Up to 90 percent of beer ingredients are wasted (and not the good kind of “wasted”). So ReGrained is making some of that spent beer grain into beer-flavored, nonalcoholic granola bars. Because you definitely drink beer for the flavor.
The San Francisco-based company adds local ingredients — such as Ghirardelli Chocolate, NOM — and the end result is Chocolate Coffee Stout or Honey Almond IPA bars. Which sound pretty amazing, surprisingly.
ReGrained founders Dan Kurzrock and Jordan Schwartz provide some context:
In the United States, approximately 200 million barrels of beer are consumed each year, with an average of 6 billion pounds of grain used by the brewing industry. Needless to say, that is a lot of grain! While some of the larger breweries are able to offload their leftover grain to farmers who can compost it for fertilizer or feed to livestock, others simply hire someone to haul away their waste like garbage.
This grain is not garbage, so we propose a different solution. Spent grain is loaded with fiber, protein, and is uniquely tasty — making it an ideal baking ingredient!
A 12-pack’ll run you $22, in case you’re curious or have a beer-loving friend (or want to stuff our stockings, hint hint).
Diverting stuff from the waste stream and supporting local businesses at the same time? We’ll drink to that.