Spent Grains directly on the hops as compost?

Well I just finished brewing and instead of throwing my grains out, I was thinking of putting them on my garden to use as compost. Is this a good or bad idea to put them directly on my plants??

it seems like putting all of that sugar on plants would attract some critters/bugs. but then again i dont know how much sugar is left in the grains... i'm not going to ask about your efficiency

I've been doing this after first composting a few weeks, then spreading the grain out in the sun to dry. The drying seems to drive off whatever bugs were there. My hops and tomatoes seem to like the grain mulch pretty well.

Compost first
Too much spent grain will change the ph of the soil which may not be good for some plants

You should definitely compost first. The breakdown of the grains will actually pull nitrogen out of the soil and away from the plants.

I always throw them in the compost heap, along with all of my kitchen scraps & coffee grounds. A day after adding the grain, you can literally see the heap move as the earthworms go berzerk chowing down on their windfall dinner!

Well I guess it goes in the trash then as I don't have a compost pile... maybe next year when I expand my garden I'll put one in.

I spread them on the surface of my garden and in my hop bed too. They dry and sit on top and act as a mulch to keep weeds down. I don't think that it would be any different than if you used straw, or newspapers as a mulch. They get tilled in at the end of the season. If they are just sitting on top they aren't really going to have any affect on the soil pH or rob a bunch of nitrogen from the soil. As longs as they aren't mixed in you should be fine.