25 Ways to Spend Your Next Pomodoro Break

So you’ve jumped on board with the Pomodoro technique and you are easing into the routine of working for 25 minutes followed by a five-minute break. But as those breaks emerge, you aren’t always sure how to spend them to best use your decompression time. We’ve put together a list of 25 break ideas for […]

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Reducing Waste and Eating Beer with Dan Kurzrock

Listen to our exclusive interview with Daniel Kurzrock, co-founder of Regrained.

Dan grew up on the Bay Area Peninsula, and graduated from UCLA with a degree in Economics and a Masters in Sustainable Business from Presidio Graduate School. Dan realized a passion for entrepreneurship early.

ReGrained is telling an exciting environmental story, at a time when the food industry is grappling with a mountain of food waste. That’s where Regrained steps in. They use the spent grain leftover after the beer development process and repurpose it for food products. The leftover spent grain is like an oatmeal and of course, it’s terribly wasteful to throw food out.

Grain is a key ingredient in beer. Typically barley, though sometimes rye or oats. To make beer, the grain gets cracked to expose the starches. It is then steeped in warm water, where the starches start to break down into simple sugars, which become alcohol. This process leaves brewers with huge amounts of leftover grain.

“Many of the ingredients used to brew beer do not end up in your glass. That’s not to say all brewers are wasteful. Many, especially within the craft industry, are excellent environmental stewards with a strong dedication to sustainability. However, even the most conscientious brewer can’t help but generate massive quantities of leftover spent grain. The reality is that it takes a lot of barley to produce beer, America’s favorite suds. In the United States alone, approximately 200 million barrels of beer are consumed each year, with an average of 6 billion pounds of grain used by the brewing industry.” ~Regrained

spent-brewers-grain

While often referred to as “spent” grain, beer grain is far from spent. The grain simply has already served its purpose to the brewer.

In fact, as a food, “spent” grain is healthier. The brewers extract as much sugar as they can from the grain to produce beer. The rest physical grain itself is no longer needed, but it is a source of plant protein and dietary fiber. We’re talking about an ingredient with roughly the same protein profile as almonds, and more than 3x the dietary fiber of oats. Brewer’s grain is a sustainable supergrain!

As consumers, we get to decide what matters most through what we choose to buy. Our mantra is simple: “Brew Good. Bake Good. Do Good.” We invite you to join us in refusing to settle for anything less. Have your beer…and eat it too! ~Dan Kurzock & Jordan Schwartz

Resources:

www.regrained.com