2004 Commack High School graduate, Kyle Fiasconaro, is the co-owner and developer of Brewer’s Crackers, a fairly new food company. Through his company, Fiasconaro is working on the reduction of food waste and hunger around the world, using spent grains from breweries. 

“I realized that every time they brewed beer, they took the barley and the wheat that they didn’t use, and they would throw it away,” said Fiasconaro 

The idea for Brewer’s Crackers came about in 2012, after he realized the great waste of product from the brewery. Fiasconaro decided to put these spent grains to use and create crackers with these ingredients. The crackers didn’t become an official product until a few years after this realization. They have recently been introduced into Whole Foods within the last year.  

“My goal is to go national, I’m in about 250 stores right now,” said Fiasconaro.  

Fiasconaro also mentions his overall passion, which is not only to have his company become a nation-wide brand, but to end food waste overall. 

“My passion is to find a way to reduce food waste and hunger. The goal is to create awareness for what the spent grains are, the grains left over from brewing, and connect that awareness with a product,” said Fiasconaro.  

The overall view for his company isn’t just about making a great product for people to enjoy but reducing food waste through a tasty cracker. Once Brewer’s Crackers becomes an established brand within households in the future, Fiasconaro wishes to make optimum use of the spent grains through different types of products. 

“In the future I think it could possibly become shelf-stable breads, pretzels…and possibly even a tortilla chip,” said Fiasconaro 

During the expansion of his company, Fiasconaro will be increasing the need for more spent grains. 

“The goal is to build a facility or factory that takes the spent grains from a brewery and processes them into a shelf-stable product. I want to build the infrastructure that doesn’t exist, to take these grains and get them into a shelf-stable form and get that product into all the bakeries that make my products,” said Fiasconaro.  

While these are long term goals, through this future process Fiasconaro would be increasing the need for spent grains, reducing the waste of them, and inventing new technologies essentially. While having a variety of ideas for the future of his company, Fiasconaro has a simple short-term plan. 

“What I need to do right now is super simple- build awareness of what spent grains are,” said Fiasconaro.  

In doing this he will be able to reach many people across the nation who love this product and are able to then also emotionally relate to help reduce food waste. Fiasconaro has many opportunities and plans in mind for Brewer’s Crackers.  

“The plan is hopefully to one day turn the entire company into a non-profit,” said Fiasconaro.  

Fiasconaro would take the food he has saved and made over the years and supply it to people that need it all over the world.  

“The goal is to sell these everywhere. I want to sell them in schools. I want to sell them cheap enough so everyone can have it. If that means I don’t make a ton of money, that’s fine,” said Fiasconaro.  🔳

Photo by Samantha G.