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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

beer

For the Future of Beer, “New is King” — That Means Cannabis, Automation, and Glitter

Fittingly, we held our Future of Beer food tech meetup last night at Pike Brewing Company’s Beer Museum, which features an epic collection of memorabilia spanning from the invention of beer in 6,000 B.C Sumeria to Prohibition to the craft brewery revolution of today.

But we were concerned with where beer is heading next. To tackle this subject, we brought in Erin James of Sip Northwest, Annie Johnson of Picobrew, Scott Riefler of Tarukino, and Drew Gillespie of Pike Brewing Co. Here are a few takeaways from the experts on what the beer drinking experience of the future might look (and taste) like (yes, robots are involved).

Photo: Catherine Lamb

For beer, new (and fresh, and local) is king
Our panelists all agreed on one thing: in the beer world, consumers are always looking for what’s new. That can be new ingredients — like different varietals of grain, CBD and THC, wine yeast, or even glitter (gag) — or new drinking experiences, like cans instead of bottles or breweries with child play areas.

It can also be a new twist on beer itself, like different styles or infusions, or even new drinks that beer-like (carbonated, with low-ABV), such as hard kombucha and boozy sparkling water. James called the latter trend the “adulting” of traditionally non-alcoholic beverages. She explained that this new wave of beer-ifying non-beer drinks is feeding the demand for two things: “more” and “new.”

Millennials are leading the charge
Millennials love beer. No, but really love it. According to James, in the millennial demographic, beer has surpassed spirits as the most popular alcoholic beverage. However, this audience is not just driven by taste. “They’re also very value-driven,” she explained. And they value both ingredient sources (local is king), opt for local craft breweries and prefer cans to bottles (for environmental reasons).

Turns out, they’re not so keen on brewing at home, at least with Picobrew’s countertop brewing and distilling device. “At first, we thought our customer was a millennial,” explained Johnson. “Actually, it’s more of an engineer.” Millennials prefer to drink their beers straight from the source: local craft breweries.

Beer drinking isn’t just about the beer itself
According to Riefler, when medical marijuana becomes legal in a state, alcohol consumption drops 15 percent. “It gives people a choice about how they intoxicate,” he said. Beer is one such vehicle, but not the only one, and when people have more choice, they might move away from booze. That doesn’t mean that you can’t fuse the two: In October 2018 Tarukino launched Reeb, a cannabis-infused barley soda “reminiscent of a pale ale.” But instead of alcohol, Reeb has THC.

Gillespie isn’t worried that cannabis will take too much business away from the alcohol industry — or at least the craft beer industry. “Craft [beer] is different than general liquor,” he said. He believes craft beer drinkers want a specific drinking experience, one that’s “sensory and social,” not just a new way to get intoxicated.

Photo: Catherine Lamb

Science can enable better beer drinking
Craft beer brewing may be an art, but it still relies on science and technology. “There’s a lot of science going on in the ‘back room,'” said Riefler. That can be relatively basic technology — like brewing tanks and taps — or more futuristic stuff, like Picobrew’s countertop brewer, which some would categorize as a robot.

Johnson, who has a strong craft brew pedigree (she won the American Homebrewer Association’s Homebrewer of the Year award in 2013), still thinks that in order “to get good beer, you need automation.” That’s true whether you’re a craft brewery or just an avid home brewer: automation helps ensure that beer is consistent and tastes good. Which means that, with Picobrew’s tech, you could make a batch of Pike Brewing’s Monkey’s Uncle beer at home using the same ingredients and brew method — and it would (at least theoretically) taste just as good as if you’d gotten it fresh from the source.

—

We can talk about glitter beer and robotic brewers all we like, but as Johnson put it, “at the end of the day, all that matters is the taste.” Consumer tastes and brewing technology can change, but appreciation for quality and consistency will never go out of style.

For the short term, there is one type of beer you should expect to see dominating the taps at your local brewpub: lager. James explained that, after the IPA craze, lager is coming back in popularity with a vengeance. Johnson made another prediction for what’s going to be the next big thing in beer (you heard it here first): wine/beer hybrids. Cheers to that.

Keep an eye out for our next food tech meetup coming soon! 

Join Us For Our Future of Beer Meetup on January 29th!

Hey, Seattle area folks! We hope you’ll join us for our next food tech meetup on January 29th dedicated to one of America’s most beloved beverages: beer.

Beer may be one of the oldest drinks around, but with the advent of new technology and shifting consumer trends it’s an exciting time to learn more about the brewsky. Innovation is especially important since beer sales in America have been struggling as of late. To combat this, companies are experimenting with new sales channels and emerging ingredients (hi, cannabis) and even developing ways to bring the beer-brewing process straight to the consumer.

We’ve assembled a group of speakers working to push the boundaries of the beer space, developing everything from THC-infused brews to smart devices that let you brew your own beer on your countertop.

Meet the panelists:
Drew Gillespie, President of Pike Brewing Company
Annie Johnson, Master Brewer in Residence at Picobrew
Scott Riefler, VP of Science at Tarukino
Erin James, Editor-in-Chief at Sip Northwest
Michael Wolf, The Spoon (moderator)

We’re pretty psyched to be hosting this meetup at Pike Brewing Company! Tickets are free per usual, and the event will include a snack spread and one complimentary Pike beer. Because what’s the fun of talking about beer if you can’t taste it?

Spots are limited, so go ahead and snag yours now! We’ll see you there.

Cheers to the Future: Five Cool Beverage Startups at CES’ Eureka Park

Sure, the towering installations, self-driving cars, and elaborate smart home setups at CES are fun to see. But my favorite part of the show is wandering through Eureka Park, the gigantic open room filled with over 1,200 startups all hoping to make a name for themselves. Meandering up and down the aisles of this room is one of the best ways to discover companies that are hidden gems.

Interestingly, some of this year’s coolest startups involved beverages. From coffee alarm clocks to wine sensors, here are five that caught my eye amid the chaos of Eureka Park.

Capsulier
Making your morning espresso with a coffee pod is super convenient, but those plastic pods are a blight on the environment (unless you mail them back to Nespresso), not to mention, expensive. Atom Xquare Limited’s Capsulier device is out to free you from the pod with their countertop machine which lets you make your own custom coffee pods for Nespresso machines. Just put a scoopful ground coffee (or loose-leaf tea) in the top of the device, pop in the reusable stainless steel pod, and pull the lever to pack your own pod. You can use it in your Nespresso machine, then wash it out and then reuse.

There are already refillable Nespresso capsules on the market, but Capsulier promises to precisely measure and pack your coffee so there’s no mess or guestimating. As of now the Capsulier only makes pods that fit into Nespresso machines, so if you use a Keurig you’re out of luck. The device retails for $99 on Atom Xquare Limited’s website, and you can purchase additional pods for $36 each.

 

TeaRado
TeaRado Tech‘s smart, self-heating tea tumbler can brew up to two cups of tea on the go. To make the tea, fill the interior basket with loose leaf tea, pour room temperature water into the tumbler, and set the brew time and water temperature on the TeaRado app. In 12 to 15 minutes, the water will heat up to 170 °F and brew the tea via an automated French Press-like movement. You can either brew by setting the tumbler on a charging pod and plugging it into the wall, or attaching it to a battery pack to brew on the go.

TeaRado’s brewer will retail for $150, and users can also purchase tea through the connected app. TeaRado will launch on Kickstarter on April 15 and is expected to ship in December of this year.

 

Photo: Catherine Lamb

MyOeno Scan
Unless you’re a sommelier, figuring out the composition of wines — and which types you like — can be a daunting challenge. MyOeno Scan has a small device (roughly 4 inches long) which, when inserted into a glass of wine, will display a breakdown of its levels of tannins, acidity, and strength on the MyOeno app. Afterwards, you drink and rate the wine, so the app learns what type you like. Once you’ve established your taste profile, you can search for compatible wines on the MyOeno app and see where they’re available to purchase.

The device retails for €89 ($102 USD) and is available on the MyOeno website and through Amazon. Fun fact: MyOeno can also be used in milk to detect if it contains any water or detergent, a service which the team told me is mostly used in Asia.

 

Photo: Catherine Lamb

Barisieur
Dragging yourself out of bed in the morning is way easier if coffee is near. U.K. startup Barisieur‘s coffee brewer alarm clock brings the cup of joe to you while you’re still in bed. The night before, fill the drawer on the front of the device with ground coffee (or tea), then set your alarm and indicate whether you want your coffee to start brewing before, during, or after your alarm sounds. It takes 2 to 3 minutes for the water to boil, and a few more for the coffee to brew. There’s even a small chilled compartment where you can keep a wee container of milk or half-n-half.

Barisieur retails for $445 (zoinks!), and is available online and in several large department stores in the U.K. and U.S.

 

DrinkShift
No one likes running out of beer. And while keeping track of your bottle count isn’t exactly rocket science, the new smart beer fridge from Tokyo-based DrinkShift manages your stock for you. The fridge’s server monitors your drinking pace and uses an algorithm to figure out when to re-order more brewskies so you never run out. You can customize beer packages to indicate which ones you want, and they’re delivered to your door via a third party retailer.

DrinkShift debuted their fridge this April; it was immediately bought by Panasonic. It’s not on the market yet, and also doesn’t yet have a retail price — but one of the booth workers told me it will first roll out in Japan.

Eureka Park is huge and I am but one person — did I miss any cool, under-the-radar startups? Let us know in the comments or tweet us @TheSpoonTech!

D’oh No! Climate Change to Make Beer More Expensive

In news that is bound to become a storyline on The Simpsons at some point, a new study published in Nature today says climate change is likely going to make beer more expensive.

From that study’s abstract (emphasis ours):

We couple a process-based crop model (decision support system for agrotechnology transfer) and a global economic model (Global Trade Analysis Project model) to evaluate the effects of concurrent drought and heat extremes projected under a range of future climate scenarios. We find that these extreme events may cause substantial decreases in barley yields worldwide. Average yield losses range from 3% to 17% depending on the severity of the conditions. Decreases in the global supply of barley lead to proportionally larger decreases in barley used to make beer and ultimately result in dramatic regional decreases in beer consumption (for example, −32% in Argentina) and increases in beer prices (for example, +193% in Ireland). Although not the most concerning impact of future climate change, climate-related weather extremes may threaten the availability and economic accessibility of beer.

Yikes! Ireland’s beer prices means we may have to re-think Dublin as future home for the Smart Kitchen Summit: Europe.

Sure, that’s a joke, and this is obviously serious stuff. This study comes just a week after a searing (pardon the pun) report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) saying basically we have a decade as a planet to get climate change under control.

There is a tendency to ignore the dire climate change warnings as the problem seems too big, our individual contribution too small, and the consequences too abstract. That’s in part why this report was written — to bring the climate change debate down to a level most people will understand: beer.

Steve Davis of the University of California, Irvine, and one of the co-authors of the Nature study, told the AP that one of the reasons they chose beer as their subject was to “drive home the not-that-palatable message that climate change is messing with all sorts of aspects of our daily lives.”

If beer is not your bag, there are plenty of other treats in trouble. Climate change is threatening coffee and chocolate as well.

But every crisis is an opportunity, or as Homer Simpson called it — a “crisitunity”, and we regularly report on smart startups innovating in areas like combating food waste and improving supply chains. Hopefully more will hear this Clarion and act to save not just beer but, well, the planet.

BEERMKR: A Crowdfunded Countertop Beer Machine that Could Actually Deliver

The first thing I told Aaron Walls, Cofounder and CEO of BrewJacket, during our phone interview was that I didn’t think his BEERMKR Kickstarter campaign was going to work.

I was sure it would get funded (and it did)–there’s a huge opportunity for an all-in-one countertop beer-making appliance that takes the hassle out of homebrewing. But BEERMKR isn’t the first company to promise such a device and ask people to fund it. PicoBrew‘s success aside, Kickstarter and Indiegogo are littered with the remains of Brewbot, iGulu and HOPii, all of whom promised easy home brewing, all of whom collected big money from everyday people, none of whom made it to market.

But after talking with Walls, I think BEERMKR might actually be different. It might actually, dare I say it, become an actual product you can pay actual money for and actually use.

Like those before it, BEERMKR is a device that promises to take all the work out of home brewing. There’s a countertop appliance that is both a brewer and fermenter, a separate dispenser and a mobile app that provides recipes and sends you notifications throughout the brew process. From a press release announcing that BEERMKR hit its Kickstarter goal, the process seems pretty straightforward:

How it Works in Five Easy Steps:

  1. Add the grain and hops from the MKRKIT into the ingredient bin and start the brew on the BEERMKR app.
  2. When brewing is complete, remove grain and hops from ingredient bin and add yeast.
  3. Start fermentation via the BEERMKR app and ferment the wort into beer.
  4. Once complete, transfer the finished beer to the BEERTAP dispenser and then screw inthe CO2 cartridge to carbonate.
  5. Serve and enjoy.

 

There are a few things that make BEERMKR stand out from existing homebrew systems like the Pico. First, BEERMKR is totally open. You can buy pre-made brew kits with ingredients from BrewJacket, customize those kits with your own ingredients (think: raspberries from your garden or whiskey-soaked oak chips) if you want, or just build your own recipe from the ground up. This is different from the Pico, which still makes you buy Pico Packs (at least for now) and doesn’t allow for as much experimentation.

BEERMKR also uses a “brew pouch” system. These are single-use, recyclable bags that contain the beer during the brewing and fermenting process. Once the beer is ready, simply take the pouch out of the brewer and hook it up in the dispenser. Oxygen never touches the beer and there’s no need to clean and sterilize buckets and hoses. Want to brew another batch? Pull out another pouch.

The BEERMKR itself costs $329 for early backers (it goes up to $379 if you wait too long), and each brew kit costs $12 and will produce the equivalent of a 12 pack of beer. The BEERMKR app guides you through each recipe with notifications on things like when to add yeast, and how long to ferment, etc., and keeps track of what ingredients you’ve added if you’re building your own recipe.

So why am I more bullish on BEERMKR than its predecessors?

Mainly because the people behind BEERMKR have a track record. BrewJacket is a real company that’s been around for five years and has already produced — and shipped — beer brewing products like the BrewJacket Immersion Pro fermentation temperature control system.

Assuming they can replicate their previous fulfillment success, what’s even more exciting about BEERMKR is that its open approach actually makes me want to brew my own beer, and I hate beer. The idea of adding tea or chocolate or Twizzlers or whatever to a beer sounds fun.

The company is showing off the BEERMKR in action at the Great American Beer Festival in Boulder, CO this weekend and says it will ship units to backers in March of 2019.

Food Tech News: Bye Bye Plastic Bags, Hello Beer Hotels

This week was a bit of a whirlwind for food and kitchen news. And no, we’re not just talking about Snoop Dogg’s cookbook announcement.

For all the stories we write about on the Spoon, there are a few we don’t cover but still think are worthy of a shoutout. Hence: food tech news roundup. Check out the list of stories that caught our eye this week, from craft beer hotels to President Trump-bound letters about cultured meat:

Kroger is phasing out plastic shopping bags
Grocery giant Kroger is gradually reducing their use of plastic bags. This week they started phasing them out in their Seattle QFC stores, and they plan to eliminate them altogether by the end of 2019. Kroger claims they’ll be completely plastic bag-free in its roughly 2,800 stores by 2025. This is in line with other initiatives to reduce single-use plastics; Seattle has already banned plastic straws and Starbucks is eliminating straws in all of their locations. Plastic bags seem like the next step in the march to prevent more plastic waste getting in our oceans.

 

Opposing sides work together to regulate cultured meat
Lab-grown meat company Memphis Meats and the North American Meat Institute (NAMI) teamed up to pen a letter to President Donald Trump asking his administration to “clarify the regulatory framework for cell-based meat and poultry products.” They asked that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) collaborate to oversee regulation of the new product.

This letter comes almost a month after a band of agricultural groups wrote their own letter to the President, asking for similar regulation to be applied both to traditional meat and “cell-based meat and poultry. It’s also close on the heels of the FDA’s public meeting on cultured meat, in which they examined safety and labeling issues around this emerging food. The fact that these two groups reached across the aisle to ask for the same thing — fair, consistent regulation — is a reality check for those groups who thought that cultured meat was a thing of the distant future.

 

Zippin unveils checkout-free tech to compete with Amazon Go (and others)
This week startup Zippin launched their software platform which lets retail shoppers fill their bag and walk out, without stopping to check out. Their shop, which uses a combination of cameras and smart sensing shelves to track shoppers’ selections, will open in San Francisco sometime next month. The company is trying to compete with Amazon Go, who pioneered their cashierless tech at their Seattle store, as well as rival technology Trigo Vision. Microsoft and All_ebt are purportedly working on cashierless shopping systems of their own.

 

Brewdog opens craft beer hotel in Ohio
Craft beer obsessives, we’ve got your next vacation lined up for you. This coming Monday Scottish craft beer company Brewdog will open what their website calls “the world’s first crowdfunded beer hotel” in Columbus, Ohio, right next door to their U.S. brewery. According to Food & Wine, The Doghouse has beer taps in all of the rooms, beer-stocked minifridges in the showers, and even uses beer-infused products in their spa. Guests can also play beer pong in the lobby and hop (pun intended) over to the brewery for an interactive tour. As the company’s name implies, dogs are welcome.

 

U.S. Army Lab turns plastic water bottles into 3D printed goods
The U.S. Army Research Lab (ARL) are repurposing plastic from sources like yogurt containers and water bottles as 3D printing materials. 3D Printing Industry reported that the ARL is hoping that this tech can be used within Army bases, so service members can quickly create parts for equipment and weapons. This shortens the supply chain, makes use of recyclable materials, and ensures that military members can create necessary plastic parts without having to wait for their next supply truck.

Did we miss any news? Tweet us @TheSpoonTech!

Cannabis-Infused Beer is New Hot Edible (Er, Drinkable) Trend

Have you ever wanted to roll your vices together to make one uber-vice? No? Well now you can — sort of.

Companies are capitalizing on marijuana’s march towards widespread legalization by developing new ways to ingest Mary Jane. One method in particular that’s on the rise is cannabis-infused beverages, from beer to soda.

Brewery behemoths have read the writing on the wall, and are scrambling to capitalize on marijuana legalization. The Wall Street Journal reported that Colorado-based beer giant Molson Coors will team up with Canadian marijuana grower The Hydropothecary Corporation to make a non-alcoholic, cannabis-laced drink for the Canadian market. They’re hustling, since Canada will legalize recreational-use pot on October 17th, and marijuana edibles will become legal in 2019.

This move comes a few months after Constellation Brands, the company behind Modelo and Corona beer, took a minority stake in Canadian marijuana producer Cannabis Growth. In June, Heineken-owned Lagunitas teamed up with CannaCraft to make Hi-Fi Hops: two cannabis-infused beverages made with varying levels of THC (the psychoactive chemical in marijuana) and CBD (the relaxing chemical). The inventor of Blue Moon beer partnered with Ebbu to launch a THC-infused beer in Colorado.

Though they might be called “beer,” no cannabis-infused beverages on the market are actually alcoholic. Instead, they’re marketed as an alternative to booze; they’re meant to give the same relaxing effects in social situations, minus the calories and hangover. The majority of these beverages have a relatively low dose of THC, CBD, or both — around 5 grams — which is enough to bring on a buzz for most people, but not so much that you’ll pass out on the sofa after eating an entire box of Girl Scout cookies.

But cannabis beverages aren’t limited to beer (or “beer”). California Dreamin’, a company which makes marijuana-infused sodas in flavors like grapefruit and tangerine, raised $2.3 million in funding this week. Investors include famed startup accelerator Y Combinator and Paul Buchheit, creator of Gmail. The San Francisco-based startup markets its sugar-free, gluten-free wares as a social beverage and “a healthy alternative to beer.”

Seattle’s Cafe Hitchcock Express offers lattés infused with CBD, the non-psychoactive chemical in cannabis. Californian Rebel Coast Winery offers a Sauvignon Blanc which contains THC; their website promises the relaxing effects of alcohol, but with fewer calories and no hangover. Keef makes sparkling beverages with marijuana, which they market as “the go-to social option for people looking for a low-calorie, sugar free alternative to alcoholic beverages and sugary cannabis-infused edibles.”

It’s no surprise that these companies are scrambling to get a piece of the consumable cannabis pie. As we wrote in our piece on edibles earlier this year, cannabis-infused food and drink account for 18% of California’s marijuana sales, according to a Green Market report. Everyone, from emerging startups to CPG giants, is experimenting to figure out how to ride the wave as marijuana becomes legalized in more and more places.

This is especially critical for alcohol-peddling companies, which are experiencing a dip in sales in states where marijuana is legal. A study by Georgia State University in December 2017 found that alcohol consumption dipped by 15% in areas with access to legal marijuana. By developing a pot product of their own, companies hope to capture some of the booming cannabis market — or at least not let it disrupt them quite so much.

Food Tech News Roundup: Fungi Burgers, Pineapple Beer, and Chatbot Bartenders

Summer has descended upon us like a thick, laze-inducing haze. If you’re like us, all you want to do is head to the local pool and drink cool beverages out of our stainless steel straws.

Steamy weekends are not the time for more work, so we went ahead and rounded up some news-worthy food tech stories from around the web for your reading pleasure. Bonus: you can peruse while you’re lounging in air conditioning.

Bronx Brewery Beer Fights Produce Waste
On July 30th New York’s Bronx Brewery will release a beer made with repurposed food scraps. Called More To The Core, it’s a Kolsch style ale brewed with pineapple cores and skins, which are normally tossed into the trash and end up in landfills. This tasty, waste-y beer is a collaboration between Baldor Specialty Foods and The Bronx Brewery, and is available in their taproom.

 

Capital sprouts up for fungi-based meat company
This week Terramino Foods, a startup which uses fungi to make meat and seafood alternatives, raised $4.25 million in a seed funding round co-led by Collaborative Fund and True Ventures. In a press release, True Ventures indicated that Terramino Foods has already developed a plant-based salmon burger, and has plans to create alternatives to beef, chicken, and pork with its new capital. 

 

Costco partners with Zest Labs to optimize food supply chain
Wholesale giant Costco announced this week that it would start working with Zest Labs, a company which works in fresh food supply chain traceability. According to a press release, Costco is expecting this partnership to help modernize and optimize their fresh foods, reducing food waste up to 50%.

 

McDonald’s workers are short on soft skills
This week McDonald’s released the results of its Workplace Preparedness Study, which analyzed skill development across multiple age groups. The survey polled 6,200 people and discovered that many were missing soft skills, such as teamwork, customer service, and responsibility. We’ve addressed the restaurant labor shortage before on the Spoon, and have wondered if companies will pad their meager workforce with robots in coming years. But will robots have better soft skills than teenagers looking for a summer job? Or maybe the robots will take over the physically repetitive jobs, like food prep and dish running, freeing up people with soft skills to interact with customers.

 

Allrecipes & Tito’s vodka launch Barkeep, a chatbot ‘bartender’

Ready to get your drink on through Facebook? Allrecipes and Tito’s vodka got you covered. The recipe site is working with the Austin, TX craft vodka maker to launch a chatbot by the name of Barkeep using Facebook Messenger chatbot platform. After checking if the user is of legal drinking age, Barkeep suggests a few cocktails (using Tito’s, natch) and then walks the user through a conversation branch flow that has the user ultimately choose a cocktail recipe. Once a recipe is picked and the user is sent to Allrecipes, they can then order their some Tito’s or other liquor through Drizly. You can try Barkeep out for yourself here.

Did we miss anything? Tweet us @TheSpoonTech!

Get Food Waste-d: Toast Ale Turns Surplus Bread Into Beer

When it comes to food waste, there’s one culprit almost all of us throw away at least a portion of: bread. Maybe it starts sprouting mold or gets rock-hard. Or maybe you just don’t like eating the heels.

In the U.K., at least 24 million slices of bread are thrown away per day, making it Britain’s most wasted food. This can happen anywhere along the food system, from post-harvest cereal losses to bakery waste to you tossing out that stale baguette half.

Toast Ale is trying to divert some of that bread waste from the trash by giving it another life — as beer. The British company was founded in 2016 after social entrepreneur and Toast founder Tristram Stewart happened upon a brewery in Brussels that served a beer made with bread, just like original brewers used to make it 7,000 years ago.

“It was a lightbulb moment,” said Karen Kuhn, Head of Business Development for Toast Ale USA. “He realized we could divert a lot of bread from landfills, and at the same time start a conversation about food waste.” So Stewart developed a recipe and partnered with Hackney Brewery in London to make Toast’s first beer, in which one-third of the grain was replaced with surplus bread from local bakeries. According to Kuhn, bakeries (at least in the U.S.) have to pay to have their excess bread composted, so having a channel to get rid of their old bread for free — and have it go towards a cool finished product — is a no-brainer.

Since 2016, Toast has grown throughout the U.K. and now sells their brews in British grocery chains Tesco, Waitrose, and others. They donate 100 percent of their profits (after they pay the staff and keep the lights on) to Stewart’s nonprofit, FeedBack Global.

Toast’s ales, lagers, and IPAs retail for the same price as craft beer. While I haven’t had a chance to sample Toast yet (though I will when I head to London after SKS Europe!), they apparently aren’t missing anything when it comes to taste. Toast Ale took home a silver medal at the 2018 New York International Beer Competition and currently has a “Very Good” rating on Beer Advocate. 

In July 2017, Toast came Stateside and started producing their beer at a brewery in the Bronx, using surplus loaves from Bread Alone Bakery in Kingston, N.Y. Kuhn made it very clear that Toast only takes the bread that remains after bakeries donate to soup kitchens. “We never take bread from the human food supply,” she said.

A few months after their move to the U.S., Toast Ale released their brews exclusively with Whole Foods in New York City. Since then, they’ve been steadily expanding. In February of this year, they made it onto the menu of Shake Shack’s NYC locations, and recently also rolled out in shops in New York’s Hudson Valley. Kuhn promised the company would be entering more areas in the Northeast before the end of the year, with plans for a presence throughout the U.S. by 2019.

Though the U.S. branch is the only proper subsidiary company, Toast Ales also has a global licensing model which allows breweries around the world to license their brand and recipe so that they can also turn excess bread into beer. Right now, their ales and lagers are being brewed in Rejkavik, Rio de Janiero, and South Africa. They also do collaborations with breweries, bakeries, and other companies, including Eataly, Google, and Five Boroughs Brewing Company. If you’re a homebrewer (maybe you have a PicoBrew?) and have a few slices of bread lying around, you can even try your hand at the Toast recipe yourself.

Toast Ales has roughly 20 people on staff, most of whom work in the U.K.. Kuhn said that Toast just closed a round of funding using a model called “equity for good,” in which investors get back their initial investment and commit on reinvesting it in other social enterprises. While Kuhn didn’t disclose how much they raised, she said that Toast would use it to fund their expansion both in the U.K. and U.S..

“We’re hoping to take beer and use it as a way to start a conversation [about food waste] by printing our story on our can, sharing facts, and introducing an interesting concept that people aren’t familiar with,” said Kuhn. I’ll cheers to that. 

PicoBrew Goes Beyond Beer with Pico U, a Universal Brewing Appliance

Today PicoBrew announced the Pico U, a new multi-drink brewing appliance that allows users to make beer and a variety of other craft beverages such as cold brew coffee, kombucha, and horchata.

While the move into what the company calls “fusion drinks” is a significant new direction for PicoBrew, it’s not altogether surprising. The eight-year-old company has become reliably predictable by introducing new products every year that are both more affordable and offer greater functionality.

The dimensions of the Pico U are significantly smaller than both the Pico Pro and Pico C, which PicoBrew told us was in part an effort to make the appliance more attractive to those worried about kitchen counter space. Makes sense, since the crowding of countertops is real in the era of kitchen gadget proliferation, and the Pico U’s footprint is closer to that of an espresso machine to that of the Pico C’s countertop microwave oven-like dimensions.

With the move to smaller form factor and fusion drinks, the Pico U also comes with a smaller step filter which holds the company’s compostable ingredient pods called PicoPaks (the smaller PicoPaks for the mini step filter will be called, naturally, PicoPak Minis).  The smaller step filter makes 1.3-liter batch drink brews, and those looking for larger batches (or who want to brew beer) will need the standard 5-liter step filter.

To brew fusion beverages such as kombucha, horchata or yerba mate, Pico U owners will need to buy a PicoPak through the PicoBrew website. The company has indicated that they will offer both multipak and single pak versions to buy online and that the pricing for the Paks will range depending on the price of the ingredients. More exotic brews with high-priced ingredients like saffron or peaberry might cost over $15 for a batch; simpler tea based brews will be lower.

In typical PicoBrew fashion, the company is launching the new product via Kickstarter. The Pico U, which ship this fall to backers, comes in both a “basic” and “deluxe” configurations seen below:

Pico U Model Configurations

As can be seen above, Kickstarter pricing for the basic configuration starts at $169 and pricing for the Deluxe configuration is $189. My guess is that with only a $20 price difference the Pico U Deluxe package will be the most popular, particularly for those who have been on the fence about buying previous Pico models and were waiting for the price to come down. When these models come to retail, they will be priced $249 and $299 respectively.

One feature of the Pico U that is intriguing to me is the single serve coffee capability. With its single-serve coffee function,  PicoBrew allows the Pico U owner to brew coffee with “Gold Cup” standard precision temperature control, which means the water must be 200°F plus or minus a couple degrees when it hits the grounds.  That’s pretty cool since Gold Cup coffee makers are a thing, but I’m more intrigued by the ability to do single cup brews, one of the things I wanted with my still MIA Spinn.

I also like the idea of being able to use my own coffee beans, a departure from other beverages such as beer which require PicoPaks. If there’s one complaint I’ve heard from home brewers considering previous Pico models, it’s that the cost-per-brew of the Pico is still fairly high. PicoPaks range in cost from $20 for the PicoBrew house brands up to $25 to $29 for PicoPaks from their brewery partners. That translates to about $1.50-$2 per 12 ounce beer, which is less than buying in bottles but still not exactly cheap.

Pricing gets us to the broader question of is whether this is the PicoBrew model that will take the company – and home brewing – more mass market. The company seems focused on making that happen by continually dropping prices, improving the ease of use and making their products smaller all while adding new features like fusion drink brewing. And certainly, by doing all that with the Pico U, my guess is they will likely entice more wannabe homebrewers into the PicoBrew universe.

However, going more mass-market will ultimately depend on how many are ok with paying for ingredient packs.  Long term, it will be interesting to see if the company starts to bring the pricing down on their ingredients, something which will ultimately be heavily dependent on volume. Of course, this is dependent on how many Picos are out in the field brewing up batches of beer and kombucha. If that sounds like the classic chicken-egg problem, that’s because it is.

However, there’s no doubt the Pico U is the most approachable and mass market-ready PicoBrew yet, so I expect we’ll see the company beat its past crowdfunding records and sell a whole bunch of beer brewing appliances.

Food Tech News: Celebrity Meal Kits, Beer Delivery, and UberEats Drones

This was a pretty thrilling week for food-related innovation in big data and AI. We wrote about a patent that lets Facebook see inside your fridge and recommend personalized recipes. Google debuted its Duplex technology, which allows it to hold freakishly realistic-sounding phone conversations (listen to it make a restaurant reservation, it’s insane). Perhaps most importantly of all, we wrote about a man who cracked the code for perfect chocolate chip cookies.

And now it’s time for our weekly food tech news roundup. We’ve got stories featuring clean meat labeling, drones, beer delivery, and Chrissy Teigen — let’s dive in:

Photo: Wikipedia.

Uber tests food delivery drone
UberEats has launched a trial program in San Diego testing food delivery via drone, reported Bloomberg. The world’s largest food delivery program could now theoretically drop off your pad thai in as little as five minutes, according to UberEats CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Of course that’s presuming that the food you’re ordering is already made, but still — that’s quite a bit speedier than even the fastest average food delivery wait time (from, you guessed it, UberEats).

 

Photo: Blue Apron.

Blue Apron teams up with Chrissy Teigen
Just a week after meal kit service Blue Apron announced they were putting their wares on Costco shelves, they revealed more news: they’re collaborating with model/cookbook author/Instagram celebrity Chrissy Teigen on a six-week lineup of recipes and ingredient boxes. The series will start on June 4th and, despite their launch into retail, will only be available via online delivery.

 

Photo: Pizza Hut.

Pizza Hut expands beer delivery
Pizza Hut launched a test program in Phoenix in December to deliver beer and wine alongside their cheesy crust-stuffed pies. Now they’re rolling out that test program in over 100 locations in Arizona and California, with plans to continue expansion later this month. It’s also adding beer partners; the original test was with Anheuser-Busch, but the pizza chain has reportedly added MillerCoors as a partner in brews.

 


Congress might approve lab-grown meat regulation
Quartz reported that a proposed spending bill approved by a congressional subcommittee includes a provision that would give the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) the power to regulate how lab-grown meat is labeled and inspected. It’ll go next to the full, 46-member House Agriculture Committee, and, if passed, would have huge implications for a hotly-contested issue: the labeling of cultured meat.

Did we miss any interesting, thought-provoking food tech stories from the week? Tell us in the comments or tweet us @TheSpoonTech.

A Brewery In Australia Is Developing Beer For Space Travel

Since we’re officially going to Mars, it’s time to sort out what we’ll eat and drink once there. Freeze-dried food is alive and well. We’ll be able to grow produce. And, as Food & Wine noted recently, you can pair those leafy greens and Styrofoam-like entrees with a bottle of beer.

Vostok Space Beer is the brainchild of Australia’s 4 Pines Brewing Company and research and development company Saber Astronautics. Branding themselves, “space guys who love beer,” the two companies have come together to create a brew you could actually drink once you’re beyond gravity’s pull.

Brewing beer for space takes a somewhat different set of skills than traditional brews, and the Vostok team faced multiple challenges in creating a beer that would actually work in space.

For one, the human body absorbs alcoholic beverages differently in zero-gravity environments. Traditional beer drunk in space would not only taste different, it could also do strange and possibly gross things to your digestive system. There’s also the whole drinking-and-flying debate to consider.

Packaging, too, is an issue the folks at Vostok have had to work through. Because you can’t pour liquid properly without gravity, the team had to design a special bottle that would defy gravity. To address that, Vostok went to great lengths to develop something that would give drinkers the experience of holding an actual beer bottle, using “modified technology from fuel tanks.”

“We’ve created the beer and created the bottle. Now it’s just piecing them altogether,” says 4 Pines’ Jaron Mitchell.

The reality is probably not quite so simple. Alcohol and space have a complicated history together, one that’s rife with politics. Buzz Aldrin may have had a glass of wine on the moon, but booze is actually banned from the International Space Station today. That’s probably a good thing, as far as the astronauts are concerned. Whether regulations change once the average tourist starts taking trips to space is a question we’ll see debated more in the coming years.

Right now, the product appears to be more in the conceptual stage than anything else. Vostok is raising funds via an Indiegogo campaign, though as yet it only has a few thousand of its $1 million goal.

Also, space tourism may be inevitable, but not for some years. So at present, your $90 minimum donation will only get you the bottle, sans beer. But based on the concept designs, it’s still a pretty cool piece to have in your collection, and if you’re lucky enough to win a spot on this parabolic flight, you might actually be able to use it.