourdough bread and other baked goods. I became an irregularly regular customer of Loafer & Co.; their frequent new products were especially fascinating. Last year, a new bread variety caught my attention ¨C Brewers Toast. It was earthy and strong, with an unusual flavour profile. But what intrigued me was the distinct undertone of beer. It turns out one of the ingredients was flour made from spent grain, the leftovers in the beer-brewing process.? ? ? ? ??
A little digging revealed the flour came from Saving Grains, the passion project of chef and food researcher Elizabeth Yorke, whose mission is to rescue food waste. Her initiative takes the spent grain, leftover produce after extracting the beginnings of beer, and turns it into ¡°good flour,¡± a sustainable product with many possibilities and benefits. The flour is turned into several goodies, including cookies, brownies, bread, and even rotis.??
A trained chef, Yorke has a culinary degree from Manipal and stints with Mysore¡¯s Central Food Technological Research Institute and William Rubel, a bread specialist and food historian in California. She discovered the age-old relationship between brewer and baker during her stint with Rubel in 2016.?
¡°Traditionally, both worked in proximity, sometimes sharing the same space, for economic reasons, and same ingredients ¨C grain, water and yeast,¡± said Yorke. ¡°Bakers would give old bread to the brewers, and the brewers would give spent grain to the bakers to make bread. This made a lot of sense to me.¡±
These stints in various kitchens after her education and explorations in sustainability and circularity in food systems deepened Yorke¡¯s curiosity about where food comes from and where it goes. Her internship with Rubel solidified her thinking on a closed-loop circular food system, where resources are maximised and waste minimised. A raging pandemic and questions around the Indian food system ¨C production, movement, consumption and food waste ¨C further added to the project¡¯s foundation. Saving Grains was set up in late 2021 with the express purpose of upcycling spent grain.?
But if the thought of eating 'waste' sounds icky, banish the thought. Breweries use mainly barley, but also other grains like wheat, oats and rye in the process of making alcohol. Briefly, the grains are germinated, cooked, mashed and extracted, then turned into beer. After extraction, the leftover residue, called spent grain, is actually not so 'spent.'?
While starch and sugars are extracted, the grain still has plenty of protein, fibre and other nutrients that are good for consumption. This is why much of it is used for animal feed, but a lot of it is also junked. Even a cursory glance at the numbers is eye-popping. Bengaluru alone has nearly 70 microbreweries. Together, they are estimated to generate about 12,000 kg of spent grain a day. Multiply that for the whole year, and the numbers are truly staggering. Extrapolated to the entire country, estimated to have 250-300 microbreweries, the figures are even more startling.?
The mash is collected from the brewery and brought to Kutumba, a community centre that Saving Grains collaborates with, where it is dried and milled into flour. Not one to be daunted by numbers, Yorke started modestly and scaled up to processing about 1,200 kg last year into 'good flour,' which has 45% dietary fibre and 22% protein, while the carb content remains low.?
But it isn¡¯t just about the numbers. Yorke was fascinated by the ¡°malty and earthy¡± flavours and the versatility that the flour lends to any final product such as cookies, bread and rotis. Available through the website, the flour is used both commercially and by households. Besides flour, Saving Grains also sells granola, cookies, tea biscuits, laddus and chikki.?
Slowly, Yorke has accumulated collaborators who are on the same page regarding philosophy and experimentation. One of them is Bengaluru¡¯s Loafer & Co, an artisanal bakery specialising in baked goods using local grains. ¡°I am always trying to experiment with different kinds of grain, so when Elizabeth contacted me, I jumped,¡± said Pranav Ullal, the bakery¡¯s founder.?
Given the novelty factor, working with the flour was initially tricky for Ullal. He gradually arrived at the perfect combination using up to 20 per cent spent grain flour and produced a special loaf called Brewers Toast. The variant is popular with lots of customers. I can see why. The bread has a much more earthy fragrance compared to the bakery¡¯s other offerings. It is flavourful, especially with piquant or strong spreads like pesto and spicy cheese spread.?
¡°Spent grain flour is high in nutrients and fibre and also leaves a different kind of flavour in breads. The collaboration also ties in with what we believe, and I was quite taken in by Elizabeth¡¯s venture. So I was eager to play whatever small part in her endeavour in this circular economy cycle,¡± he said. The flour has also worked well in pizza bases and Goan poee bread, and Ullal plans to introduce these products on the menu gradually.?
For Yorke, though, the point is more than upcycling spent grain. ¡°The idea is to change people¡¯s perception about waste, upcycling... The idea is to create a circular model that is accountable, transparent, collaborative and puts people at the centre,¡± she said. She hopes the prototype?micro-upcycling kitchen, like the one at Saving Grains, will lead to more possibilities.??
For the moment though, the ¡°circular economy¡± is playing out in interestingly delicious ways. Saving Grains sources much of its spent grain from Bengaluru¡¯s Geist Brewing Company, a craft beer brand that prides itself on its strong sustainability measures. And at the restaurant adjacent to its production facility on Old Madras Road, the beer brand serves crackers from Saving Grains. Stop by for a pint that tastes great ¨C and feels just as good!