Instead of throwing away a bruised peach or a stale loaf of bread, several breweries and organizations are taking food waste and transforming it into beer.
How a label that one East End employee described as “SpongeBob on acid” made it past the feds seems to stump everyone involved in Illustration Ale, a beer created to to showcase local artists and benefit the ToonSeum, a museum of cartoon arts in Pittsburgh.
It’s difficult to quantify the effect breweries have on their neighborhoods. But there’s no doubt that breweries are a part of the positive feedback loop that leads to neighborhood development.
For Scott Smith, drinking good beer led to brewing it at home, and making 5-gallon batches in the kitchen ended in Smith quitting his job, emptying his savings account and opening East End Brewing, a production brewery in a dilapidated Pittsburgh warehouse.
