Only a few kilometers separate the Brasserie Leopold 7 and the bakery Champain. Both support sustainable food production. That was all it took to the founders Charles-Edouard Jolly (of the Champain bakery) and Nicolas Declercq (of the Brasserie Leopold 7) to develop a simple but original idea: to make the most of their associated processes while avoiding food waste. In a nutshell, the short circuit in practice!
Initially, the bakery will supply the brewery with its unsold bread, to be transformed into its beers. In practice, the Brasserie Léopold 7 will replace part of the cereals used with bread. But a new raw ingredient also means an additional challenge. The challenge is to keep the taste of Leopold 7 unchanged. The new partners are therefore taking it one step at a time. In the long term, the idea is to use up to 10% of the bread," emphasizes Olivier van Hulsel, the brewery's director.
And the process continues. In turn, the brewery will return the filtered grain that remains after the brewing process to the bakery, to be made into bread. And Thibaut Laffut, manager of the bakery, has more than one trick up his sleeve... he also replaces the water that is usually used to make bread with Leopold 7. In addition to enhancing taste, the yeast in the beer will allow the bread to rise.
The initiative of the Leopold 7 brewery and the Champain bakery is a good example of circular entrepreneurship. The original collaboration enhances the connected flows and prevents food losses. The Leopold 7 Brewery, which with the help of a team of enthusiasts sells more than 1 million bottles a year, remains faithful to the 4Ps of sustainable development: People, Planet, Participation & Perpetuity.