Melbourne-based craft beer brand Local Brewing has collaborated with Coles Liquor to launch a sustainable sour beer: Surplus Sour Watermelon Beer.
The beer is sourced from excess melons donated by Coles produce supplier Rombola Family Farms, and uses unsold Coles bread to help fermentation. According to the business, this is the first fruit beer that is made from excess fruit and bread in the market.
Instead of using modern brewing technology, the brewery uses a traditional method by adding yeast from bread in order to maintain the influence of sour or acidic flavours.
Co-founder Nick Campbell said the partnership will create a positive social impact, and help feed people in need – with each purchase of a Surplus Sour can delivering a meal to someone in need through SecondBite.
“Our collaboration with Coles Liquor has been incredible – it’s allowed us to brew a genuinely sustainable beer and increase our social impact,” said Campbell.
“We know from the release of previous sour beers that customers embrace this genuinely unique product, and it’s a great way to use food that might otherwise be wasted.”
Fernando Rombola, CEO of Rombola Family Farms, emphasized that products like this create an opportunity to increase people’s interest in sustainable agriculture and reducing food waste.
“This is super important for us – sustainability is not just about the environment, it’s financial sustainability, it’s sustainability for our people and sustainability for the land. If we are not looking after our land, how are we going to be able to reap the rewards from it?” said Rombola.
“If this product is successful, we’d definitely like to see this as a different stream; the more sustainable we are, the more we can grow more with less hectares, which is what we are always trying to do.”
Surplus Sour beer can be bought at Liquorland and First Choice Liquor Market.
