How beer sludge is being turned into vegan milk and leather

Scientists and industry are finding unusual new uses for brewers’ spent grain – the beer industry’s largest waste product.

Ponder the idea of a beer well-brewed and enthusiastic drinkers at least are likely to imagine a pint glass filled to the brim with golden nectar. 

What they probably won’t picture is the mountains of wet sticky shavings that pile up as the largest waste material of brewing beer.

This is what’s known as brewers’ spent grain, and there is an awful lot of it. Around 200g (7oz) is produced for every litre of beer brewed. Globally some 37 million tonnes is produced each year – equivalent to the weight of around 340 double-decker buses per hour. And as we drink more beer – sales are expected to rise by a third in the next seven years – only more and more will be churned out.

Huge brewers have even created their own vegan barley milk spin-offs made from spent grain