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**SudsyPaul** · 01-15-2013, 12:52 PM

Have you thought of donating the spent grains to a local farm? Or you have any friends with livestock of any kind? Rather than toss out your grains, you could put them to good use.

Just a thought. Wouldn't need any doodads for draining away your grains, and you'd be helping a farmer (and possibly get meat in return for your donations)

**BadNewsBrewery** · 01-15-2013, 12:59 PM

I don't live anywhere near a farm or farmland... and I doubt a farmer would want to drive any reasonable distance to my house to pick up 14lbs of spent grains on an irregular basis. I'd love to recycle them in that way, but I don't see it happening.

**SudsyPaul** · 01-15-2013, 01:32 PM

Boo.

Alternatively, spent grains can be used as bird-feed, or tossed into a composter

This is my inner-hippie coming out. I don't like tossing out anything that can be used for something else.

**BadNewsBrewery** · 01-15-2013, 01:37 PM

While I appreciate the sentiment, I can assure you that I'd recycle them if the opportunity presented itself. Maybe I'll see if the birds want them, once the weather is warm enough for there to actually be birds around. Until such time, I'm curious if Hoppo thinks a 3/4hp disposal married up to his extractor pump would make for an all-in-one brewery disposal system.

**Carlscan26** · 01-15-2013, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hoppopotomus

I suppose you're right. My drain goes up the back wall to the floor joists of my main level and ties into the existing drain system above with hard plumbing (pvc Y coupler). I didn't think about looking around for a vent for my existing drain system, but I will now. Thanks for all of the great ideas!

I would much rather tie into the existing vent (if there is one in the vicinity) as opposed to venting outside. The back of my house is starting to look like swiss cheese, as I have my furnace vent/intake, my high eff. hot water heater vent, my high eff. boiler system vent/intake, my direct vent gas fireplace in my FR, my ventilation hood vent, and now possibly this pump vent all going out of the back of my house.

Yeah that does sound like a small factory's worth of vents...snap a pic of them all on

**Hoppopotomus** · 01-15-2013, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BadNewsBrewery

While I appreciate the sentiment, I can assure you that I'd recycle them if the opportunity presented itself. Maybe I'll see if the birds want them, once the weather is warm enough for there to actually be birds around. Until such time, I'm curious if Hoppo thinks a 3/4hp disposal married up to his extractor pump would make for an all-in-one brewery disposal system.

Easy there fellas!

I'm not sure if I like the idea of 20 lbs. of spent grains ending up in my septic tank everytime I brew. I just don't know what, if anything, it would do to my septic system. My plan is to simply toss the spent grains into a composter, along with my hop vines at the end of the season to serve as plant food for my hops garden. I have to take extra good care of my septic system, because if anything were to ever happen to my existing field I would be screwed. Although I have 2 1/2 acres, my lot is sand in the front where the septic field is located and solid clay in the back. I would have to install an engineered septic system if anything were to happen to my current one, so I'm paranoid as hell about everything that goes into my septic. Maybe justified, maybe not, but regardless.....I'm probably not going to take a chance.

**Hoppopotomus** · 01-15-2013, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carlscan26

Yeah that does sound like a small factory's worth of vents...snap a pic of them all on

Here ya go. Doesn't include the vent for my brewery ventilation hood or the vent for the sink pump that still need to get punched through the bond. Fireplace vent is just around the corner.

**Hoppopotomus** · 01-15-2013, 08:02 PM

I've had a long log sitting in my garage for a while now to rip down for the log trims on the ventilation hood. I got out my trusty table saw and went to work ripping it down. It did not go well at all.

The log was slightly warped and as I was ripping it though it kept pinching the blade....even tripped the breaker 3 or 4 times. I had to keep progressively placing shims in the cut to keep the blade from pinching. Not to mention that the blade needs replacing and the log was too large in diameter for the table saw to get through on one end. It took me a good 1/2 hr. to rip one frickin log and I spent another hour knifing the log and rough sanding it. Made a hell of a mess in the lawn next to my walkout patio. It's supposed to snow tonight, so I guess I'll just wait and clean it up in the spring.

I'll try to get the log attached tonight and start working on the side log trims.

**Carlscan26** · 01-15-2013, 09:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hoppopotomus

Here ya go. Doesn't include the vent for my brewery ventilation hood or the vent for the sink pump that still need to get punched through the bond. Fireplace vent is just around the corner.

You get all those going at once and you'll have a steamed up set of windows!

So are you for sure punching the sink pump vent through? Another thought there: how big will the vent hood tube be and how big does the sink vent need to be? Can you put the sink vent inside the hood vent and only need to punch one hole? I had some thing like this for my high efficiency furnace and I've seen them for fireplaces too.

**LBA4ME** · 01-15-2013, 10:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hoppopotomus

I've had a long log sitting in my garage for a while now to rip down for the log trims on the ventilation hood. I got out my trusty table saw and went to work ripping it down. It did not go well at all.

The log was slightly warped and as I was ripping it though it kept pinching the blade....even tripped the breaker 3 or 4 times. I had to keep progressively placing shims in the cut to keep the blade from pinching. Not to mention that the blade needs replacing and the log was too large in diameter for the table saw to get through on one end. It took me a good 1/2 hr. to rip one frickin log and I spent another hour knifing the log and rough sanding it. Made a hell of a mess in the lawn next to my walkout patio. It's supposed to snow tonight, so I guess I'll just wait and clean it up in the spring.

I'll try to get the log attached tonight and start working on the side log trims.

Looks like a crime scene a la Fargo...