In a city where convenience often overshadows mindful consumption, Hong Kong grapples with a staggering 3,600 tonnes of food waste every day—nearly one-third of the region’s total solid waste. Astonishingly, bread accounts for around 47% of that daily surplus, reflecting both high levels of consumption and short shelf lives. Major bakery chains and supermarkets—such as Maxim’s, A1, and ParknShop—collectively discard an estimated 1,700 tonnes of bread daily. Against this stark backdrop, one startup has found a novel way to tackle the city’s overflowing landfills, turning yesterday’s unsold loaves into tomorrow’s craft brews. That startup is Breer. Since its founding in 2020, Breer has made headlines not just for its inventive products but also for its broader impact on sustainability, social inclusion, and public awareness.
In late 2019, four Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) students—Anushka Purohit, Naman Tekriwal, Deevansh Gupta, and Suyash Mohan—stopped by a local bakery near closing time. What they witnessed next would redefine their professional paths. Staff were sweeping heaps of unsold bread into black garbage bags, preparing to throw them into the trash. They soon learned that this practice was ubiquitous throughout the city. Just a week later, while chatting with a bartender in Hong Kong’s lively Lan Kwai Fong district, they discovered kvass—an ancient Eastern European beverage traditionally made by fermenting old bread. “That was the eureka moment for us,” recalls Tekriwal. “We saw the bread-waste problem a week ago, and a week later we saw that alcohol can be made from bread.” Inspired by this synergy, the four students set out to brew craft beer from leftover loaves, calling themselves “Breer,” a clever blend of “Bread” and “Beer.”
The founders’ bakery encounter is far from an isolated incident, baked goods are among the biggest culprits in a city where landfill space is rapidly disappearing. Indeed, Hong Kong’s three main landfills—in Tuen Mun, Tseung Kwan O, and Ta Kwu Ling—are at capacity despite recent extensions, underscoring the urgency of reducing waste at its source. Much of this bread waste stems from market dynamics: Hong Kong consumers expect ultra-fresh bread, leaving little room for items that sit on shelves for more than a day. Major chains such as A1, Maxim’s, and ParknShop routinely discard unsold products to maintain brand standards. Compounding the problem, the city’s fast-paced lifestyle often leads to overproduction, minimal redistribution, and inefficient supply chains. Breer’s upcycling solution directly tackles this short shelf life and high consumer demand for freshness by giving surplus bread a new life.
The road from idea to commercial viability began when the founders submitted their concept to an Enactus competition—an international platform that encourages students to develop socially responsible startups. Despite lacking brewing experience, they secured funding to create their first test batches. Early prototypes were brewed in kitchen experiments, often with comical mishaps. “I still remember my mom scolding me because I blew up grains all over the kitchen ceiling,” Tekriwal laughs, recalling the numerous failed test batches.
Encouraged by small grants and further university entrepreneurship competitions, the four founders refined their recipes, replaced large portions of malted barley with bread, and began forging ties with local breweries. By 2021, they had captured broader attention, eventually raising HKD 1 million to scale operations. Initially, many in the brewing industry were skeptical—both about the founders’ youth and the technical feasibility of substituting bread for barley. “We were seen as just students doing a school project,” Tekriwal notes. But perseverance and well-received taste tests led to rental partnerships with established breweries, allowing Breer to scale from small 20-liter experiments to 1,000-gallon production runs.
Traditional beer recipes use roughly 78% barley, 13% hops, and 9% yeast. Breer’s genius is to replace a significant portion of the barley with leftover bread. For every 500-liter batch, they incorporate around 700 loaves—loaves that would otherwise end up in landfills. The bread is dried, crushed into crouton-like pieces, and steeped in hot water. Once mashed and drained, the resulting liquid (wort) is boiled with hops, then fermented with yeast to create alcohol. Finally, the beer is carbonated, chilled, and packaged. Breer’s “low-asset model” relies on partnerships: the startup commissions local breweries for most steps of production, tapping into existing infrastructure rather than building their own expensive facilities. This approach keeps overhead low and scalability high. Meanwhile, “Breer-runners”—a network of volunteers and high-school interns—collect unsold bread from bakeries, reinforcing the educational component of the project. It’s not just about making beer; it’s about teaching Hong Kong’s youth that food waste can be turned into opportunity.
One of Breer’s most transformative alliances is with Maxim’s Group, one of Hong Kong’s largest food and beverage conglomerates. In early 2020, Maxim’s became Breer’s anchor partner for both raw materials (surplus bread) and R&D support. By December 2022, they launched their first beer product together, showcasing how a major industry player can team up with an innovative startup to tackle systemic waste issues. Breer’s collaborations extend beyond bakery chains. Partnerships with Swire Properties, HK Tramways, Pizza Hut, and MTR Corporation Limited reveal the brand’s adaptability. Their world’s first “pizza crust beer,” created with Pizza Hut, underlines Breer’s willingness to experiment with different bread varieties, from crust scraps to Hong Kong’s iconic cocktail buns. In August 2024, Breer made another bold move: launching a non-alcoholic beer crafted from cocktail buns, tapping into the growing sober-conscious movement, projected to hit US$51.2 billion worldwide by 2028.
For every can of their beer, Breer estimates they offset 0.09 tonnes of CO₂, save 0.055 liters of water, and free up 0.3 square meters of landfill space. By transforming waste into wort, Breer reduces the environmental footprint of both brewing (less imported barley) and bakeries (less bread in landfills). It’s a powerful demonstration of the circular economy in action, where a waste product becomes the key input for another product’s creation. This model has also reduced brewing costs by substituting a portion of expensive barley imports. In a city stressed by rising overheads, these savings can be the difference between breakeven and profitability, all while driving positive environmental change.
Beyond numbers, Breer’s greatest success may be its impact on public understanding of food waste. Their brand identity—distinctly “Hong Kong-made”—resonates with millennials and Gen Z who increasingly seek value-driven consumption. In fact, Breer’s own survey data suggests 83% of young people in Hong Kong are willing to try bread beer, with 74% citing the desire to shift toward sustainable drinking. By connecting sustainability with a trendy craft beer experience, Breer has proven that tackling serious problems can be both enticing and delicious.
Breer’s mission also extends to social inclusion. The company provides job training and employment opportunities for people from diverse racial backgrounds, low-income families, and individuals with disabilities. To date, they have offered full-time jobs to five individuals from marginalized communities and run six training workshops for over 300 participants. This holistic approach to sustainability ensures that social well-being grows alongside environmental benefits.
Any groundbreaking idea faces obstacles, and Breer is no exception. Quality consistency is a persistent challenge: with surplus bread coming from different bakeries, the starch profile can vary. Ensuring flavor uniformity takes meticulous R&D and collaboration with experienced brewers. Scaling up also tests their supply chain; partnerships with large corporations require consistent volumes of bread and reliable logistics. Moreover, not everyone embraces the idea of “bread beer” immediately. Initial skepticism, cultural perceptions around “old bread,” and a craft beer premium price point can deter some consumers. Nevertheless, Breer’s expanding footprint suggests that taste and environmental consciousness ultimately win over the doubters.
Breer’s concept of “bread to beer” doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The startup is part of a growing global movement of upcycling initiatives that reclaim food otherwise headed for waste. In Singapore, Crust Group has adopted a similar model, while in the UK, major retailer Aldi has launched two beers made from surplus bread and “wonky” fruit. Brands like Toast Ale, Been A Slice, and Crumbs Brewing also work to mainstream bread-based beers, each adding its own twist. This broader context suggests consumer appetite for waste-based innovations is rising, potentially reshaping the food and beverage landscape on an international scale. Breer’s willingness to share brewing best practices with other companies underscores its commitment to systemic change. Rather than guarding their method, the founders talk of open-sourcing their approach to maximize environmental impact. As Tekriwal puts it, “By working together with major companies on recipe development, we can popularize our concept and enable more breweries around the world to make bread beer.”
Breer’s story reads like a modern-day fable of purpose-driven entrepreneurship: four curious students spot a massive waste problem and piece together an ancient solution that resonates with contemporary consumers. From kitchen mishaps to industry recognition—including spots on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 and multiple social entrepreneurship awards—they’ve shown how environmental, economic, and social value can converge in a single product. Perhaps the most important lesson here is that innovation often appears in the unlikeliest of places—in this case, a sack of day-old bread. Breer’s evolution from small-batch experiments to partnerships with Hong Kong’s largest F&B chains serves as a blueprint for how circular economy practices can flourish when given the right platforms and support. In short, when you drink Breer, you’re not just choosing a beverage—you’re making a statement that innovation and impact can go hand in hand, one loaf and one lager at a time.