how do you harvest spent grain from mash tun?

I completed my first AG brew last week and got to the end and realized I had never dealt with 6 lbs of soaking wet spent grain before! I'd like to use it to feed my chickens, bake some bread, and throw the remainder in the compost pile. How do you guys get the grain out of the tun? Spoon-shoveling takes forever, and dumping was a mess. And how do you extract the water from the grains? It seems like you need some sort of mesh bag and a press to squeeze the water out...

Actually, the directions for emptying the grain out are on the bottom of the mlt

Northcalais40 said:

Actually, the directions for emptying the grain out are on the bottom of the mlt

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I agree.












Smart A$$

twd000 said:

I completed my first AG brew last week and got to the end and realized I had never dealt with 6 lbs of soaking wet spent grain before! I'd like to use it to feed my chickens, bake some bread, and throw the remainder in the compost pile. How do you guys get the grain out of the tun? Spoon-shoveling takes forever, and dumping was a mess. And how do you extract the water from the grains? It seems like you need some sort of mesh bag and a press to squeeze the water out...

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Well, it's ok if they stay wet. They're just heavier. I'm not sure what you're asking, though. I weigh 135 pounds, and I can carry an MLT full of wet grains. I mean, if I can carry out 25 pounds of soaking wet grain in the MLT (over 40 pounds total), I"m sure you can.

I have handles on my MLT, so I carry the whole thing outside. Anything I'm saving (spent grains for dog biscuits for example), I scoop out with the bowls I'm storing them in. Then I carry the MLT over to the compost pile and dump it.

The chickens don't care if the grain is a little sloppy. I just carry the MTL from the garage, across the driveway and dump it into a bucket. The lawn doesn't care if I spill any either.

Just don't try to feed a few days old, stored in the freezer, spent grain, that started to thaw on the hour drive in the summer, to Llamas.....

I almost died, I swear......


Lamma spit ain't fun.

Open chicken coup door and upend mash tun. Walk over, collect eggs, thank the hens for some more fine breakfast food and I'm done.

Northcalais40 said:

Actually, the directions for emptying the grain out are on the bottom of the mlt

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HAHA...nice

Bensiff said:

Open chicken coup door and upend mash tun. Walk over, collect eggs, thank the hens for some more fine breakfast food and I'm done.

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Ditto!!

northcalais40 said:

actually, the directions for emptying the grain out are on the bottom of the mlt

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:d

I live in a 2nd story condo, so grain cleaning is not the funnest activity...

I usually put empty double trash bags in the trash can, and use a bowl to scoop out the grain until I can remove the manifold. I get as much as I can, then use a spatula for the remainder. Tie up the trash bags, then take them downstairs to the trash. Sad I can't do much with the spent grains, but someday in a house I will!

I just go dump mine out in the woods, rinse it out with a garden hose and take then tun back inside to properly clean it.

Wet-vac. Especially if you use a Sanke on a gravity drain system. Don't forget to empty the vac.

When my daughter was born, I promised my wife that I'd give up skiing in the backcountry.

What does that have to do with emptying my MLT?

I use my otherwise-abandoned avalanche shovel to scoop and scrape after I upend my MLT over the "unofficial" compost pile in the drainage pond across the street. The shovel is just the right size.

Revvy said:

Just don't try to feed a few days old, stored in the freezer, spent grain, that started to thaw on the hour drive in the summer, to Llamas.....

I almost died, I swear......


Lamma spit ain't fun.

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Advice to live by.

This is why I come to HBT - where else will find you this kind of wisdom?

I just dump the typical 12 lbs of water logged grain into a home depot bucket. Forget about it for a week or so then finally get around to dumping it in the compost pile. My worms love that stuff. It disappears fast.

Reelale said:

Wet-vac. Especially if you use a Sanke on a gravity drain system. Don't forget to empty the vac.

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I'll be going AG soon and this was the method I was thinking of.

+1 for shop vac and a long hose. 2.25" is better but 1.25" works.

steinsato said:

I just dump the typical 12 lbs of water logged grain into a home depot bucket. Forget about it for a week or so then finally get around to dumping it in the compost pile. My worms love that stuff. It disappears fast.

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Oh. My. Gawd. Smell of that stuff will make you wretch after 1 day of anaerobic decomposition... I can't imagine 5 days.

I take whatever I am going to save for bread or other uses and scoop it out (will sometimes freeze some portion of it for later use if it is a particularly tasty or useful grain mix) and then the rest gets composted in the summer or into hefty bags in the fall/winter for "landfill composting" :cross:

Randar said:

Oh. My. Gawd. Smell of that stuff will make you wretch after 1 day of anaerobic decomposition... I can't imagine 5 days. :cross:

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In the summer it's pretty god awful. But now that's it's cooler, it really isn't too bad.

Randar said:

Oh. My. Gawd. Smell of that stuff will make you wretch after 1 day of anaerobic decomposition... I can't imagine 5 days.

I take whatever I am going to save for bread or other uses and scoop it out (will sometimes freeze some portion of it for later use if it is a particularly tasty or useful grain mix) and then the rest gets composted in the summer or into hefty bags in the fall/winter for "landfill composting" :cross:

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Do you freeze them so that you can make bread with it later?

A big spoon, but something bigger like a 1Q pyrex measuring cup would work great too. When I've scooped all that there is to easily scoop, I will tip the tun sideways and hit it with the hose to rinse all the grain out.

I just do it when the boil is going and there isn't anything else to do anyway. I only watch the boil if it is about to go over, or if I'm a few minutes away from a hop addition or something. Otherwise, I'm cleaning and putting equipment away.

when using a shop vac, do you remove your filter or put a different filter on?

I scoop mine into a trash bag with one of those small hand-held garden shovels until I get to the manifold. Then remove the manifold and the rest get rinsed down the garbage disposal in the sink.

Does anyone have a good dog biscuit recipe I can use? I tried giving my dog a pile of the grains straight out of the MLT but he didn't care for them.

IrregularPulse said:

when using a shop vac, do you remove your filter or put a different filter on?

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I remove my filter.

jerryalan said:

Does anyone have a good dog biscuit recipe I can use? I tried giving my dog a pile of the grains straight out of the MLT but he didn't care for them.

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

Revvy said:

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

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Thanks Revvy! Next brew session will be followed by a baking session

zman said:

Do you freeze them so that you can make bread with it later?

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Yes, have done that. I always puree the crap outta them so I don't get hulls in my teeth though.

UnDeadly said:

I live in a 2nd story condo, so grain cleaning is not the funnest activity...

I usually put empty double trash bags in the trash can, and use a bowl to scoop out the grain until I can remove the manifold. I get as much as I can, then use a spatula for the remainder. Tie up the trash bags, then take them downstairs to the trash.

Click to expand...

I also live in a 2nd story condo. Same routine for me.

I use a huge serving spoon to scoop the grain into a trash bag, once 90% is out, i remove my manifold, then scoop out whatever else I can, then take my MLT out front and hose it out.