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Chocolate bar based on beer waste
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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During the brewing process, a considerable amount of waste remains, only 10% of the total volume of components ends up in the finished product. The waste is mainly the remains of grain crops, which are called brewer's grain.
California-based ReGrained has proposed using beer waste not only as animal feed, fertilizer, or for growing mushrooms, but also as a component in food production (in the form of flour or whole grain for baking).
The brewing industry uses more than two billion kilograms of grain each year, and the dregs that remain after brewing beer can be used by various companies, including manufacturers who use recycled beer waste to produce food products. Also, brewing companies, especially those located outside the city, often enter into contracts with farms and supply them with the dregs after brewing beer to feed animals or as fertilizer for fields.
City breweries, due to the impossibility of selling all their waste to farms (since there are few farms in cities that can process beer waste), can use the remaining grounds for compost. But it is worth noting that beer waste has rare food properties, which is what ReGrained used.
The founders of the company, Jordan Schwartz and Daniel Kurzrock, decided to use beer waste as the main component of baking. The idea of using beer waste to produce food is not new, but ReGrained wants to use beer industry waste in its original form, i.e. produce healthy food from grains or flour, in particular bars, as a result of which a person will be able to “eat” beer. True, such a bar will not contain alcohol, which may upset connoisseurs of this drink a little, but this will not spoil the taste of the bars at all.
The company currently produces two types of products: with chocolate and with honey-vanilla additives. The products are made using beer waste from nearby breweries. The company's specialists are also developing new recipes based on beer grains (cookies, bread, muesli, etc.).
The waste from the brewing industry contains protein, fiber, and has a unique texture and flavor. This is what influenced the choice of spent grains as the main ingredient for baking, explained Jordan Schwartz and Daniel Kurzrock, who also believe that using something that is a waste product in another industry as an ingredient is an interesting and unusual idea.
According to the founders of the company, they aimed to use the waste of brewing companies as the main ingredient of bakery products. The company intends to produce a wide range of products - bread, cookies, cereals, chips and other products that will increase the volume of use of already used products.