Citizen Collective

Citizen Collective was founded in 2020, with an ambition to help reduce food waste in Aotearoa New Zealand, by diverting surplus foods from waste or low-value streams. Their first product is craft beer made using surplus bread. They collect unsold bread from supermarkets and use it to replace a quarter of the malt barley in each brew. Every can of Citizen uses the fermentable starches from one rescued slice of bread - helping to reduce food waste, and also reducing the amount of virgin barley required in each brew. They brew in Matakana with their wonderful brew partners, Sawmill Brewery. Sawmill is B-Corp certified, which means they meet the highest environmental and social standards. Once their brew is done, they use their brew mash to create a nutritious spent-grain flour. This flour is a key ingredients in Citizen bread, along with excess pressed malt liquid that would otherwise go to waste. Their baking partners, Wild Wheat, are renowned for their artisan sourdough loaves, and the Citizen Malty Sourdough (available at Farro Fresh and Wild Wheat stores in Auckland) is an absolute doozy!