At grocery stores around the world, the fate of bruised peaches and misshapen plums is often the trash 鈥� but one D.C. brewery is helping to cut down on food waste by finding a new use for imperfect fruit: Beer.
Since 2017, has teamed up with MOM鈥檚 Organic Market to turn unsold stone fruit into a sour summer ale, aptly named Ugly & Stoned.
Last year, the brewery rescued about 500 pounds of fruit per batch of beer. This year, it鈥檚 hoping to do the same.
鈥淥ur sort of ethos, in general, is trying to be a good environmental steward,鈥� said Atlas Brew Works founder and CEO Justin Cox, who launched the 鈥淩escue Brew鈥� project with the folks at Environmental Working Group and Food Policy Action Education Fund.
Atlas, located in the Ivy City neighborhood of Northeast D.C., is 100% solar-powered. It also has water recapturing programs and donates its spent grain to local farms for feed and compost. Working to eliminate food waste by using fruit that doesn鈥檛 sell in the store seemed like the next logical step, Cox said.
In the U.S., 30 to 40 percent of all food is wasted, . And more food ends up in landfills and incinerators than any other single material in our everyday trash, .
Atlas head brewer Daniel Vilarrubi describes Ugly & Stoned, which is made using recovered peaches, plumbs, nectarines, pluots and apricots, as having 鈥渁 bit of body to it and a touch of sweetness鈥� 鈥� perfect for summer. Each batch varies, however, depending on the type of fruit used and the amount collected.
鈥淭he idea is [MOM鈥檚 is] going to give us the stuff that they can鈥檛 sell,鈥� Vilarrubi said.
Cox added: 鈥淣ormally we try to make all of our beers very consistent, we work very hard to make sure that each batch tastes similar or the same as the previous batch, but this beer we kind of just said, 鈥楲et鈥檚 do the opposite. Whatever it tastes like, it tastes like.鈥欌��
The brewery plans to release Ugly & Stoned in cans and kegs around July 4.
Before that happens, Atlas employees, friends and customers will gather in the tap room on Saturday, June 22 to cut up hundreds of pounds of the donated stone fruit, before it is pasteurized, fermented and made into beer.
The 鈥渟toning party鈥� starts at 11 a.m. and is open to the public.
