From Brewery to Bakery: Closing the Loop in Nordvest

On a quiet street in Nordvest, something small but quietly radical is happening between a local brewery and a bakery — not as a big sustainability statement, but as a practical experiment rooted in place, proximity, and curiosity.

At Flere Fugle, one of the neighborhood’s most well-known bakeries, a company called SideStream and a baker named Valentin have been working to explore what happens when spent grain from beer production becomes an ingredient in bread. The grain comes from Flying Couch Brewing, just a few streets away — making the entire loop hyperlocal.

When I arrive at the event where this work is shared, there’s nothing polished or performative about it. No big setup, no slogans. Just bread on the table, people gathered closely, and a genuine curiosity about how things are made.

Spent grain is what’s left behind after beer is brewed. The grains have already given up their sugars for fermentation, but they’re still rich in fiber and flavor. Traditionally, they’re treated as waste or sent off as animal feed. SideStream’s work starts from a simple question: what if this byproduct didn’t leave the food system at all?

In Flere Fugle’s bakery, that question has taken the shape of hands-on testing. Valentin has been working with different percentages of spent grain in sourdough bread, rye bread, and crackers — adjusting texture, moisture, and flavor through repetition and careful observation. There’s no industrial machinery involved, just a practical setup that fits into an already functioning bakery.

The results are tangible. Bread that stays moist longer. A subtle maltiness that adds depth rather than distraction. But what stands out most is that the goal was never to create a “green” or explicitly sustainable product. The goal was to make good bread.

Bread people would choose because they like it.

Using leftovers from one process to feed another isn’t framed as innovation here — more as something that should feel normal. A shift in how we think about ingredients, value, and waste. Not adding a story on top of the product, but quietly changing the logic underneath it.

As the evening unfolds, I speak with one of SideStream’s founders and with a woman working in the circular food system. The conversation moves naturally beyond baking and into bigger questions. Should projects like this scale? And if so, how?

Rather than imagining one bakery expanding production across the country, the idea SideStream returns to is replication. A bakery and a brewery in Aarhus working together. Another pairing somewhere else. Same principle, different place, different people.

Scaling sideways, not upwards.

We also talk about communication. Should bread made with spent grain be labeled as such? Should the story be front and center — or should it simply exist as bread, without explanation?

There’s no clear answer, but the discussion itself feels telling. Sustainability here isn’t treated as a selling point. It’s something embedded quietly in the process — a byproduct of thinking carefully about what’s already available.

What makes this project feel especially right for Nordvest isn’t just the technique, but the geography. A bakery, a brewery, researchers, and curious neighbors, all within walking distance. No grand statements. No buzzwords. Just people asking how existing resources might be used better.

It’s a reminder that innovation doesn’t always look futuristic. Sometimes it looks like bread cooling on a rack, made partly with ingredients that were already here.

In Nordvest, that kind of thinking feels natural. Practical. Grounded. And very much worth paying attention to.