First opening its doors back in March of this year, Bakery Square, located in Yokohama Takashimaya, likes to focus on delivering food in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. The store boasts more than 500 types of products, and on a good day can sell even more than 10,000 pieces of bread.
Unlike most bakeries in Japan, this one has taken bigger steps in the direction of sustainability, and utilises environmentally conscious efforts such as lowering the prices and freezing products that are at their best before date, as well as actively participating in recycling and composting days.

In their most recent eco-friendly move, the store is adding a new product to their lineup – RE: BREAD.
Made from bread that is about to be discarded, RE: BREAD is a low-malt beer that reduces food wastage.

If you’ve been keeping up to date with us here at grape Japan, you’ll notice a similarity between RE:BREAD and Crust Pilsner; another beer made from bread that hasn't been sold.

Bread at bakeries in Japan are normally made and consumed on the very same day. That’s why at the end of the day, so many bakeries discard food that is perfectly fine to eat. This kind of food wastage is not limited to bakeries, as a lot of patisseries, butchers and restaurants also follow the same daily routine.
The bread used in the production of these drinks are about to be discarded, not because they’re old and stale, but because they did not sell on the same day. Bakery Square has recognised this repeated issue of discarding perfectly fine food as a major catalyst behind Japan’s food waste problem, which currently averages at around 6.12 million tons of food that is still edible.

All about RE:BREAD

The process of making RE:BREAD starts with crushing the ‘old’ bread into small pieces. From there, the crumbs are heated alongside wheat to break down the complex carbohydrates. After that, the mixture can be used to make the low-malt beer.
On average, the amount of end-of-day bread can make up to 200 bottles of 330ml RE:BREAD. The bread can substitute up to 23% of the wheat normally needed for brewing.

The resulting brew is a ‘white beer’ featuring a gentle taste with minimal bitterness. It probably goes without saying, but this bread-made beer is the perfect accompaniment for some slices of freshly baked bread.

Helping to produce and sale RE:BREAD is the brewery ON TAP Edo Tokyo Beer, who obtained their low-malt beer licence back in 2018. The brewery offers freshly brewed craft beer every day. (*subject to current state of emergency regulations in Tokyo)

RE:BREAD 330ml

Price: 693 yen
Sales Location: Yokohama Takashimaya Japanese and Western Liquor Section and Yokohama Takashimaya Bakery Square
Venue: 1 Chome-6-31 Minamisaiwai, Nishi Ward, Yokohama, Kanagawa 220-8601