Better Use For Spent Grains?

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SilverZero

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I'm getting to the point where I've composted about all the barley I can handle, and I want to do more. I'd love to get some bread, pasta, or anything else going with my spent grains, but I don't like how all the recipes I find call for 1/2 cup of grains and then up to 2 cups of off-the-shelf wheat flour.

Anybody found a way to make a good recipe using spent grains as the bulk of the flour content?
 
E-Mursed said:

I literally came from that page to this page to start this thread. Same thing, lots of good recipes, but they all use mostly wheat flour and then supplement with spent grains. Or maybe I didn't look far enough to find the more barley-heavy recipes. (But thank you for the link, I do appreciate the suggestions.)

I know it might be hard as we are a very wheat-centric society. Maybe I'll just have to start substituting barley flour in and making up my own.
 
Try these to get through more of your grains....

Easy Granola
9 cup barley grains
1 cup spelt or whole wheat flour
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup coconut
1 cup raisins
1 cup honey or maple syrup
1/2 cup oil
1 cup boiling water
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup of flax seeds (optional)
Blend together all liquid ingredients and add to dry ingredients,
until well distributed. Crumble the mixture and spread on to cookie
sheet. Start baking at 350F for 15 min., then lower heat to 200F and
bake (stirring occasionally) until dry. Store in covered jars. This
recipe can be made in smaller quantities.
 
Most recipes that you will find (like, all ive ever seen) are like that. If I wanted to do what you are talking about I'd just wizz up the grain as fine as you can get it, maybe small batches in a coffe grinder? You would probably still have to use some flour and play with the moisture, but i bet you could use a higher percentage of grain that way. Basically, I'd try to make flour with it. I'm just theorizing from an armchair though. It isn't like I have experience. I may try it though. I agree that I'd like to see some with a higher percentage of grain. I wish I'd have saved more than a cup of grain from yesterday now!
 
I've made this recipe and it is very good. Nearly 1:1 ratio grain to flour.


Jasmine’s Spent Grain Bread
Save grain from beer making. You can freeze it until you are ready to use it–can also freeze dough or baked loaves.

3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup wheat flour (could handle higher ratio of wheat
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. yeast
3 cups spent grain (put the grain in a coffee grinder or food processor and grind it up
¼ cup of sugar (can substitute honey, molasses or the malt syrup you used to brew)
¼ cup of butter or olive oil
1 egg (Beaten)
1 cup of milk (usually use less, depending on how wet the grain is)
(I've found that adding wheat gluten improves the texture, I just go by package directions)

mix together dry, then wet ingredients until dough pulls away from sides of bowl and all ingredients are incorporated. I use a Kitchen Aide with a dough hook–if you are mixing by hand you may want to make half the recipe the first time you make it to get a single large loaf as this large amount can be exhausting.

Knead for 10 min by hand or 5 min by mixer.

Shape into ball and let rise in oiled bowl until double–about 90 min. Punch down and divide. I usually get 3 average sized loaves out of this. Let it rise again in greased loaf pans or cookie sheet until doubled, (or slightly more as this is dense bread, takes about 1 hr.). Score top of loaves.

Preheat oven. Bake at 350F for 40 min, until deep golden brown. I spritz my loaves with water just before going into the oven and again 2 min into baking to make a crunchier crust, but it’s not required. Rotate pans halfway through. Let cool for 30 min on baking rack before slicing, or you’ll smush your bread before it finishes baking inside

I gave a mini loaf to my friend Iliea at work–she made a tasty breakfast out of it and put it up on her blog with some mouth-watering pictures. It’s that kind of full-flavored rustic bread that is perfect warmed with butter. Delicious!
 
Most recipes that you will find (like, all ive ever seen) are like that. If I wanted to do what you are talking about I'd just wizz up the grain as fine as you can get it, maybe small batches in a coffe grinder? You would probably still have to use some flour and play with the moisture, but i bet you could use a higher percentage of grain that way. Basically, I'd try to make flour with it. I'm just theorizing from an armchair though. It isn't like I have experience. I may try it though. I agree that I'd like to see some with a higher percentage of grain. I wish I'd have saved more than a cup of grain from yesterday now!

+1 on grinding up the spent grains more. I made a beer bread with a large portion of spent grains and the husks are not the most comfortable thing to chew.
 
Very cool, thanks everyone! I'll just play and see what happens. I have friends with dogs and friends with chickens so I could probably get it going in all directions. :)
 
I think the issue is that all the good stuff goes into your beer. I assume you've tasted spent grain...not much to it. Grinding it up to a powder still doesn't make it flour, IMO.

All husk and no germ makes jack a dull bread

So composting or animal feed is where I've settled.
 
Doesn't Stone have a recipe in their last book to make those crispy snacks outta spent grain? I had them last time I was out there and they were pretty good, especially with a cold Stone beverage! When I get home I will look and post the recipe if wanted.
 
Spent grain waffles. I literally just make waffle batter from the first recipe I find online and add 2 cups of spent grain. It uses about even amounts of flour and spent grains. It makes more waffles and they have a a really good texture. I really do prefer these to regular waffles. I typically freeze a lot of spent grain and make these every week until I run out of grain. This is the recipe I think I used last time:

2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt 4 teaspoons baking powder 2 tablespoons white sugar 2 eggs 1 1/2 cups warm milk 1/3 cup butter, melted 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 2 cups spent grain.

There is a good recipe for peanut butter chocolate chip cookies with spent grain, but I'm having trouble finding it at the moment.
 
My dog LOVES the dog treats, but I think she would prefer that the food chain went: Spent Grain=>chickens=>dog.
 
Eating too much spent grain isn't all that good for you. The husks are high in silica and are hard to digest and can actually be abrasive to your teeth. Also, as has already been stated, most of the stuff that provides food value and flavor has been removed. So, sadly spent grains are relegated to filler or adjunct to conventional flour.

All that said, even if you were to find a recipe that used large quantities of spent grains, how much of it would/could you really eat? You would probably get sick of it fast. If you really are cranking out that much spent grain and don't have a place to put it, find a farmer to compost it or feed it to livestock.
 
Is there any easy way to separate the husks from the spent grain?

I guess it would be easier if you switched to 100% wheat beers so that you didn't have to worry about husks in your food.
 
Is there any easy way to separate the husks from the spent grain?

Spent malt mostly IS husk, right? As said above all the goodies went out into the beer.

I transmogrify my spent grain into eggs. Got a woman I found on Craigslist who raises chickens, so she picks up my grain and leaves me with a half-dozen eggs. Best use I've found yet!
 
I believe, spent grain is high in protein and fiber, that is why farmers want to use it for feed.
 
Just checked the Craft of Stone and they use malted barley, not spent grains, to make their snacks. Agree with others, it is pretty useless unless you have chickens or such.
 
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