Bánh Mỳ Beer: Turning “waste bread” into beer

Bread and beer have always been close cousins — grains, yeast, transformation. But in most cities, unsold bread still gets tossed, day after day, even while the world talks about cutting waste. So we decided to do something simple (and delicious) with it: brew it.

Bánh Mỳ Beer is our zero-waste collaboration with Breer, a Hong Kong food-upcycling brewery known for collecting surplus bread and using it to brew craft beer. 

Meet Breer

Breer’s whole idea is straightforward: take perfectly edible bread that would otherwise be binned, and turn it into beer — proving “waste” can still have value. 

The project began as a student-driven response to the sheer amount of bread being thrown away, after seeing unused bakery loaves dumped and realising bread and beer share key ingredients. 

Meet 7 Bridges

7 Bridges Brewing Co. is a Vietnamese craft brewery with a simple belief: great beer can taste good and do good. We brew with creativity, but we also pay attention to what gets wasted along the way — because in a country where food culture is so vibrant and resourceful, throwing good ingredients away should never be the default.

That’s where the 7 Bridges Zero Waste Mission comes in. It’s our commitment to finding practical ways to reduce waste by rethinking surplus ingredients and brewing by-products — and turning them into something people genuinely want to eat, drink, or use.

This is exactly why a collaboration like Bánh Mỳ Beer makes sense for 7 Bridges. If a by-product (or surplus ingredient) still has potential, we’d rather transform it than trash it — and share the story so more people start looking at “waste” differently, too.

Why this matters: food waste is a global problem

Food waste isn’t a niche issue — it’s enormous. The UN Environment Programme reports 1.05 billion tonnes of food waste in 2022, equal to 132 kg per person, and roughly 19% of food available to consumers, with most of it happening at household level. 

And zooming out further, FAO has long highlighted that around 30% of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted each year — about 1.3 billion tonnes. 

No single beer “solves” that. But collaborations like this are part of a bigger pattern: show the problem clearly, make better systems feel possible, and prove that changing habits can be enjoyable — not just preachy.

Our collaboration: Vietnamese Bánh Mỳ meets Hong Kong upcycling

For this brew, we worked with Breer’s upcycling approach and applied it locally: Vietnamese Bánh Mỳ bread saved from a bakery’s waste stream, reborn as a crisp, refreshing Golden Ale.

It’s a small act with a loud message: waste is only waste if we treat it that way.

And honestly? This beer might not save the world — but it’s exactly the kind of beer you want nearby while you’re planning how to, or celebrating the wins you’ve already made.

Where to drink Bánh Mỳ Beer

Bánh Mỳ Beer is available on tap at 7 Bridges taprooms in Việt Nam, and at select venues in Hong Kong.

Cans are available in both Việt Nam and Hong Kong — check 7 Bridges or Breer social media for the latest locations and availability.