South Bristol’s Tapestry Brewery has created a limited-edition Pale Ale – Pie-oneer – using pie crust trimmings from Pieminister. The beer will be available from January 7th at Pieminister’s Broad Quay and Stokes Croft restaurants, with 10p from every can sold going to Bristol charity PROPS, which supports adults with learning difficulties in achieving their full potential.
The idea to brew using unavoidable waste came from GENeco, who have been turning Bristol waste products into everyday resources for over 10 years, hoping to redefine what people class as waste. As both Pieminister and Tapestry look to explore new ways to become more sustainable, getting involved with this experiment was a natural step.
GENeco have helped to remove the carbon associated with beer production by using renewable energy, produced by recycling pie crust trimmings, at their Bristol Bioresources and Energy Park. The beer has been transported to Pieminister’s Bristol restaurants via their zero-emission fleet.
For over five years, GENeco has been collecting unavoidable food waste from Pieminister’s Bristol kitchens for use at their nearby anaerobic digestion plant, where it’s used to produce sustainable transport fuel, renewable energy and more. By diverting Pieminister’s vegan pastry offcuts to Tapestry instead, the team have created an innovative way to make good use of waste – as well as to demonstrate that great tasting products can be made from food that could otherwise have been discarded.
Using British hops and Pieminister’s plant-based pastry, Pie-oneer is brewed using water-efficient methods, thanks to Tapestry’s commitment to recycling and reusing water within the brewery. 100% vegan, unfiltered and unfined, Pie-oneer has a naturally hazy appearance, and is described as “light and refreshing with subtle undertones of golden, crisp pastry” – making it the perfect pairing for a Pieminister pie!
Richard McCluskey, Head of Waste & Resources, GENeco, ‘Pie-oneer is all about showcasing waste as a resource in a fun and innovative way whilst raising awareness of food waste. More than anything, it represents the collaboration we believe is required between businesses and organisations with shared sustainability values to reduce their impact on the environment and help achieve net zero climate goals’
This collaboration is one of many small steps Pieminister is taking to be a truly sustainable food business. By 2025, Pieminister will reduce their carbon emissions by at least 50%, becoming carbon neutral by 2023. And by late 2022 Pieminister wants 100% of the waste it produces to be recycled or recovered, while also reducing all the waste generated by 30%. These are just some of the waste-based targets Pieminister has set itself to hit by 2025, as laid out in their Pies, Planet, People goals.