Coles’ GENIUS way to use unsold bread supplies

One of world’s oldest beer styles is roaring back to life thanks to watermelons, unsold bread and a partnership between retail giant Coles and a Melbourne-based craft brewer.

Local Brewing Co has launched a limited edition Surplus Sour Watermelon Beer exclusively at Liquorland and First Choice Liquor Market, the first of a planned series of sour beers utilising unsold or excess fruit from the supermarket’s suppliers.

It’s made with excess melons donated by long-time Coles supplier Rombola Family Farms and, in place of brewer’s malt, uses unsold bread to add to the ferment.

Coles says the result is a light, gently fruity and refreshing beer with a delicate tang that typifies sour beers, one of the fastest growing craft beer styles in Australia and part of a consumer swing towards the easy-drinking alternative to traditional “bitter” pale ales.

In Belgium, traditional sour styles have been brewed since early in the 18th century, but their history can be traced back as far as 4000BC when brewing involved little more than mixing grain and water together and allowing naturally occurring microbes to do the rest.

In addition to yeast, which converts carbohydrates from the grain into alcohol, the microbial population also includes lactobacillus, which instead uses carbohydrate to create lactic acid – the same compound that gives sourdough bread its distinct flavour.

Modern brewing techniques usually avoid “wild” bacteria by adding cultivated strains of yeast to reduce the influence of sour or acidic flavours, but the craft beer craze has reignited interest in traditional styles.

Local Brewing Co’s Coles coup has significantly boosted the company’s production and quadrupled its contribution to food rescue organisation SecondBite.

Co-founder Nick Campbell said the brewer would donate the equivalent of one meal for every can of the new beer that’s sold.

“It’s a great way to use food that might otherwise be wasted,” Mr Campbell said.

“Every time we’ve released one of these sours in the past, it has been a sellout in just a few days, so we know customers love the story of transforming rescued food into an entirely new product.”

Coles Liquor merchandise general manager Brad Gorman said the partnership would produce at least three other exclusive fruit sour beers in the next 12 months.

“Sour beers are a very strong and rapidly growing segment in craft beer and we know our customers love locally made products,” he said.

Watermelon grower Fernando Rombola said the fruit was otherwise used as compost on the farm.

“If this product is successful, we’d definitely like to see this as a different stream,” he said.