Hard to resist: the crackers and cookies from Brussels-based Mad Lab. Not only because of the taste, but also because of the circular philosophy behind them. Mad Lab’s main raw material, draff, is actually a residual product from the beer brewing industry.

It actually started as a joke, when friends challenged Cyril to bake cookies from ‘waste’. Cyril loves a challenge so he got to work with brewers’ spent grains or draff, a dried residue of grains used in brewing beer. Draff is often used as a fertilizer or animal feed in the agricultural sector. A 100% natural product, Cyril and Mad Lab turned it in their favour. To bake delicious crackers from it, which are of course perfect for food pairing with a beer. And so we come full circle!

Head for the Brussels breweries!

Together with business partner David, Cyril went in search of local, organic breweries to obtain the golden brown raw material for the cookies. With success: well-known Brussels breweries such as Cantillon, En Stoemelings, Renard and Brasserie de la Senne joined in on the project. The result: delicious cookies, sweet or salted, in 8 different varieties.

The dream team behind Mad Lab is not only adept at baking cookies. They meticulously apply the principles of sustainability and circular entrepreneurship to their entire business model. With recycling, sales and distribution in bulk (to reduce packaging), local suppliers (to limit CO2), etc.

With creativity as the basic ingredient, Mad Lab brews one clever idea after another!