Spent grain.

Does anyone use spent grain for anything? I decided not to toss the grain from my last batch. I'm thinking of drying it out in the oven and using the food processor to chop it up finer and using it to make bread.

I've heard of it in bread, there is also a recipe for making dog treats out of it somewhere on the forum.

Here you go:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/spent-grain-make-your-best-friend-cookies-87097/

Jared311 said:

Here you go:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/spent-grain-make-your-best-friend-cookies-87097/

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As soon as peanut butter is safe again I'll make some for my little guy. I think I'll freeze the grains for now.

I feed it to the cows....that way I can deduct the cost of the grains on the taxes. Not the IRS's problem how I prepair it for feeding to the cows.

BigKahuna said:

I feed it to the cows.

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It's been a long time since I've seen a cow that wasn't on my dinner plate.

BigKahuna said:

I feed it to the cows....that way I can deduct the cost of the grains on the taxes. Not the IRS's problem how I prepair it for feeding to the cows.

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You are contributing to the destruction of our atmosphere and ultimately towards the demise of mankind!

Now fix me a steak and a glass of milk. Im hungry
-Me

Thanks for that dog treat recipe! The pooch loves spent grains but I don't have a way to keep the soggy ones around long enough before they go stinky (and boy to they get stinky...).

I used to feed em to our pig but she's gone now, so lately I've just been slopping them in the burn pile/barrel.

I do both the spent grain bread ( I cannot remember the last time I bought bread..) and the dog treats. I will usually put some in zip-loc's and toss in the freezer so if I do not brew for awhile, I can still make bread and treats.

If there is any left over, which there isn't usually much, goes as "mulch" over our tiny flower bed.

The dog treats RULE!!! Darn dog whines the whole time they are baking because he smells them and knows he gets them soon...

Want to try the bread recipe soon...

So how do you make bread out of the grains? Do you just measure as you would flour after you process it? This sounds very interesting to me!

My list of uses:

Chickens/pigs love it.......and finishing pigs on it really adds a nice flavor to the pork (seriously, I **** you not).

You can replace the oats in ANY oatmeal cookie recipe with spents grains by the same volume and they will be awesome.

Added to bread are quite good.

Added to zuchini bread is very good.

Dog food, dogs love it.

Added to potted plants in the house......better than fetilizer.

I mulch it into our vegetable garden, although it's starting to be a little much.

BigKahuna said:

I feed it to the cows....that way I can deduct the cost of the grains on the taxes. Not the IRS's problem how I prepair it for feeding to the cows.

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Chickens get mine too......... I need to get classified as a farm

Forget where I got this recipe, it isn't mine. made bread last month with this as a base but adjusted some ingredients by combining another recipe as well as info from my bread machine using butter and dried evaporated milk instead of the oil and less sugar. turned out great. usually when we have a stew or something similar will make bread. usually have the grain it in the freezer and defrost it. the water needs to be adjusted. also think I used 1.5 cups of grain

Spent Grain - Bread

1 cup warm water
4 Tbsp sugar
2 cups spent grain
1 pkg dry bakers yeast
1 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
3 to 3 1/2 cups bread flour

Combine sugar and yeast with warm water. Add salt, oil, spent grain, and 1 cup of the flour. Mix well. Stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a stiff dough.
Knead well, cover, and let rise for several hours (until doubled). Punch down and shape into two loaves. Place on a greased baking sheet, cover, and let rise until doubled.
Bake at 425 degrees F. for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degrees F. and bake for 10 more minutes or until nicely browned.
(Again I use a bread machine for all of this)

I just compost them, then into the ground they go.

BigKahuna said:

I feed it to the cows....that way I can deduct the cost of the grains on the taxes. Not the IRS's problem how I prepair it for feeding to the cows.

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That's a great idea there Big K! I give my grains to my roomie's goats and they love it!

how you been? how's the paper business?

BPD said:

Forget where I got this recipe, it isn't mine.

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Do you grind the spent grains further or just use them as is?

Peter Reinhart's Spent grain bread - might as well use the recipe of a master baker...

Spent Grain Bread

Soaker

227g whole wheat flour
4 g salt
170g water
Soak for 12-24 hours


Biga

227 g whole wheat flour
1 g instant yeast (yes 1/4 tsp)
170 g filtered or spring water at room temp 70F
refrigerate at least 8 hours, up to 3 days. remove for 2 hours before mixing to take off chill.

Dough

Combine soaker, biga and the following

3/4 cup spent grain
56.5 g whole wheat flour
5 g salt
7 g instant yeast
42.5 g honey or agave or sugar or brown sugar
1 T / 14g vegetable oil, optional


Proof for 45-60 minutes til 1-1/2 times

Shape into loaves - proof for 45-60 minutes until 1-1/2 times

Heat oven to 425F, steam pan in oven or use a mister bottle, reduce heat to 350 and bake for 30 mins, rotate and bake another 20-30 until rich brown, hollow when thumped, and 200F internal temp. Cool 1 hour before serving.

The grain is soft - no need to grind them for bread recipes...

Bender said:

Do you grind the spent grains further or just use them as is?

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You can use them as is, they are already soaked and soft. The grain makes the bread similar to a multigrain bread that you buy at specialty markets. I use regular flour or bread flour, several times I've use wheat/whole wheat and the bread was very heavy and not as good. Experiment with several recipes and techniques, one five gallon brew leaves a lot of grain and flour is inexpensive. If you have an "other half" that likes to bake this is also a way of keeping them involved.

I make some into cookies, and the rest goes into the compost pile right now. I might have to try that bread recipe tomorrow night...

Spent Grain Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

edit - That is my wife's blog, so don't pay too much attention to the hearts on the header lol

MIne goes on the lawn for now. The grass loves it!

check my sig if you have a bread machine..

Jaybird said:

MIne goes on the lawn for now. The grass loves it!

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hmm. My wife yelled at me for dumping the trub out of the kettle onto the lawn. I wonder what she would do if I threw all that grain out on it...

I bake bread with my spent grains as often as I can. No need to chop them any finer, hell even unspent, whole grains that may be leftovers from a batch can get put into the mix. They soften up while cooking.

Use bread flour when you bake, the bread will come out better in my experience. As for the amount of the flour it varies from batch to batch. I typically use 2-3 cups spent grains and ~5 cups of flour for two big loaves.

Jared311 said:

Here you go:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/spent-grain-make-your-best-friend-cookies-87097/

Click to expand...

You made a bunch of dogs very happy tonight. I had to add some water to make the dough come together, but this is the best use I can think of for spent grain.

My dog is a beer cookie EAC

He has these cookies in his stash; Pils, Ordinary Bitter & Munich Helles.

[Bitter in the picture below]