No matter how hard Black Seed Bagels in Brooklyn tried to avoid overproducing bagels, the business always had leftover bagels at the end of the day. In an attempt to make use out of the leftover bagels and reduce food waste, the business came up with the idea of turning the leftover bagels into beer.

Of course, as a bagel bakery, doing this on their own was rather impossible. So they turned to Folksbier Brauerei, a brewery also based in Brooklyn who accepted the challenge of converting bagels into beer. Upon receiving the uneaten bagels (nothing with onions or garlic, which would distort the flavor of the ale), the Folksbier team breaks them up by hand and uses them as replacements for a little under 25% of the grains necessary in the brewing process. The resulting beer is known as the Black Seed Glow Up, which tastes similar to Berliner Weisse, a sour beer from Northern Germany.

This isn’t either company’s first foray into environmentally conscious production. Black Seed turns some of the leftover bagels into chips, bread crumbs, and croutons that are then served as part of its other offerings. Folksbier, on the other hand, sends its leftover grains to a company that uses it to make animal feed.

This story was one of the best from 2019, and we are happy to include it in our “12 Days of Optimism” as we welcome in the new year!