Open Kitchen MCR have teamed up with Beer Nouveau to create new brews made from waste fruit

Open Kitchen MCR (formerly known as Real Junk Food Manchester) which tackles food waste and its huge environmental impacts, has partnered with local independent brewer Beer Nouveau to create SURPLUS, a range of unique beers using a host of fresh ingredients that would otherwise have gone to waste. 

Making beers is a fab way to use up seasonal gluts of fruit, herbs, and even veg.

Beer Nouveau specialise in historic and heritage beers, brewing recipes from as far back as Ancient Egypt and Viking times. They brew a lot of experimental beers, often with foraged ingredients, and are home to the Manchester Hop Project - a community based hop growing initiative.

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Beer Nouveau's brew tap

After a successful launch event at Beer Nouveau’s brew tap at the end of April, where they showcased their first two creations - a Peach Wheat Beer and an Oatmeal Plum Stout – they have decided to make it a regular thing of it.

From May, the second Friday of every month will be known as SURPLUS Friday at Beer Nouveau’s brew tap. Each month they’ll be launching new seasonal beers created using fresh fruit, herbs and other ingredients that would have otherwise go to waste. To match, they’ll also provide a range of waste food small plates, tasty hot food and bar snacks to complement the beers. The menu will obviously change each month depending on what ingredients are available. 

“We’ve had this idea for a while now, and it’s great to be able to finally create a really unique range of beers,” said Corin Bell, Director of Open Kitchen MCR. “Making beers is a fab way to use up seasonal gluts of fruit, herbs, and even veg. The beers and the food will change constantly, and everyone who comes to enjoy them can feel really good about the fact that they’re stopping this lovely food from being wasted.”

The new range of SURPLUS beers will also be available at Beer Nouveau’s brew tap (every Friday 4.30pm - 10.30pm and every Saturday 12noon - 10.30pm), and will be available in bottles and keg later this summer.

Steve Dunkley, founder of Beer Nouveau said, “When we first had Open Kitchen MCR doing a street food bbq at our brewery tap, we found the food so amazing and the people so lovely that we just had to work with them again on an ongoing basis. It’s taken us a while to get this venture up and running, but the wait will be worth it. Not knowing what ingredients will be coming our way each week to brew with is a challenge, but it allows us to flex our brewing muscles and produce combinations you might not normally see in beer.”

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Open Kitchen MCR (formerly Real Junk Food Manchester) transform waste food into amazing meals

Open Kitchen MCR (formerly Real Junk Food Manchester) has grown from an idea in 2014, to a mobile operation running pop-up restaurants and community cafes across the city including the city’s first waste food pay-as-you-feel restaurant in 2017, to setting up Manchester’s first waste food pay-it-forward catering social enterprise in 2018. The social enterprise tackles environmental and social problems through a mixture of practical action and campaigning. They intercept food that would otherwise go to waste, and transform it into amazing meals for all – usually on a pay-as-you-feel basis. 

The next event will be held on May 10th. Tickets are available here. Booking isn’t essential, but will help them plan for numbers and, obviously not waste any food (which is obviously an important thing for them.) 

Follow @BeerNouveau @SurplusMCR and @OpenKitchenMCR on Twitter and Facebook