Loaves have been turned into the ultimate "liquid bread" as a new beer hits the supermarket shelves. Crumbs from 19,000 slices of surplus bakery bread replaced some of the malted barley to make a pale ale. The brew is the first collaboration of Toast Brewing with South Wales-based brewer Tiny Rebel! as part of its Breaking Bread series sold in Co-op stores. The sugar in the bread is converted into alcohol and gives body and character to the ale.

A duo of hops, Mosaic and ID-7, adds bright notes of pineapple and a zesty citrus punch. Social enterprise Toast aims to encourage more brewers to use the surplus food in their brewing, with other beers produced with Leeds-based Northern Monk and Suffolk-based Adnams in the pipeline. Chief Operating Officer Louisa Ziane said: "A lot of people would think, 'Bread, it's going to taste weird or be unusual'.

"Actually, we get the sugar from the bread as the main input into the brewing, which is ultimately turned into carbon dioxide and alcohol. A lot of the flavours are from the malts, yeasts, and hops which gives it that bitter or fruity note." She said people focus on the fact bread is an ingredient, "rather than the fact it's surplus and ask whether it tastes of bread".

Ms Ziane added: "But they are quite intrigued when they learn 44% of bread in the UK ends up getting wasted. It's crazy we produce so much and it just ends up in the bin. That really resonates especially when we are in a situation where so many people rely on food banks and such injustices."

She pointed out they were trying to normalise using the unusual ingredient in beer making, but many drinkers don't need much convincing to give it a go. She noted: "People don't need much encouragement to drink beer." The Breaking Bread Series' Hazy Pale is available now in over 500 Co-op stores nationwide, at £3 for a 440ml can.